BOX SCORE (XML) |
BOX SCORE (PDF) |
POSTGAME INTERVIEW |
PHOTO GALLERY
KENNESAW, Ga. – The Kennesaw State women’s basketball team enjoyed double-digit scoring outings from four separate players, but couldn’t fight of the Lady Bison of Lipscomb as the Owls fall at home in Atlantic Sun Conference action, 55-53.
Freshman
Chelsea Mason (Bellevue, Neb./Bellevue West HS) led the way with 16 points while senior
Sametria Gideon (Madison, Ala./Bob Jones HS) made it back-to-back double-doubles and 12 on the season with her 12 point, 10 rebound outing as the Owls fall to 7-20 on the season and 3-12 in the A-Sun.
In what was one of the tightest ballgames the Owls have seen this season, Gideon broke a one-point halftime lead for Lipscomb (3-22, 2-12 A-Sun) with a made free throw just 15 seconds into the second half, knotting the score at 31 apiece.
Back at the free-throw line, sophomore
Kristina Wells (Douglasville, Ga./Douglas County HS) put the Owls back on top after hitting on a pair of freebies to give the Owls a 33-31 advantage followed by a Gideon layup to start the second half off on a 6-0 KSU run.
Wells then gave the home team its biggest lead of the ballgame with 11:57 remaining in regulation with a layup off of an
Ashley Holliday Greenville, S.C./J.L. Mann Academy) assist to make it 42-35 Owls. But a quick 10-point run from the Bison put Lipscomb back in control by three with under nine minutes to play.
A Mason three-pointer 30-seconds later tied things up before LU went back up by four, capitalizing on a pair of free throws and a Kennesaw State turnover. Mason came through in the clutch once again to tie it up at 49, but the Owls couldn’t muster up the defense to stop back-to-back LU baskets as the Bison went back up by four.
Down two points with 13 seconds to go, the Owls picked up a big Gideon rebound but failed to put in the
Nicole Adams (New Port Richey, Fla./Gulf HS) buzzer-beating three on the other end, falling 55-53.
“We were focused on defense half the time and not focused the other half,” said Kennesaw State head coach
Nitra Perry. “We need to stay focused the whole game. You’re not going to win games down the stretch like this one was playing half and half defense. Free throws hurt us again today as well. We had opportunities to put the game away, but we just didn’t finish.”
After getting off to a 7-0 start less than two minutes into the game, the Owls led the majority of the way in the first half, up until a Lipscomb layup at the 9:06 mark tied things up at 18. The squads battled back and forth for the final eight minutes until the Bison went into the break with a 31-30 lead after a Holliday triple just before the horn cut the lead from four.
“The difference was we shot the ball well in the first half and shot okay in the second,” said Perry. “It was a defensive game, which was our game plan from the beginning, to play really good defense, and we just didn’t do that.”
The Owls shot a stellar 52 percent in the first 20 minutes and just 19 percent in the final period.
Holliday and Wells were the other two to finish up in double-figures, both ending the game with 11 points with Holliday also earning three assists.
Defensively, Gideon earned four blocks and a steal to go with her game-high 10 rebounds.
The Owls will make their 2012-13 home finale this Monday, Feb. 25 as the black and gold host Northern Kentucky on Senior Night with the game time set at 7 p.m.
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.
