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BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Kennesaw State (8-5) came to play on Friday night, jumping out to a seven-point advantage in the first half and holding the lead for the majority of the opening 32 minutes, before 18
th-ranked Indiana (10-3) found its stroke from outside to go ahead on the way to a win in a contest that was much closer than the final score of 69-55 in front of a Assembly Hall crowd of 12,978.
THE FIRST HALF: KSU did not make a two-point field goal until over 12 minutes into the game, but that was perfectly fine with the Owls as they connected on five of their first nine attempts from three-point range. The three-point barrage started with a pair of
Kasen Jennings treys to give KSU a 6-4 edge. The Owls would later use a 9-0 run on three straight threes from
Simeon Cottle,
Quincy Ademokoya and
Spencer Rodgers to go up 15-9 with 10:54 left in the opening half. KSU answered every Hoosier run with a basket, while
Chris Youngblood drained a trey for the Owls' largest lead of the night, 22-15 at the 5:37 mark. Indiana then reeled off 12 of the next 15 points to go up 27-25, before
Brandon Stroud drained a jumper to knot the score at 27-27 going into the halftime break. This was just the third time all season the Hoosiers had been held under 30 points in the first half.
THE SECOND HALF: After scoring just 27 points in the first 20 minutes, the Hoosiers scored seven in the first two minutes of the second for a five-point edge. KSU countered back with eight unanswered, part of an 11-2 run that put the Owls up 40-36 off a three-pointer from Cottle at the 12:25 mark.
THE TURNING POINT: Tamar Bates then took the game over for Indiana, as he drained three shots from three-point range over the next three minutes. That sparked a 13-3 run for the Hoosier to put them up 49-43 with under nine minutes to play. The Owls kept battling, closing within four three times, the last at 55-51 with 5:42 on the clock. Indiana would close out the game on a 14-4 run.
STAT OF THE GAME: The Hoosiers shot 50% (23-of-46) for the game, including 56.5% from the floor and 45.5% from three-point range in the second half. The Owls meanwhile were limited to just 32.7% (18-of-55) for the night from the field.
QUOTEABLE: "Coming into a Big Ten environment, in historic Assembly Hall and playing against a well-coached and talented Indiana team, I was really proud of our guys tonight. To be tied at halftime, to lead a good bit of the game, we played hard tonight. We just didn't make some shots we normally make, and that was part of it. But I was proud of our effort, we just needed to clean a few details up. Our connection in the first half on the defensive end of the court was great. We were tough and physical and did a real good job of limiting them to just one shot, and that was big with us playing with four guards and just one big. We guarded in the first half to our expectations, the second half we had some miscues and miscommunications that led to some open shots, while Tamar Bates really established himself for Indiana in the second. But for us, since he's been starting,
Kasen Jennings he's been as consistent as anyone. He continues to get better, and he's been the first guy to the gym almost every time after the good games he's had. We need him to continue to play that way going into ASUN play. Now, we'll go back and study this film but my message to the guys was we played nine of our 13 non-conference games on the road, and some of that was by design. To win a championship, you have to win on the road, and we learned we can compete and win on the road. Now we just have to continue to treat every day as a chance to get better as we get ready for our conference opener."
Head Coach Amir Abdur-Rahim
NOTES
-This was the Owls' first game against a ranked opponent since Dec. 2, 2020.
-KSU, one of the top three-point shooting squads in the nation, finished the night hitting 10-of-25 for 40%.
-Jennings paced KSU with 11 points.
Demond Robinson and
Terrell Burden both added nine each, while Cottle added eight off the bench.
-After losing the rebound battle in the first half by just one (19-18), KSU was outrebounded 21-10 in the second stanza.
NEXT TIME OUT: The Owls break for the Christmas holidays before returning to action with their ASUN conference opener on Saturday, Dec. 31 at 2 pm in the Convocation Center against Central Arkansas
