Box Score (PDF)

ATLANTA- After leading for more than 30 minutes of the contest, the Kennesaw State women's basketball team (3-7) fell in an overtime thriller 79-73 to Georgia State (4-3) on Thursday inside the GSU Sports complex.

The Owls offense started hot and opened up a 10-2 lead in the first quarter after hitting four out of its first five shots including 3-pointers from Kamiyah Street and Amani Johnson. With 3:26 in the first quarter, Street found Payton Lewis for an elbow 3-pointer that ended a 4:05 scoring drought. The Owls ended the first quarter with a 19-16 advantage after knocking down three first quarter 3-pointers.

Georgia State took the lead in the second quarter, 22-21, with just over seven minutes to go in the second frame, but the Owls used a put-back layup from Breanna Hoover to regain the lead 23-22 with 6:18 to play. The Owls pushed their lead to four points after Alexis Poole finished through contact and made the free throw to complete the 3-point play with 6:08 in the quarter. Kennesaw State went into the break with a 39-34 advantage after a strong showing from Johnson. In the first half, the freshman had netted 12 points, dished four assists and collected three rebounds.

After a quick Panther bucket to begin the half, the Owls went on an 8-0 run to go up by 10 points with 7:21 in the third quarter, which amounted to KSU's largest lead to that point. Georgia State took advantage of Kennesaw State going without a field goal for five minutes and 31 seconds and tied the game at 51 points with 1:53 remaining in the quarter. Johnson hit a free throw and Street hit a fadeaway jumper as time expired to put KSU on top 55-52 going in to the final frame.

The fourth quarter opened back-and-forth as both teams traded buckets inside GSU Sports Arena. Each team claimed a lead in the first five minutes of the period, but neither team pushed their advantage past two points. After battling foul trouble for much of the game, Alexis Poole checked in and scored three quick buckets to push the Owls in front 65-62 with 4:06 in the game. The Panthers were not done as they knocked down a 3-pointer to the contest to tie the game and took the lead after two free throws with just over a minute to play. Johnson made a move on the ensuing possession and netted a floater to tie the game with 42 seconds remaining.

On the Owls second possession of overtime, Gianolla made a free-throw line jumper to take the first lead of overtime, 69-67. The Panthers went on a 5-0 with that started just before a minute to go and continued to the 51 second mark that would be final lead of the game.

Noteworthy

• The Owls had 20 points in the paint in the first half
• In the first half, the Kennesaw State offense scored on 45.9 percent of its possessions
• KSU finished with four players in double figures (Street- 17 , Johnson- 15, Poole- 14  and Carlotta Gianolla- 14)
• It was the first overtime game of the season for Kennesaw State
• Owls led for 31 minutes and 38 seconds in the contest
• KSU made 30 field goals to GSU's 26 made field goals

Up next
The Owls have two days off before heading back to Atlanta to play Georgia Tech at 4 p.m.