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DELAND, Fla. – A big second half effort from Tyler Hooker was not enough to pull the Kennesaw State men's basketball team out of a first half hole Saturday evening as the Owls fell to Stetson in a defensive struggle 59-42.
 
How it Happened: Back-to-back treys from Adili Kuerban and Ugo Obineke put the Owls (1-24, 0-12) on top early 8-4 at the 15:36 mark. Stetson (15-12, 9-3) then managed to pull in front after rattling off a 13-1 run to lead 17-11 with nine minutes to play.
 
C.J. Washington finally snapped the Owls' drought with a three-pointer of his own, but Stetson answered with another 9-0 run to push its lead to double-figures, 26-14. Hooker and Obineke netted the only buckets for the Owls in the final five minutes of the period as the teams went into halftime with the Hatters leading 32-18.
 
Obineke led the team with seven of his 10 points scored in the first half.
 
KSU came out firing in the opening minutes of the second period, cutting the lead down to single-digits, 34-26, following a 6-0 run at the 16:37 mark. The Hatters eventually gained that separation back with an 11-3 run to give them a 48-32 lead with 8:38 to go.
 
Despite Hooker putting the team on his back in the second half, scoring 13 of KSU's 24 points, the Owls could not find a way to break through. The Hatters kept KSU at bay the rest of the way, recording the final four points of the game to earn the 59-42 victory.
 
Notes: Hooker recorded 13 of his 16 points in the second half while leading the team with four assists … Ugo Obineke was second on the team with 10 points followed by Adili Kuerban with seven … Bryson Lockley had his fourth straight game with five or more rebounds, finishing with a team-high seven while adding two assists … Stetson outscored KSU 38-16 in the paint, 22-6 alone in the first half.
 
Quotes: Head Coach Amir Abdur-Rahim
On the game's takeaways…
"I'm proud of our guys' effort for 40 minutes. I thought we played hard and competed defensively which is not an easy thing for them to do right now based on our record. We are doing some really good things on both ends of the floor and as long as we clean up our turnovers and continue to prepare like we have we will remain competitive and break through."
 
On the offensive struggles…
"Offensively we did a poor job of taking care of the ball. 16 turnovers on the road is a recipe for disaster. We started the game out well executing and sharing the ball, but we relaxed and got careless which took us out of rhythm, and we could never get it back. We got open looks from three and in the paint and just weren't able to put them in the hole."
 
Up Next: The Owls close out their final road trip of the year at North Alabama Thursday (Feb. 20) followed by Jacksonville Saturday (Feb. 22).