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KENNESAW, Ga. - The Kennesaw State men's basketball team brought the fight but came up just short Saturday evening on Pink Night, falling 71-66 against the Lipscomb Bisons at the Convocation Center. 
 
How it Happened: After the Bisons (10-14, 5-6) opened the game on a 7-2 run over the first four minutes, the Owls (1-22, 0-10) stormed back on a run of their own, sparked by a Tyler Hooker three-pointer, to tie the game at 14-14 midway through the first half. Antonio Spencer then notched a back-to-back buckets followed by a rebound that led to a Hooker fast-break to give the Owls a 21-17 advantage.
 
The Owls switched to a high press early in the game and were able to hold the Bisons at bay defensively, forcing eight turnovers, as the two teams battled back-and-forth. Hooker hit double-digits with a fast-break layup at the 3:52 mark to put the Owls up 23-20. 
 
Adili Kuerban knocked down a three-pointer with just four seconds left in the half to ensure the Owls carried a 30-25 lead into the locker room. Hooker had 10 points at the half while Spencer recorded nine rebounds before the break. 
 
The Bisons came out after the half much like they did the first half, going on an 18-8 run to swing a five-point lead in their favor, 43-38 with just over 12 minutes remaining. The Owls battled back to take the lead 44-43 thanks to a great move by Ugo Obineke at the 10:45 mark to cap off a quick 6-0 run.
 
Lipscomb center Ahsan Asadullah then scored on four of the Bisons next five possessions to reclaim the lead 54-48. Asadullah exploded for 24 points in the second half, leading all scorers with 27 points while also racking up 9 rebounds. 
 
Down 57-50, Bryson Lockley then C.J. Washington stepped up with back-to-back three-point plays to make it a one-point game with less than four minutes to go. Lipscomb managed to keep the Owls' comeback at bay, matching KSU shot-for-shot before two buckets by Asadullah and four straight free throws put the Bisons on top 69-62 with 38 seconds on the clock.
 
Notes: Bryson Lockley notched his third double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds … Tyler Hooker led the Owls with 18 points, adding three assists and two steals … Antonio Spencer tied his career-high with nine rebounds … Ugo Obineke was the third Owl in double-figures with 12 points … Lipscomb shot 60.7 percent in the second half compared to 46.7 for the Owls … there were a total of 8 lead changes and 7 ties throughout the game.
 
Quotes: Head Coach Amir Abdur-Rahim
On tonight's effort…
"I was really pleased with their effort over the course of the game. I thought we had a chance to take real control of the game to start the second half. We got an easy basket, which they did a god job of executing, but we didn't come out with the same fire on the defensive end and let them hang around. That was as close of a consistent game, a complete game, that we've played in a long time. Really proud of their effort, really proud of their competitiveness, we just have to clean up a few small things up. The free throw line in the second half killed us and not using the backboard on our layups killed us."
 
On showing up and competing…
"The thing that we talked about more than anything before the game is that nobody's worried about the win-loss record. I think what people want to see is what is your character going to be, and we challenged them on that. What are people going to see tonight? They're not worried about 1-22 or 1-23, they want to know are you going to continue to compete, are you going to continue to play hard, continue to represent yourself and the university. And to our guys credit, I sent the tweet out probably five days ago and it just said I'm really proud of these guys because they continue to show up. That's not easy to do, but this is life. You're going to have ups and downs, you're going to have big time valleys sometimes and you've got to be able to be the same person, approach it the same way and work diligently because when you get to that peak it's going to be that much better. So, I'm really proud of the character they showed tonight, the fight they showed. I told them after the game we have nothing to hang our heads about and the big question is going to be on Monday can we come back in and prepare next week like we did this week for FGCU and to go on the road at Stetson. We'll see who we are, we'll see where our character is."
 
Up Next: The Owls close out their homestand Thursday (Feb. 13) hosting FGCU at 7 p.m.