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DELAND, Fla. – The Kennesaw State women's basketball team put forth a valiant second-half effort, but ultimately fell short to Stetson, 75-64, in Atlantic Sun Conference action on Thursday night (Jan. 22) at the Edmunds Center.
 
"It was a disappointing loss, but I saw lots of positives in it," said head coach Nitra Perry. "We had three people in double figures, with Jasmine McAllister adding nine points and 10 rebounds, Kristina Wells with a double-double and Kelly Dulkoski hitting shots. I thought we had a sense of urgency probably 10 minutes into the second half. I thought we were more focused in the second half. It was not a bad start, but it was not a great start."
 
"And again our players are still learning how to play on the road. You are playing one of the top teams in the conference and it comes down to being a tougher team. We dug ourselves a hole in the first half and when you are on the road and home team is shooting as many free throws as they shot, it is hard to get out. We responded in the second half and won the half, 48-45, which will give us momentum heading into Saturday's game at Florida Gulf Coast. I felt like we are getting back to where we were and I feel like we will be competitive the rest of league play."
 
Sophomore Deandrea Sawyers paced the Owls (13-6, 2-2) with a game-high 19 points, including three three-pointers, to go along with seven rebounds, while senior Kristina Wells rebounded from her last outing to register her third double-double of the season with 15 points, a game-high 12 rebounds and two blocks.
 
After junior Jasmine McAllister opened the game with a layup on a feed from junior Karly Frye, the Hatters (14-4, 3-1) jumped out to a 9-2 with 16:16 remaining in the first half.
 
The Owls responded with a 12-4 run to take its first lead of the game at 14-13 on a three-pointer from redshirt-freshman Kelly Dulkoski with 11:02 on the clock.
 
Trailing by one, the Hatters then held KSU scoreless over the next eight and a half minutes to build a 26-14 advantage on a 13-0 run with just under five minutes left in the half. McAllister ended the Owl scoring drought with a layup at the 1:45 mark in the period, but Stetson then rattled off four-straight points go into intermission with a 30-16 lead.
 
Out of the break, Stetson pushed its lead to 14 points before the Owls scored seven-straight points to cut the deficit to 36-29 with 14 minutes to go in the second half.
 
Following a Sawyers offensive foul, the KSU bench was shown a technical foul that the Hatters used to start a 9-1 run over the next three minutes to widen the gap to 45-30 with 11 minutes remaining in the game.
 
Down by 17 with six minutes to go, the Owls came alive with a 19-9 spurt, including nine points from Sawyers, to pull within 64-57 with 1:30 left on the clock. After trading free throws, KSU again cut the lead down to 68-61, but it would be as close as the Owls would get with the Hatters going on for the 75-64 win.
 
KSU connected on 38.3 percent of its shots on 23-of-60 shooting, including making 17-of-32 in the second half for 53.1 percent after shooting at 21.4 percent on 6-of-28 in the first half.
 
Dulkoski came within one point of equaling her career high with 11 points, including three three-pointers, while Frye handed out a team-high six assists.
 
The Owls won the rebounding glass, 41-35, and turned 13 offensive boards into 16 second chance points, but were hampered by 18 turnovers, which Stetson capitalized on for 24 points.
 
Brianti Saunders led the Hatters with 19 points, while Jama Sharp added 16 points and five assists.
 
The Owls next wrap their three-game conference road trip with a Saturday night contest against 2014 A-Sun regular season and tournament champion Florida Gulf Coast in Fort Myers, Fla., on Jan. 24. Tipoff is slated for 7:05 p.m. ET in Alico Arena.
 
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.