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LEWIS PRESTON INTERVIEW
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – Kennesaw State was able to stay close with an experienced and highly-regarded Tennessee team for a half but in the end the Volunteers demonstrated on Friday why they were among teams receiving votes in the national preseason polls.
After leading by 12 points at halftime, Tennessee (1-0) used a 9-0 run to open the second half and break open a relatively close game en route to posting a 76-67 season-opening victory over Kennesaw State (0-1) at the Thompson-Boling Arena in Knoxville.
The Volunteers led but as many as 27 points with 11:04 remaining but the Owls continued to battle and outscored Tennessee 33-15 to cut the final deficit to nine points. Sophomore guard
Delbert Love, who was held to three points in the first half, came back to score 13 of his game-high tying 16 points in the second half.
Senior forward
Aaron Anderson tied Love for high-point honors with 16 point and added a game-high 12 rebounds. Freshman guard
Yonel Brown chipped in 10 points and added three assists for the Owls.
“I’m very proud of our effort, especially in the second, especially the last 10 minutes of the game,” Kennesaw State head coach Lewis Preston said. “I told our guys, having coached in the SEC we always used to put up the number eight and eight, the first eight minutes of the game and the first eight minutes of the second half. I thought our guys did a phenomenal job except for pretty much the last four minutes of the first half and the first four minutes of the second half in regards to withstanding some of the runs they had and handling some adversity, fighting back and showing some level of toughness and pride that we can build upon.”
Kennesaw State was able to stay within six points for most of the first half until Tennessee went on an 8-2 run over the final 2:18 to take a 42-30 lead into halftime.
The Volunteers opened the second half with a 9-0 run to build a 50-31 lead during the first four minutes and extended the run to 19-4 over an eight-minute span to increase its lead to 61-34 with 11:40 remaining.
However, Kennesaw State, which outscored Tennessee 37-34 in the second half, battled back to make it a ballgame. The Owls finished the contest with a 31-29 rebounding advantage and forced 13 turnovers.
“I’ll take a lot more positives out of this because we could have put our heads in the sand and let them have their way, but we fought back,” Preston said. “There were a couple times out there where it was a little tense that helped our guys. I’m very happy with the way they stepped up, very happy with the way Aaron Anderson played, 16 points, 12 rebounds. The team was just very efficient.
“Delbert got going in the second half and knocking down some shots,” Preston continued. “So as we move forward to Monday I think it is very important to take the positives out of this and work on some of the things we didn’t do well.”
Tennessee was able to control the game by shooting 60.5 percent (26-for-43) from the field and outscoring Kennesaw State 38-24 inside. After shooting 38.5 percent (10-for-26) from the field in the first half, the Owls began to find their stroke in the second half, connecting on 53.8 percent (14-for-26) of their shots, and finished the contest with a 46.2 percent (24-for-52) field goal percentage mark.
The Volunteers had five players finish in double figures and were led by Skylar McBee and Jordan McRae, who scored 14 points apiece.
Kennesaw State continues to its five-game road trip to open the season on Monday when it travels to Orangeburg, S.C., to take on South Carolina State beginning at 7:30 p.m.
NOTES: Kennesaw State set a program-record by playing before a crowd of 18,044 at the Thompson-Boling Arena…The previous record crowd was 17,230 when the Owls opened the 2011-12 season against Wisconsin at the Kohl Center in Madison…Senior forward
Markeith Cummings, who entered the season third in Kennesaw State history with 1,603 points, scored six points and is 24 points shy of tying Ronnell Wooten (2004-08) for second place all time…Wooten concluded his career with 1,633 points…All five Kennesaw State freshmen saw action against Tennessee…Yonel Brown started at the point guard position and scored 10 points, while
Myles Hamilton (7 points),
Nigel Pruitt (6 points),
Cole Hobbs and
Jordan Montgomery (3 points) played significant minutes…Junior
Kris Drees also made his collegiate debut.
