by Chris Raimondi (Staff Writer)
Another road game slipped away from KSU’s men’s basketball team on Thursday night as the Owls fell to the Lipscomb Bisons, 88-83, in Nashville.
Junior point guard Delbert Love led the team in scoring with 17 points, all of which came in the first half, adding to KSU’s second highest total points of the season. Four Owls had double-digits but by leaving a few shots on the free-throw line and missing a handful of rebounds, the offensive effort wasn’t enough to outlast the Bisons (7-11, 2-5 A-Sun).
“Rebounding and free throws are where we got hurt tonight,” interim head coach Jimmy Lallathin said. “Offensively we were tremendous. Until the last few shots of the second half we were shooting sixty percent, but we just couldn’t come away with the fifty-fifty balls.”
The shots were falling for KSU (4-15, 1-5 A-Sun) in the first half as the team shot 60 percent from the field while netting five three-pointers on seven attempts. The Owls were able to put in 10 out of 13 free-throws and record seven assists on 15 baskets. However, the Bisons were able to stick around by forcing 10 KSU turnovers and out-rebounding the Owls 18-14 in the first half.
KSU’s largest lead of seven came early at the 17:43 mark of the first half. The first 20 minutes of the game presented 14 lead changes and 11 ties and would end knotted up at 45 after a deep three-point buzzer-beater was made by Lipscomb.
The Owls came out of the locker room sluggish by surrendering an 11-3 run to Lipscomb just 3 minutes into the second half. KSU would rebound quickly headed by the guard play from Myles Hamilton and Yonel Brown. Hamilton finished with 12 points while Brown had 13 of his own.
The second half was a revolving scene of the Owls trailing by two possessions, and then catching up, only to relinquish the even score yet again. KSU continued to have success shooting the ball by making 50 percent of their shots from the field while holding Lipscomb to only 42 percent shooting. Though, the Owls’ mistakes from the first half plagued them again in the final 20 minutes of play as they coughed up the ball 10 times and were outdone on the boards 19-16.
The Lipscomb starters provided most of the offense for the Bisons, scoring 68 of their 88 points. The Owls were able to generate points off the bench with 34. Both teams enjoyed 38 points in the paint and shot 76 percent from the free-throw line.
After the game coach Lallathin offered some rationale. “Our youth showed a little bit tonight but we’re moving in the right direction,” Lallathin said. “We’re going to watch film tomorrow and grow and try to finish games.”
KSU will head to Northern Kentucky on Saturday at 7 p.m. to wrap up its three game road trip.
