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KENNESAW, Ga. – The Kennesaw State men's basketball had their best defensive effort this season against Florida Gulf Coast on Saturday, January 24, but came up just short in the game falling 54-48.
 
"I thought our guys gave great effort for 40 minutes," head coach Jimmy Lallathin said. "One thing that we'll take away from this game is that we showed we can defend. That's something that has been the emphasis all week. We showed that today and really defended well. I thought we made our assignments and followed the game plan as well as we have all year. We absorbed the drive. That was a big emphasis to really take away that drive and I thought we did a great job. We gave up a couple of second chance opportunities. When they were struggling to score we could've put a little more distance between ourselves, but can't fault our guys efforts. Very proud of our guys for the way they played all 40 minutes."
 
The 54 points FGCU scored were a season-low for opponents against Kennesaw State. The Owls held the Eagles to a shooting percentage of 32.1 from the floor.
 
Yonel Brown was a catalyst for the Owls on offense scoring 19 points.
 
Willy Kouassi led KSU in rebounds for the second game in a row with eight.
 
The Owls got off to a quick start feeding off of their defensive intensity and getting out and running. Orlando Coleman threw down a dunk to push the lead to 11-4 forcing the Eagles to take an early timeout. KSU held FGCU under 10 points for 13 minutes in the first half.
 
Florida Gulf Coast eventually got going with offensive rebounding and came back to tie the score at 17.
 
Brown got a layup and the Eagles hit three free throws to make the score at halftime 20-17 FGCU.
 
Kouassi came out of the locker room aggressive and made two quick layups to give the Owls the lead back by three.
 
Brown added to the lead by hitting two threes over a two-point span making the margin five at 33-28 with 11:01 to go.
 
Florida Gulf Coast came back once again and this time it was Damien Wilson's turn to step up. After FGCU took a one-point lead, Wilson made a layup pushing the Owls back up by one.
 
Bernard Thompson answered with a three to go up by two, and Brown came right back with a three of his own to put the Owls back up 40-39.
 
The team's traded baskets one more time before Gulf Coast went on a 5-0 run to go up 46-42.
 
Right out of the last media timeout, Brown drove to the hoop and hit a layup while getting fouled. He made the free throw to get within one of the Eagles, but that's as close ast the Owls would get.
 
The next two possessions, Nate Hicks hit four free throws to push FGCU's lead back to five and the Owls couldn't recover from there.
 
The loss makes the Owls 6-15 and 1-4 in the A-Sun conference. Next week, they will travel to Jacksonville and take on North Florida on Thursday at 7 p.m. and Jacksonville on Saturday at 2 p.m.

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.