Chris Raimondi—Sports Editor
Kennesaw State’s men’s basketball team had an early feast on the eve of Thanksgiving after the team earned its second straight win on Wednesday over the Samford Bulldogs in the Owls’ home opener, 84-71.
Nigel Pruitt led the Owls (2-4) in scoring with 21 points while teammates Delbert Love and Yonel Brown each chipped in 13 points. Orlando Coleman also had his second double-double of the season with 12 points, 10 rebounds and a highlight reel alley-oop dunk assisted by Love.
“How the new offense is set up, players just make plays,” Pruitt said. “Definitely inside-out helps me a lot. When we get a presence down low, the other teams start to converge and it makes it easier for me.”
KSU lacked an inside presence through the first few games of the season, but against Samford (2-4) the Owls had 42 of their 84 points come from inside the paint.
Threes were falling early for the Owls as they jumped out to a 12-3 lead in the first three minutes of the game. Pruitt and Love fueled all 12 points by combining to go 4-4 from long range to start the game.
Samford would never relinquish a lead greater than nine in the first half, however. The Bulldogs fought their way back after the slow start to take the lead with less than five minutes to go before the half. After Brandon Roberts was fouled on a layup, he successfully converted the 3-point play to put the score at 26-25.
Freshman Nick Masterson responded with a pair of 3-pointers on consecutive KSU possessions to give the Owls a five point lead and some breathing room before the half. The first half ended with KSU leading 35-30 off of 51 percent shooting from the field.
“In the second half we talked to the guys about not settling for threes,” KSU head coach Jimmy Lallathin said. “They were going to close out really hard on us because we made so many in the first half. Now get to the free-throw line.”
The Bulldogs came out of halftime with the purpose of closing out on KSU’s shooters, which shot 46 percent from 3-point range in the first half. Samford used a full court press, but the Owls managed to jump out to their first double-digit lead after Nate Rucker converted an old-fashioned 3-point play to give KSU a 44-32 lead five minutes into the second half. KSU proved to handle the press just fine, scoring 12 of their 49 second half points in transition.
“I told the guys today, we were in the same situation against Alcorn State,” Lallathin said. “And we kind of panicked (against Alcorn), today we grew from that. We were all more even-keeled tonight since we went through this a couple of days ago.”
The battle inside never was close as KSU out-rebounded Samford 22-16 and attempted 21 free-throws in the final 20 minutes of the game. The Owls biggest lead of 21 points came at the 8:20 mark in the second half after a Pruitt 3-pointer.
Samford put together a run inside of five minutes before the final buzzer, but KSU never allowed the lead to dwindle to less than 11 points in the second half. The game ended 84-71 in KSU’s favor.
With the win the Owls moved to a 2-4 record and have an opportunity to win its third straight game, a feat that hasn’t been accomplished since the 2010-11 season. KSU will play UT Chattanooga on Saturday Nov. 29 at 12 p.m. in the Convocation Center.
