By Mason Wittner, Staff Writer
Kennesaw State completed the season sweep over Jacksonville with a 78-65 victory Thursday.
Yonel Brown led the Owls offensively, going 7-10 from long range en route to a 29-point performance along with seven rebounds.
“[Brown] was bad early,” KSU head coach Jimmy Lallathin said. “It was like a snowball effect. He started I think 1-4 with a turnover, but you can’t say anything about YB. His season has been tremendous. He’s just been a workforce all season and a great leader both on and off the floor. He got us going tonight.”
Nigel Pruitt proved to be an x-factor for Owls as well, scoring 19 points and grabbing six boards.
KSU (9-17, 3-6) trailed the Dolphins 51-48 with 11:23 remaining in the second half, but a 15-2 run gave the Owls a 63-53 advantage with 5:27 left to play. The Owls refused to let their lead fall below seven points for the final five minutes.
“I told them in one timeout,” Lallathin said. “We made a run and went up by six, and I told them that they just have to believe that that’s who they can be. They brought the energy. They made big shots, and brought the defensive intensity. I want them to capture that.”
Jacksonville (7-19, 1-8) proved to be an equivalent opponent early on as neither squad managed to build a lead larger than five for the first 10 minutes of game time.
Nick Masterson scored the game’s first points, giving the Owls a 3-0 lead. Both teams continued to match each other’s scoring as the fourth tie of the game came at 10-10 with 14:28 to play in the first half.
KSU trailed 18-17 with 10:00 to remaining in the opening half. The Dolphins scraped together a 10-1 run to extend their lead to 27-19 with 7:02 left in the half.
The Owls sparked a 12-2 run of their own to retake the lead 31-29 with 3:04 remaining. KSU took a 35-35 tie into the locker room at halftime.
“Defensively, in the first half, they were really hurting us the way we were guarding the ball screen,” Lallathin said. “So we made a little adjustment at halftime to be a little more aggressive on the ball screen, which kind of took them out of sync in the second half.”
Jacksonville started the second half with an 8-3 run to take a 43-38 lead with 17:55 left to play.
Nigel Pruitt knocked down a three to cut the Owl deficit to 49-48 with 12:02 remaining in the half.
