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KENNESAW, Ga. - The Kennesaw State men's basketball dropped a slugfest to the visiting North Florida Ospreys Thursday night, 76-57, to open conference play at the Convocation Center.

Bryson Lockley finished the game with his second double-double of the season, netting a career-high 23 points to go along with 11 rebounds.

How it Happened: UNF (8-8, 1-0) opened the game with a three-pointer right off the bat to which Jamie Lewis responded with a jumper for the Owls (1-13, 0-1) on the ensuing possession. The Ospreys then seized control with a 9-0 run over the next five minutes to lead 12-2 at the 13:23 mark. Terrell Burden snapped the run to open a 12-2 swing and pull the Owls level 14-14. 

The two squads traded buckets as a three-pointer from Ugo Obineke kept things knotted up, 20-20 with 7:11 to play. KSU then went cold in the final five minutes of the half as UNF out-scored the Owls 15-1 in the final minutes to lead 37-23 heading into the locker rooms.

North Florida kept the momentum going with back-to-back buckets to open the second half. KSU did not net its first bucket until the 14:52 mark of the second period, courtesy of Lockley. The jumper opened a 9-0 run for the Owls to pull within single-digits 43-34 with 13:30 still to play. 

UNF managed to pull away again behind a 9-0 run over the following two minutes. KSU attempted to chip away at the lead with another quick 6-0 run, but the Ospreys responded with a similar 8-0 run to push their lead to 20, 60-40, at the 8:12 mark. Lockley put the Owls on his shoulders, scoring KSU's next nine points, finishing with 17 points in the second half alone, but each time UNF answered on the ensuing possession. Adili Kuerban and C.J. Washington closed out the game with three-pointers to earn the final score of 76-57.

Notes: Bryson Lockley's 23 points marked the first career 20+ point game for the redshirt senior ... Pietro Agostini had his first career double-digit rebound game, finishing with a career-high 11 boards ... Ugo Obineke was the only other Owl to finish in double-figures with 11 points ... KSU recorded 16 turnovers leading to 22 points for UNF ... The Owls finished with 12 assists, their fifth double-digit assist game of the year.

Quotes: Head Coach Amir Abdur-Rahim
On the first conference game of the season...
"Every league in Division I basketball is a good league, regardless of level. Coach Driscoll has been at North Florida for 11 years, they've been to the NCAA Tournament, their culture is set and they have kids on their team who are leaders. Gandia-Rosa is a leader, Hendricksen is a leader and those other guys allow themselves to be led. I didn't come in thinking one thing or another from a standpoint of the conference, I was more disappointed in our build up to this game, our couple of days in practice coming up to this game. I'm going to always look at myself first, and I'm going to put it on me. The different things we've tried haven't worked so we have to figure out something else, but when you're trying to build a program it's an everyday thing. Right now, we don't have an everyday approach. We have probably a 10-minute on, 10-minute off approach and we're struggling with that. We have to find a way to be better and that's on me as a head coach. To be frank, some of it is where they have to come together as a group and figure out who they want to be. The game doesn't surprise me because the way we practiced the last two days, it was a microcosm of the game. So we'll go back and we'll watch the tape, we'll get prepared for Stetson and we'll come out and go at it again, because there are way too many people I think in this community and around this school who want to see us do well and they come out to support us. I don't have an issue with losing, I have an issue with not playing hard and not competing because that's not the community we are in, we are in a very blue collar community, a community that's proud of who they are and what they represent and tonight at times we didn't represent it so we have got to be better."

On Bryson Lockley's play...
"He did a great job. He was probably one of the four guys that the last two days has given us the energy and effort that we need. When you're coaching attitude and effort it's hard because you can't really focus on X's and O's or schemes or what you want to take away. That part of it is tough and we have to figure it out. It's part of what we signed up for, it's part of Division I basketball. I was happy with Bryson having some success, but again, I was telling the guys in the locker room, the great thing about Division I sports in general is that you have a conference season and no matter how the non-conference goes it's like a second chance. We didn't prepare to be successful tonight and we have to figure out a way to be successful every night."

Up Next: The Owls have a quick turnaround as they welcome Stetson to the Convocation Center Saturday afternoon at 4:30 p.m. to close out the weekend.