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NASHVILLE, Tenn. – The Kennesaw State men's basketball team fell behind in the opening minutes of the second half as a hot-shooting Belmont team pulled away to down the Owls 83-44 Wednesday night at the Curb Event Center.
 
How it Happened: The Bruins (8-3) opened the night's scoring, but Ugo Obineke responded for the Owls (1-10) on the ensuing possession with a shot from distance to give KSU the edge 3-2. The two squads traded buckets before a three-pointer from Belmont's Adam Kunkel opened a quick 5-0 swing to put the Bruins in front 15-9 at the 11:54 mark.
 
The Owls looked to cut into the lead following a second chance layup from Bryson Lockley, but Belmont ripped off an 11-1 run to push its lead to double-figures 24-12. Tyler Hooker finally ended the run as KSU picked up its defensive pressure, holding Belmont scoreless for the next four minutes. The Owls couldn't take advantage on the other end though with Terrell Burden making KSU's sole bucket during that stretch. A 6-0 run extended Belmont's lead to 30-16 before the two teams settled in defensively for the final 4:32 of the half.
 
Lockley netted a three-pointer before time expired to keep the Owls within range, 32-20, at the end of the first half. Lockley finished the period with a team-high six points and five rebounds.
 
Belmont seized control in the opening minutes of the second half, outscoring KSU 21-2 in the first eight minutes to lead 53-22. Hooker finally ended the Owls drought with a layup at the 11:46 mark.  
 
Hooker breathed life into the Owls' offense netting six of KSU's 12 field goals in the second half. The Simpsonville, S.C., product recorded 12 points in the second half alone, finishing the night with 15 total points. Belmont shot 61 percent in the second half, going 7-of-15 from beyond the arc to earn the final score of 83-44.
 
Notes: Tyler Hooker was one rebound shy of his first career double-double with 15 points and nine rebounds, tying his career-high … Pietro Agostini netted three of the Owls final four buckets to record a career-high eight points while adding five rebounds … Bryson Lockley and Terrell Burden each finished with six points, logging six and four rebounds respectively … KSU won the rebound battle 36-35 … the Owls had 19 turnovers in the game, leading to 33 points for Belmont.
 
Quotes: Head Coach Amir Abdur-Rahim
On the difference between the first and second half…
"I thought there was a period of time in the first half, I want to say the score was like 22-14, where I thought both teams were playing hard. They made a couple more shots then we did, but I thought we had a chance to change our energy and play a lot harder on defense and cut a lot harder on offense. We've had a rough stretch, but for some reason we couldn't change our energy tonight, we couldn't change our enthusiasm. It's hard to do that when you're hurt, you know we're missing Antonio Spencer, missing Armani Harris so that's hard, but I thought the difference in our team in that first half compared to the second half was just a will and a want to. We talked about it, a coach can prepare you as much as they want, but I think you have a responsibility as a player to never have in question your energy or your effort. We just didn't play with the correct energy, we didn't play with the right effort and that's what happens."
 
On hard play late…
"Our biggest issue is this, we'll always have five guys that will play hard. We have to find a way to play hard collectively. Those guys that finished the game, Tyler Hooker, Terrell Burden, Pietro Agostini, Drew Romich and a mixture of C.J. Washington and Adili Kuerban, they literally played the last 13 minutes and 25 seconds. We didn't get a lot from some guys that play a lot of minutes for us and have been given a lot of freedom and a lot of responsibility as well. It's unfair to the group when everybody doesn't come with the right energy, the right effort, and you have the outcome you have tonight. I have to get back to the drawing board as the head coach, sit down with the staff and try to find ways to tweak things to get our energy better. We're literally trying to hydrate and feed them as much as we can so they have the energy, we just have to look at some other things and figure out a way to help them be better because right now we're not getting the energy and effort that we need."
 
Up Next: The Owls return to the Convocation Center for their final home non-conference game of the season, hosting Wofford Sunday afternoon at 2 p.m.