#11 RJ Johnson dunks the ball against Delaware on Feb. 28 at VyStar Arena. Photo by; Jackson Louneoubonh
Men’s basketball will look to turn a season full of adversity into something special this weekend at the Conference USA tournament, opening with Western Kentucky.
Antoine Pettway’s third year at the helm as the Kennesaw State men’s basketball coach has been testing for him, his staff and roster.
Leading scorer Simeon Cottle’s indefinite suspension and an injury that sidelined Ramone Seals for several weeks took roughly 30 points per game out of the Owls lineup almost literally overnight.
In mid-February, the Owls were injured to the point of nearly running out of bench scholarship players, held a 6-8 CUSA record and were teetering on falling out of the conference’s top 10.
Pettway’s group rallied, winning four straight games behind the surging Frankquon Sherman and RJ Johnson, including a home win over the league’s regular-season champion Liberty.
“You guys have seen the things we’ve been through all year,” Pettway said. “All these dudes did was keep standing, keep fighting, keep believing and it did nothing but bring us closer together and make us stronger.”
KSU dropped both games in its final road trip against UTEP and New Mexico State, but held onto a first-round bye thanks to results around the conference. It finished the regular season 18-13 overall, 10-10 in CUSA play.
The sixth-seeded Owls are set to face Western Kentucky to open their quest for a title on Thursday at 9 p.m. WKU also finished 18-13 overall, and just a game ahead of KSU at 11-9 in CUSA.
The Hilltoppers fell to KSU in both regular season matchups, but beating the same team three times in a season is a tall order in college basketball.
“It’s going to be a fight,” Owls forward Braedan Lue said. “You know, we beat them twice this year, but it’s hard to beat a team three times, so you just got to keep being disciplined and stick to the gameplan.”
WKU is led by sophomore guard Teagan Moore who finished the regular season averaging 18.4 points and 5.5 rebounds and Ryan Myers who averaged 11.1 points per game while shooting 40.7% from three.
Grant Newell and Armelo Boone also each averaged double-figures in the regular season.
“It’s going to be a tremendous challenge,” Pettway said. “Playing Western Kentucky, they’re playing some of the best ball in our league down the stretch. Hank [Plona] does a tremendous job, really well-coached team. They just space you out and they’ve got playmakers.”
Three Owls took home CUSA regular season honors as announced on Tuesday. Johnson earned a first-team all-conference nod, Trey Simpson was named to the all-freshman team and Lue to the all-defensive team.
“It feels pretty good just knowing the work that I’ve put in,” Johnson said. “Every day we just went in and worked. Sometimes I didn’t get in the game, but we kept working.”
