By: KSU Sports Information
Box Score
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Postgame Notes
KENNESAW, Ga. – Markeith Cummings notched his second double-double of the season on Monday night as one of four Owls in double figures, but they trailed the USC Upstate Spartans by 13-points at halftime before eventually falling, 70-58, at the KSU Convocation Center.
The Owls (3-22, 0-13 Atlantic Sun Conference) allowed a pair of 8-0 runs in the first half to the Spartans (15-10, 8-4 A-Sun), first putting them behind by 10 points with 11:30 to play and then 35-19 with 4:12 to go.
Trailing, 39-26, at halftime after being behind by as many as 16, the Owls scored the first five points of the second half to cut the lead to six points, the first of three times in which they would be behind by just two possessions after halftime. An alley-oop from Spencer Dixon to Cummings, which ended in a thunderous dunk, would make it, 49-43, with 11:05 to go, but the USC Upstate lead would be back to double digits less than two minutes later, and the Owls would come no closer than seven points the rest of the way.
The leading scorer in the A-Sun, sophomore Torrey Craig, would score 12 of his 15 points in the second half to pace Upstate, who would build their lead back up to 13 points before eventually taking the victory by 12.
“I thought for maybe 32 or 34 minutes of that game, we were right there,” Owls head coach Lewis Preston said. “We had some opportunities to hit open shots that just didn’t fall, and they were hitting their open shots when they had their chances.”
Despite holding the Spartans’ two leading scorers, Torrey Craig and Ty Greene, to just 10 points in the first half, the Black and Gold struggled to keep up in large part due to their 7-for-26 (.269) shooting from the floor during the first 20 minutes of play. It was part of an evening in which they shot 20-for-55, after shooting a season-high 56.8 percent from the field on Saturday.
Preston’s squad started out the first half strong, as well, scoring the first six points of the game and leading for the 5:51 of the contest. The Black and Gold would go through a mini-drought at that point, however, missing three of four shots from the field over the next 2:39 while Upstate would jump out in front for the first time, and would not relinquish the lead thereafter.
Kennesaw State’s Delbert Love led all scorers with 19 points, his second consecutive game with that many points, while Cummings (13 points), Brandon Dawson (12) and Spencer Dixon (11) helped pace the Owls scoring. Dawson matched his career-high for the second straight night. Love made three of the Owls six three-point baskets on the night.
For Cummings, who entered the evening fourth in the Atlantic Sun Conference in scoring with 15.6 points per game, the 10 rebounds on the night marked his second double-digit performance of the season. Despite the outcome, Cummings saw some positives from his teammates on Monday evening.
“We’re coming around, we definitely see ourselves improving as a team,” Cummings commented. “We have these short periods of time during the game where we find ourselves relaxing and that’s when we fall behind, and we need to stop doing that.”
The Owls committed just nine turnovers on Monday evening, while forcing just 10 Spartans turnovers on the night.
Kennesaw State returns to the KSU Convocation Center floor on Friday night, when they host Mercer at 7:00 p.m. The unveiling of the first KSU fight song will take place prior to the game, with game being featured on Comcast Sports Southeast and ESPN3 as the CSS/A-Sun Friday Night Game of the Week.
