By: KSU Sports Information
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Conference Recap and Highlight Video
MACON, Ga. – Freshman
Kristina Wells led KSU with 16 points, six rebounds and five steals, but it wasn’t enough as the Kennesaw State women’s basketball team fell to Florida Gulf Coast, 76-53, in a A-Sun Semifinal matchup on Friday afternoon.
The loss ends a very successful season for Kennesaw State (14-17, 8-10 A-Sun) as it captured its first-ever Atlantic Sun Conference Tournament win, and the 14 overall wins are the most wins in a season since the 2008-09 season.
Both teams started the game with an aggressive mentality on offense as almost everything came inside the paint for both teams early on. At the first media timeout Kennesaw State was holding its own only trailing Florida Gulf Coast (28-2, 18-0 A-Sun), 9-6.
However, KSU lost some of its offensive flow after that point as FGCU’s defensive pressure forced it into some poor possessions. The Eagles went on a 15-5 run during the middle of the first half to extend their lead to 24-11 with just over eight minutes remaining in the period.
Two jumpers by Wells and a layup by junior
Sametria Gideon brought the Lady Owls back to within single digits making the score 24-17. Florida Gulf Coast’s motion offense started to wear KSU down towards the end of the period as the Eagles closed the half on a 10-5 run making the score 34-22 at halftime.
The story of the first half was KSU’s inefficiency in cleaning up its defensive glass and FGCU took advantage of it dominating in second chance points by a margin of 16-2.
Kennesaw State continued to hang around as the second half progressed, but Florida Gulf Coast started to heat up from three-point land as it hit three of its first four attempts in the period to build its lead up to 52-35 with 11:23 remaining.
That is the closest the Lady Owls would get for the rest of the game as FGCU’s three-point shooting was eventually too much for KSU to overcome as they went on to hit 6-of-9 from beyond-the-arc in the second half.
Head Coach
Colby Tilley was disappointed with today’s result, but he was pleased with what his team was able to accomplish this season as he looks to build off those in the offseason. “Florida Gulf Coast is a very good team and I thought we did some good things today, but their three-point shooting was the big difference in the game,” coach Tilley said. “We definitely accomplished some good things this season both individually and as a team. I look forward to working hard this offseason to prepare for what should be an exciting 2012-13 campaign.”
Gideon joined Wells in double-figures as she finished with 15 points, while junior
Chelcey Farrar also chipped in with 12 points and a team-high eight rebounds.
Florida Gulf Coast will now move on to the Championship game to play the winner of the other semifinal matchup between No. 2 Stetson and No. 6 Jacksonville.
