By: By Brandon Scardigli
INTERVIEW | BOX SCORE (XML) | BOX SCORE (PDF)
KENNESAW, Ga. – With an 85-78 come from behind win over Piedmont College on Monday night, the Kennesaw State men's basketball team made it back-to-back wins during the exhibition portion of its 2013-14 schedule after defeating Covenant College 95-66 on Saturday night.
KSU put four players in double-figure scoring including 17 from
Nigel Pruitt, 16 from
Drew McGhee, 12 from
Orlando Coleman and 10 from
Yonel Brown. Pruitt put in four three-pointers during the win as the Owls rallied in the second half to down the Lions.
"Tonight was a great example of another team playing their tail off," said Kennesaw State head coach
Lewis Preston. "We learned a lot about our group tonight. The last 10 minutes, that group that was on the floor for us really showed toughness and that's what we wanted to see out of our guys."
With Piedmont up by 12 points after a Safari Smith three-pointer just before the end of the first half, the Owls sprung to life, going on an 11-0 run over a two-minute span with four of those points coming from the senior McGhee to cut the Lion lead down to just one.
A
Myles Hamilton layup just before the buzzer then sent the game into the half at 43-41 Lions.
Coming out of the locker room it was Coleman that tied things up immediately as he hit a jumper from inside the paint to tie things up at 43-43. After the teams played back-and-forth basketball for the next three minutes, the Owls took control with a layup from
Bernard Morena off of a McGhee pass to put the Owls up by a pair.
Piedmont regained a brief lead at the 11:58 mark before the Owls took control on a McGhee field goal followed by back-to-back layups from Morena. The Lions then again went up by one, 72-71, with 5:17 to play before KSU went on a 5-0 run to take the lead back for good with a Pruitt triple and going on to win things, 85-78.
To go with his 12 points, Coleman also dished out six assists and grabbed five rebounds.
On the boards, KSU brought down 44 rebounds to Piedmont's 32, 18 of the 44 coming on the offensive end, with Morena and
Andrew Osemhen each bringing down eight.
With 30 personal fouls called on the Lions, the Owls went 21-of-35 from the stripe with Brown connecting on eight of his nine attempts and Pruitt going 5-for-6.
KSU will kick off the regular season with four games in four days, starting this Friday, Nov. 8, at 7:30 p.m. ET in the Convocation Center against Youngstown State.
To keep up with the latest Kennesaw State men's basketball news follow the team on Twitter
@KSUOwlNation and
@KSUOwlsMBB or by liking Kennesaw State University on
Facebook.
Season tickets are currently available for all the home court action for the Owls and can be purchased by following the link here.
