By: by Mark Toma
KENNESAW, Ga. – After suffering through a tough, three-game losing streak on the road, the Kennesaw State Owls are back home for a meeting with Fordham on Tuesday night at the KSU Convocation Center.
Kennesaw State (4-7) will look for their second consecutive home win and fourth victory in five home games on Tuesday as they meet the Rams (2-8) for the first time. The Owls last home game was a Dec. 5 win over Lipscomb in which they scored a season-best 97 points in a six-point over the Bisons.
Fordham has suffered through a rough start to its season that included the firing of head coach Dereck Whittenberg and the hiring of interim head coach Jared Grasso. After a 1-5 start, Fordham won Grasso’s debut, a 93-77 win over Stony Brook. But, since then the Rams have lost three straight games are currently in the midst of a stretch of eight games to be played away from home.
After splitting their first eight games of the season, the Owls enter the game on the heels of three straight road losses at Maine, Western Michigan and No. 25 ranked Georgia Tech last Tuesday afternoon.
During that three-game stretch, the Owls have seen their offense sputter, including a 16-point first half against Georgia Tech. The Black and Gold are averaging just over 56 points per game in their last three games, scoring 51 at Maine, 64 against Western Michigan and 55 at Georgia Tech.
The Owls averaged over 77 points in their first eight games and were scoring 84 points per game in the three games prior to the three-game road trip. The good news is that the Owls are scoring well at home, averaging 83.5 points with a six-point margin of victory at the KSU Convocation Center.
The Black and Gold continue to present a solid one-two punch in redshirt freshman forward Markeith Cummings and sophomore guard Kurtis Woods. Kennesaw State’s top two scorers have played solid recently as the offense took a turn for the better in the second half at Tech.
The Owls have two players scoring in double figures with Cummings leading the Owls at 16.5 points while Woods is second at 14.0 points per game. Playing nearly 19 minutes per game, redshirt junior Matt Heramb has been a solid contributor with five starts in 11 games. He is leading the Owls in field goal percentage (51.9%), is shooting 47.1 percent (8-for-17) from three-point range and is 11-for-13 from the free-throw line.
Fordham is led by 6-foot-7-inch freshman Chris Gaston, who is averaging a double-double with 18.9 points and 10.8 rebounds a game. The Rams have three players scoring in double figures with Jio Fontan averaging 15.0 points (in five games) and Brenton Butler at 13.0 points per game.
The game is the first-ever meeting between the teams and is the fifth meeting between the Owls and an Atlantic 10 Conference team. The Black and Gold are looking for their first win against an Atlantic 10 team, as they are 0-2 in games against George Washington and Saint Louis.
Tuesday night’s game between the Owls and the Rams can be heard on 920 am WGKA and online at www.920WGKA.com with Craig Corbin, play-by-play and Scott Webb, color analyst, calling the action. The pre-game show begins at 7:00 p.m.
