By: by Scott Lipsky
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KENNESAW, Ga. – The Kennesaw State Owls men’s basketball team looks to get back in the winner’s circle on Saturday night when they host the Jacksonville Dolphins at 7:30 p.m. at the KSU Convocation Center.
The Owls (5-13, 3-5 A-Sun) are preparing to bounce back from a, 71-56, loss to North Florida on Thursday evening, a game they came into having won three out of their last five. The outcome was a combination of hot shooting by North Florida, who shot 65 percent from the floor in the second half, the highest percentage the Owls have allowed an opponent to shoot in a half of basketball this season, and the Owls struggles from long-range. Coming off consecutive games in which they made 10 and eight three-point shots in wins against Florida Gulf Coast and Stetson, respectively, the Black and Gold went just 1-for-15 from beyond the arc, shooting a season-low seven percent in the process.
“Jacksonville is one of the better teams in the conference, so we’ll have to be ready to come out and perform better than we did on Thursday night,” said Owls senior guard and captain Kelvin McConnell. “We have to do better with some of the little things, pay attention to detail. If we can be focused and come out and play hard and do all of the little things right, we can win tomorrow night.”
Though the shooting statistics of each team from Thursday night may seem to make it easy to see why the outcome was the way it was, if you look deeper it gets a little more complex. A prime example is the fact that the Owls had 15 turnovers to the Ospreys 17, but four of those came in successive possessions with less than four minutes remaining in the game for the Owls when they were down just nine points with 3:41 left, essentially sealing their fate.
Sophomore forward LaDaris Green has been a big bright spot for the Owls in the last several games, making himself a force to be reckoned with in the paint. After back-to-back games in which he had 13 and 10 rebounds against FGCU and Stetson, he continued to hound the interior, grabbing nine rebounds and also blocking two shots, his fifth consecutive game in which he had multiple blocks.
In the Dolphins (11-6, 5-3 A-Sun), the Owls find a team that is looking to snap a two-game skid, including a tough, overtime defeat at the hands of Mercer on Thursday night, 70-68. Their leading scorer is senior forward Ayron Hardy, the 2008-09 A-Sun Defensive Player of the Year. Hardy is averaging just 12.4 points per game and is the only Dolphin that is scoring in double figures, but he is the team’s go-to-guy in several respects, as he leads the team in not just scoring, but also rebounding, assists, steals and blocks.
Hardy isn’t the only player that Tony Ingle’s squad should watch out for. Despite falling to Mercer, the Dolphins had four players score in double figures, and had three in their loss to ETSU on Jan. 15.
Saturday night’s game can be listened to live on Talk 920 AM and www.talk920.com, with play-by-play voice Craig Corbin and color and analyst and Owls great Scott Webb calling all of the action. Fans can also watch the game live on the Atlantic Sun Conference’s subscription streaming service, A-Sun.TV. Live stats will also be available.
Saturday night is Upward Basketball Night, with all youth basketball players and cheerleaders in eighth grade or younger and their family members receiving discounted, five dollar admission.
