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KENNESAW, Ga. – The Kennesaw State men's basketball team snapped its nine-game losing streak behind a tremendous shooting performance from redshirt junior Tyler Hooker, defeating Tennessee Tech 73-68 Saturday afternoon in front of 1,203 fans at the Convocation Center.
 
Hooker finished the game with a team-high 28 points, going 6-of-10 from three-point range, 5-of-6 in the opening half.
 
How it happened: The Owls (2-9) came out firing to open the game, jumping out to a 10-3 lead at the 15:32 mark. TTU (3-8) responded with a three-pointer, but Hooker answered immediately with his first trey of the day to begin a 7-0 run.
 
KSU built its lead to 15 points, its largest lead of the game, following yet another three-pointer from Hooker to make it 26-11 with 10:43 to play. The Owls kept their double-digit lead throughout the next few minutes as the two teams traded buckets. TTU closed out the half on a 9-3 run to pull within five, 41-36, heading into the locker room.
 
KSU shot 57.1 percent from the floor in the first half with Hooker logging 20 points.
 
Both teams traded buckets to start the second half with senior Kosta Jankovic netting KSU's first four points. The Golden Eagles then went on an 8-0 run to take their first lead of the game, 46-45, at the 14:48 mark. KSU answered with a 9-0 run of their own to regain the lead 54-46 with 12 minutes to play.
 
TTU crept back to within three points as the Owls went the next seven minutes without a made bucket. Freshman Antonio Spencer finally broke KSU's drought with back-to-back scores to make it 61-54 with 5:47 left to play.
 
After a three-point shot from TTU's Martin Malik tied the game at 61, the Owls proceeded to go on an 8-0 run capped off by a jumper from Hooker to lead 69-61 with just over a minute to play. The Owls held off TTU in the final seconds thanks to their free throw shooting, going 11-20 from the charity stripe in the second half, to record the victory.
 
Notes: Tyler Hooker's six three-pointers is tied for the second-most in a single-game in Division I history … This is the ninth straight game in double-figures for Hooker, third game this year with 20 or more points … Bryson Lockley recorded his fourth game in double-digits with 11 points … Isaac Mbuyamba tied his career-high for the fourth time with nine points … The Owls finished with a season-high 47.3 shooting percentage, their second straight game shooting over 40 percent, fourth of the season … Hooker recorded a career-high two blocks as the Owls finished with six total blocks, their second straight game with five or more blocks … Mbuyamba led the team with eight rebounds, one shy of his career-high … Three Owls recorded four or more assists on the day with Bryson Lockley tying his career-high with five followed by Kosta Jankovic and Hooker with four each to lead the Owls to a season-high total of 19.
 
Quotes: Head Coach Al Skinner
On winning at home…
"Let's face it, it's always going to be tough to go on the road and play and you don't get the chance to establish yourself at home. I didn't expect to be here, but I knew it was going to be difficult for us. There's a difference playing at home, it makes a difference, especially for a team as young as we are. The nice thing is that we learned something from our previous game, that I thought we had a chance to win, and you have to continue to build on it. Our execution at times was very, very good and at other times it was poor, that's the inconsistency a young team brings. We have to do a better job of being more consistent, and we will be, but we have got to be able to play off of each other."
 
On learning from the previous game at Gardner-Webb…
"The difference is that against Gardner-Webb we made some bad plays, fouling guys when they weren't even in their offense, on rebounds, on loose balls, things of that nature, not running our offense well, picking up offensive fouls, stuff like that. We avoided all of those things today. There still wasn't the consistency in our execution that we are looking for, but that's the difference in the ballgame is that we didn't give up those plays as we did at Gardner-Webb. We didn't give those opportunities away today."
 
On Tyler Hooker's play…
"In the first half he carried us, clearly in the first half he carried us. He had some great looks and was able to put the ball in the basket. He's our leading scorer and there are going to be situations that occur like that, but the nice thing is that we started to spread the ball around a little bit, other people getting touches. That's the most important thing, as the season progresses, I'd like to believe that we are going to get more balanced scoring."
 
Up next: The Owls continue their homestand on Tuesday, hosting Elon at 7 p.m.