By: KSU Sports Information
Postgame Notes
MACON, Ga. – Taylor Mills’ 11 second half points helped the Kennesaw State Lady Owls separate themselves from the pack on Saturday afternoon, as they turned a one-point, halftime, lead into a 75-51 rout over the Mercer Bears in an Atlantic Sun Conference match-up at the University Center. The 17 total points from Mills led four Lady Owls in double figures.
Despite committing 15 turnovers and going just 8-for-19 from the free throw line in the first half, the Lady Owls (8-10, 3-4 A-Sun) still led heading into the locker room, 31-30. After weathering an early second half rally from Mercer (3-15, 1-6 A-Sun) that saw the home team lead on two occasions and trail just, 40-39, with 13:16 remaining.
It was then that Kennesaw State went on a game-changing, 13-0, run over the next 4:41 in which six different Lady Owls scored, while forcing three Mercer turnovers during that span, during which the home team went 0-for-8 from the field.
The Lady Owls shot 15-for-27 (.556) from the field in the second half while the Bears struggled to a 5-for-32 performance (.156) after halftime. Kennesaw State’s shooting in the second half from a first-half effort in which they were still a solid 11-for-24 (.458).
“We were forcing things a little bit too much at the beginning of the game, and so as a result we turned the ball over a lot,” Lady Owls head coach Colby Tilley explained after the game. “We were more patient on offense, and just let the game come to us, which was something we talked about at the half, and it paid off for us.”
Elaina Gray added 15 points for the Lady Owls, while Kristina Wells had 13 and Sametria Gideon had 10, in their first road win over Mercer since the 2007-08 season. Chelcey Farrar had a game-high nine rebounds off the bench for the Black and Gold, who out-rebounded Mercer 45-33. Many of those points were made possible courtesy of Mills, who also dished out a career-high seven assists.
“It’s fun when everyone is scoring and contributing to a win,” Mills commented. “We knew coming into today that it would be a post-oriented game, since Mercer has a lot of weapons in there, so our post players were going to have to step it up, and they got it done today.”
Finding interior scoring was not an issue for the Black and Gold, who turned 23 Mercer turnovers into 18 points, many of them contributing to the squad’s totals of 40 points in the paint and a season-high 24 fast-break points. 14 of those fast-break points for the Lady Owls came in the second half.
Things didn’t look so bright for the Lady Owls right out of the box, as they struggled out of the gate, missing their first five shot attempts while the Bears raced out to a, 10-3, lead. They would trail for the first 9:02 of the game before a Farrar free throw tied things up at 15 apiece, and went into half with their slim, one-point advantage after Mills made the team’s first three-point basket of the game with seven seconds to go in the half.
“I thought in the second half we picked up the defensive intensity, that was the big difference for us, we weren’t playing as hard as we should be playing, and after halftime we just picked up and made some good things happen,” Tilley said.
Mercer was led by Briana Williams’ 17 points, with Precious Bridges chipping in 11 in the Bears’ eighth consecutive defeat.
The Lady Owls return home to the KSU Convocation Center on Thursday evening, when they host the North Florida Ospreys beginning at 7:00 p.m.
