By: KSU Sports Information
Photo Gallery
Postgame Notes
KENNESAW, Ga. –
Taylor Mills scored 16 points to lead all scorers on Thursday evening, but the Kennesaw State Lady Owls allowed eight unanswered points to start the second half against North Florida, and couldn’t recover dropping a, 66-57, decision at the KSU Convocation Center.
The loss drops Kennesaw State to 8-11 (3-5 A-Sun), while the win improves North Florida to 7-12 (4-4 A-Sun).
With KSU up 27-20 with 2:30 left in the first half, North Florida started an 18-1 run that extended into the beginning of the second half giving the Ospreys a 38-28 lead. The key during that pivotal stretch for UNF was that it switched to a zone defense which really stifled the Lady Owls offensively as head coach
Colby Tilley reiterated during his postgame press conference.
“I thought we got off to a good start tonight, but when North Florida switched to their zone defense it really confused us and put us in a little bit of a hole,” coach Tilley said. “We tried running four different offenses, but none of them seemed to work for us.”
The zone defense forced Kennesaw State to put up a lot of deep three’s as the shot clock was expiring which was a big reason why KSU shot only 20 percent (5-of-25) from behind the arc.
The Lady Owls refused to give up though, fighting back with a rally of their own going on a 14-4 run over the next 7:30 to tie the game at 42-42 with 10 minutes left in the game. However, the hot shooting of North Florida in the second half was too much for KSU to overcome as the Ospreys shot 61 percent in the period to help seal the win.
Junior
Sametria Gideon also had a nice game for KSU chipping in 10 points and eight rebounds, while North Florida was led by Brittany Kirkland who scored 13 points.
Even with the loss KSU had plenty of positives as it had 21 offensive rebounds in the game with all seven players who saw action having at least two offensive boards. The Lady Owls also had 14 assists on 19 made field goals in the contest.
Coach Tilley looks to build on those positives as his team gets ready for Saturday’s matchup against Jacksonville.
“We have to recover from this game both emotionally and physically,” coach Tilley said. “We got one day to get the girls back up and to work on some things to get ready to play a very good Jacksonville team.”
Tip-off for Saturday’s game will be at 2:30 p.m.
