By: By Al Barba
GAMEDAY STORY LINES
• Kennesaw State (8-18, 7-5) hosts Jacksonville (20-7, 9-3) Monday (Feb. 20) at the KSU Convocation Center. Tip-off is 7 p.m. (ET).
• KSU is coming off a 52-48 victory over North Florida on Saturday (Feb. 18).
• The Owls clinched the No. 4 seed and an ASUN Tournament home game. The conference tournament opens March 3.
• Tickets to the ASUN Conference Tournament are currently available for purchase and priced at $10 for adults and $5 for youth (17 and under) and ASUN students. They can be purchased at KSUOwls.com and by calling the ticket office at (470) 578-6957.
• A win over Jacksonville will guarantee the Owls their first winning ASUN Conference season since 2008-09 when they finished 11-9.
• Senior
Deandrea Sawyers leads KSU with 13 double-digit scoring games and ranks No. 2 on the program's all-time Division I scoring list with 1,318. She is 56 points shy of tying Kristina Wells (1,374) for first place.
• The Owls have two players averaging in double figures.
Deandrea Sawyers is contributing 11.5 points a game, while freshman
Carlotta Gianolla is second with 10.8 points a contest, and leads KSU with 6.2 rebounds a game.
• Highly-respected head coach
Agnus Berenato is in her first season leading the Owls' program.
• This year marks Berenato's 30th season as a head coach that includes tenures at Rider (1981-85), Georgia Tech (1988-2003), Pitt (2003-13) and Kennesaw State. Heading into Monday's game, Berenato has posted a 452-431 (.512) record and guided her teams to 11 postseason appearances (5 NCAA, 6 WNIT).
PROMOTIONS
The KSU Hip-Hop Street Jazz group will perform at halftime, and the women's basketball team will hold a postgame autograph session.
GUEST COACH
Monday's guest coach will be Maureen McCarthy, professor of psychology at Kennesaw State University. Dr. McCarthy is currently serving as an American Council on Education (ACE) Fellow at Montana State University. The Fellows Program is the signature leadership program of ACE and is the premier higher education leadership development program in the United States.
NORTH FLORIDA RECAP
Kennesaw State posted a 52-48 victory over North Florida on Saturday (Feb. 18) to secure the No. 4 seed and the program's first ASUN Conference Tournament home game. The win also clinched KSU's first .500 or better ASUN Conference record since 2008-09 when it finished 11-9. In a back-and-forth game that had 10 lead changes and was tied seven times, senior
Deandrea Sawyers hit a 3-pointer with 2:22 remaining to put Kennesaw State ahead 47-46, and the Owls went 5-for-6 from the foul line to pull out the victory. Junior
Kelly Dulkoski hit five 3-pointers to lead Kennesaw State with 15 points, while sophomore
Allison Johnson recorded a double-double with 11 points and 12 rebounds.
SCOUTING JACKSONVILLE
The Dolphins enter Monday's game with a 20-7 overall record, including a 9-3 mark in ASUN Conference. Jacksonville has won three in a row, including a 73-67 win at Lipscomb on Saturday. The Dolphins are averaging 67.3 points a game and has three players scoring in double figures. Senior guard Sherranda Reddick leads the club with 16.9 points a contest.
SERIES VERSUS JACKSONVILLE
Monday's game marks the 25th meeting between Kennesaw State and Jacksonville, and the Dolphins lead the all-time series, 17-7. The two teams met earlier this season in Jacksonville and the Dolphins recorded a 72-48 victory. Jacksonville has an eight-game winning streak in the series with KSU's last win coming in the form of a 57-51 victory during the 2012-13 season.
UP NEXT
Following Monday's game, the Owls will close out their regular season with a home contest against Lipscomb on Saturday (Feb. 25) at 2 p.m. It will mark Senior Day at the KSU Convocation Center.
WINNING FORMULA
In their eight wins this season, the Owls are averaging 69.4 points a game, outscoring their opponents by 9.1 points a contest, and shooting 40.2 percent from the field. KSU has also been dominant on the boards, averaging 41.1 rebounds a game, and outrebounding their opponents by 10.8 rebounds a contest.
Deandrea Sawyers has led the way, averaging 17.3 points a contest, while freshman
Carlotta Gianolla is averaging 13.6 points and 8.0 rebounds, and
Kelly Dulkoski is contributing 10.7 points a game.
SAWYERS, GIANOLLA LEAD WAY
Senior
Deandrea Sawyers and freshman
Carlotta Gianolla have led the way for the Owls over their last nine games. Sawyers is contributing 15.4 points and 7.0 rebounds a contest, while Gianolla is scoring 13.8 points and collecting 6.7 boards a contest, while reaching double digits in eight of nine games. Sawyers, meanwhile, has totaled double-digit scoring games six times, including a career-high 29 points at USC Upstate on Jan. 28.
CHAMPIONS IN THE CLASSROOM
The Owls excelled in the classroom during the fall semester, posting a program record 3.57 grade-point average. A total of four student-athletes -
Chloe Branch,
Carlotta Gianolla,
Katie Polinsky and
Alexandra Landby - recorded perfect 4.0 GPAs.
THE GRADUATE
Redshirt junior
Chloe Branch participated in commencement exercises on Dec. 13. The Owls' forward earned a bachelor's degree in political science and is pursuing a master's degree in public administration.
ASUN WEEKLY HONORS
COACHING CONNECTIONS
The 2016-17 schedule features two opponents that are led by former assistants of first-year head coach
Agnus Berenato. MaChelle Joseph, who was an assistant under Berenato at Georgia Tech, is now leading the Yellow Jackets' program, while her former assistant at Pitt, Yolett McPhee-McCuin, is now guiding the Jacksonville program.
THE COACHING STAFF
Head coach
Agnus Berenato has assembled an experienced and well-respected coaching staff. Including Berenato's 29 years as a Division I head coach, the KSU coaching staff has a combined 55 years of experience at the Division I level. The staff is comprised of
Khadija Head (8 years),
Sherill Baker (4 years) and
Lisa Pace (14 years).
WELCOME TO THE NEST
Head coach
Agnus Berenato announced her first signing class on Thursday as the coaching staff inked four players to National Letters-of-Intent and one individual to a Grant-In-Aid. Brianna Dixon (Duluth, Ga. / Duluth High School), Breanna Hoover (Beaver Falls, Pa. / Blackhawk High School), Lexi Mann (Stone Mountain, Ga. / Greater Atlanta Christian) and Alexis Poole (Ellenwood, Ga. / Stockbridge High School) have signed National Letters-of-Intent and will enroll at Kennesaw State next fall. Caroline Dan (Copenhagen, Denmark / Falkonergaarden Gymnasium) has signed a Grant-In-Aid and will join the program in January.
OWLS 6TH IN ASUN COACHES POLL
Kennesaw State, coming off an 11-19 season and fifth-place finish a year ago, was picked sixth in the ASUN Conference Preseason Coaches' Poll. Defending tournament champion Jacksonville, was picked first in the poll after receiving 60 points and five first-place votes. Regular-season champion Florida Gulf Coast was voted second, after collecting two first-place votes and 55 points. Kennesaw State garnered 23 points.
To keep up with the latest Kennesaw State women's basketball news follow the team on Twitter @KSUOwlNation and or by liking Kennesaw State University on Facebook. Follow Coach Berenato on Twitter @KSUCoachB.
-GoKSUOwls-
