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POSTGAME INTERVIEW
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – With the ball in hand and a chance to tie up the game with less than one tick left on the clock, a buzzer-beating three fell short for the Kennesaw State women’s basketball team as the Owls dropped an Atlantic Sun Conference contest at North Florida, 52-49.
The Owls, now 4-12 overall and 0-4 in the A-Sun, overcame a 19-point deficit in the first period, chipping away at the Osprey lead before the
Ashley Holliday (Greenville, S.C./J.L. Mann Academy) game-tying three fell short.
Kristina Wells (Douglasville, Ga./Douglas County HS) had her second 20-point outing of the season to lead the KSU offense while senior
Sametria Gideon (Madison, Ala./Bob Jones HS) earned her third straight double-double and ninth of the season with 11 points and 10 rebounds.
North Florida, improving to 7-9 on the season and over .500 in the A-Sun at 3-2, never relinquished the lead in the ballgame, jumping out to the 19-point lead at the 8:58 mark in the first half. A 9-0 run from the Owls, sparked off by a pair of free throws from Gideon, then brought KSU within striking distance at 29-18 after a big Holliday three.
The black and gold then managed to dwindle the UNF lead down to just seven points at the break with back-to-back field goals from Wells, sending the game into the half at 35-28.
Out of the intermission, UNF bumped its lead back up to 14 points just minutes into the half, but the Owls weren’t done yet, cutting it back to eight over the next four minutes with Wells and Gideon each contributing three points.
The Ospreys came back with a three to go up by 11, 51-40, with just 5:32 to go before Wells again hit on back-to-back jumpers to bring her team within eight. After a two-minute scoreless drought for both teams, Holliday drilled her third three-pointer of the game to make it a five point ballgame, 52-47 with 2:08 to go.
Holliday then picked up the steal and dished out the assist to Gideon, who connected on a seven-footer to bring the Owls within three. With two missed free throws from UNF, the Owls had the ball in hand with 10-seconds on the clock. KSU earned back-to-back rebounds before Holliday’s missed three point attempt to tie the game with less than a second left fell just short.
“We have to do a better job starting games,” said Kennesaw State head coach
Nitra Perry. “The first four minutes in the last couple of games have really sunk us early. We gave them too many threes and too many shots in the first five minutes. We fought to get back in it but we never really recovered.”
Wells shot 56-percent from the field to go with her game-high 20 points along with seven rebounds and two steals.
“Wells did a heck of a job tonight,” added Perry of her sophomore guard. “She got to the basket and did everything I asked her to do. We’re just going to lick our wounds today and comeback out ready to go on Monday.”
The Owls will remain in Jacksonville, Fla., traveling down the road on Monday, Jan. 14, for a 7 p.m. contest against Jacksonville University.
To keep up with the latest Kennesaw State women’s basketball news follow the team on Twitter
@KSUOwlNation and
@KSUOwlsWBB or by liking Kennesaw State University on Facebook.
Kennesaw State University is celebrating 30 years of intercollegiate athletics during the 2012-13 academic year.
Around the A-Sun
Northern Kentucky 66, Lipscomb 33
Mercer 72, Jacksonville 68
Stetson 84, USC Upstate 66
Florida Gulf Coast 97, East Tennessee State 60
