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NEWARK, N.J. – The Kennesaw State men's basketball team dropped a defensive battle at NJIT Saturday evening, falling to the Highlanders 66-48 to close out the weekend road trip.
 
How it Happened: Tyler Hooker got the Owls (1-17, 0-5) going with a jumper on the opening possession as the two teams traded points before a Ugo Obineke trey put KSU on top 9-5 at the 13:45 mark. NJIT (6-12, 3-2) eventually pulled in front, 13-10, behind an 8-1 run halted by a fast break layup from C.J. Washington with 7:32 to play.
 
The Highlanders extended their lead behind a pair of runs, outscoring the Owls 17-4 over a five-minute span to lead 30-16 at the 2:32 mark. Jamie Lewis netted the final four points for KSU as he and Hooker combined for 13 of the Owls' 20 first half points, trailing NJIT 32-20 at the break.
 
NJIT kept the pressure on the Owls, opening the second half on a 13-2 run with Lewis netting KSU's sole bucket in the first six minutes. Adili Kuerban finally broke the drought with a three-pointer to open an 11-1 run and cut the lead to 46-33 with 8:31 left in the half.
 
After an NJIT three-pointer, the Owls and Highlanders proceeded to trade points before a 7-0 run gave NJIT a 58-37 lead with under four minutes still to play. The Owls attempted to cut the lead to single-digits, but NJIT was able to answer each bucket to keep KSU at bay and earn the win.
 
Notes: Jamie Lewis had his 20-point scoring streak snapped, but led the team with 14 points … Tyler Hooker logged 13 points to extend his double-digit streak to eight games … Hooker finished the game adding five rebounds, three assists and two steals … Bryson Lockley and Drew Romich each recorded a team-high six rebounds.
 
Quotes: Head Coach Amir Abdur-Rahim
On the team's effort...
"I thought we started out well. I thought we played the first 10 minutes with a different level of energy, a different level of effort, which is good. It's never easy going all the way from Florida to New Jersey on a one-day prep, but I thought our first 10 minutes or so were good. After that, we kind of reverted back to doing some things offensively that we haven't been working on. Our execution really just went down the toilet, to be honest with you. Part of it is that you have to be able to trust your guys to be able to execute what you want to do and we didn't do a very good job of that and in that time we started turning the ball over. It's a lot of live ball turnovers that leads to easy baskets which gave them a lot of momentum. I thought we played with a much better effort than we did obviously on Thursday night, but sustaining that effort has been our Achilles heel all year."
 
Up Next: The Owls return to the Nest next Thursday (Jan. 23) and Saturday (Jan. 25), hosting North Alabama and Jacksonville.