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KENNESAW, Ga. – The Kennesaw State men's basketball team fell on their return trip to the Convocation Center Thursday night as the visiting Lions of North Alabama got hot from the three-point line to down KSU 78-58.
 
How it Happened: After the Owls (1-18, 0-6) and Lions (9-11, 4-3) traded buckets to open the game, UNA drained its first of nine three-pointers in the first half to open a 17-2 run that spanned eight minutes. Bryson Lockley netted both of KSU's buckets in the opening 10 minutes before an and-1 from Ugo Obineke made it 19-7 with 9:37 to play.
 
The two squads traded buckets, but four straight treys pushed UNA's lead to over 20 points, 37-13, with five minutes left in the half. Tyler Hooker and Antonio Spencer combined to score all of the Owls points in the final few minutes, each recording five points, as KSU went into the locker room trailing 47-23.
 
UNA finished the first half shooting 56.3 percent from beyond the arc.
 
Both teams locked down defensively to open the second period with the Owls and Lions scoring only one basket each over the first five minutes. With only two more buckets each over the next four minutes, Hooker finally broke the drought with an and-1 at the 11:15 mark. He went on to sink a three-pointer on the following possession, followed by a triple from Obineke to cap off a quick 10-2 swing to make it 62-39 at the 8:54 mark.
 
KSU closed out the game on a 15-3 run over the final four minutes, but could not climb out of the hole, falling to the Lions 78-58. The Owls picked up their perimeter defense in the second half, holding North Alabama to 0-of-7 from the three-point line in the period.
 
Notes: Three Owls finished the game in double-figures led by Tyler Hooker with 12, followed by C.J. Washington and Ugo Obineke with 11 and 10, respectively … Hooker also led the team with five rebounds and three steals to tie his season-high.
 
Quotes: Head Coach Amir Abdur-Rahim
On difference between first and second half…
"I was happy about how we came out in the second half, not only on the defensive end, but on the offensive end. Coach Pujol has done a great job with his group of getting them to compete and play hard and we told the guys that's what it was going to be. In the first half, they kind of put their mark on the game, made it their identity and their type of game. In the second half, I thought we exceeded that and that's why we were able to outscore them in the second half and that's why we were able to hold them to a lower percentage from the two and the three."
 
On takeaways from the game…
"I think we took away from it in that second half when we compete and do the things that we train on every day we are pretty good, we are able to play with just about anyone. We showed that earlier in the year and then you go through some injuries and you have to kind of reconstruct your group in a sense. The thing we took away, the thing we just talked about was coming in tomorrow collectively for practice, being good collectively so that we can carry it over to the game the next day."
 
Feelings going into Saturday's game…
"I feel great. It's life, things happen. It's about how you respond so I'm not going to hang my head for a second about this game. I'm going to go home tonight, I'm going to get something to eat, I'm going to watch film until probably one in the morning, figure out what we did wrong tonight, I've already started watching film on Jacksonville, figure out what we need to do to be successful against them and come back in and get ready to go to work. That's the thing we are trying to teach these guys more than anything. Things are going to happen and it's about how you respond and what type of resolve you have and how well you persevere."
 
 Up Next: The Owls close out their homestand Saturday hosting Jacksonville at 4:30 p.m.