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KENNESAW, Ga. – Kennesaw State couldn't keep the momentum going from its big victory on Thursday night over Liberty, as with five minutes to play Queens went on a 10-0 game-changing run to spoil both the Owls' perfect home record and Senior Day in an 83-76 loss for KSU on Saturday afternoon in ASUN men's basketball action from the Convocation Center. Despite the setback, KSU (21-8 overall) will end the day still atop the league standings at 13-3, and still hold the tiebreaker for the No. 1 seed in the ASUN Tournament with two games left in the regular season.
Foul trouble was an issue for the Owls as well, as starters Brandon Stroud and Demond Robinson were limited to just 18 and 19 minutes, respectively, after picking up two fouls early in the first half and a third early in the second half. Stroud would foul out with just four points, after scoring 18 in the previous game.
STAT OF THE GAME: KSU's ability to score points off opponent turnovers has been a huge part of its identity this season, but on Saturday it was Queens (17-12, 7-9 ASUN) that took advantage of miscues. KSU turned the ball over 15 times to just nine for the visiting squad. The Royals would turn that into a 20-10 advantage on points off turnovers.
THE FIRST HALF: The Owls held the lead for the majority of the half but could never fully pull away from Queens. A 9-2 run put KSU up 16-9 on a Demond Robinson jumper, and Simeon Cottle gave the Owls their largest lead of the game, 20-12 with 9:12 to play in the stanza. A 9-1 run from the Royals tied the game at 21-21 and it was a tight battle the rest of the half, which ended in a corner trey from Chris Youngblood that put the Owls up 38-35.
THE SECOND HALF: The lead hovered between 2-6 points for the majority of the second half, and the Owls led 60-56 after an alley-oop from Brandon Stroud. Youngblood scored on an offensive putback for a 63-61 lead with 5:55 to play. KSU then went scoreless for the next two minutes while Queens exploded for 10 quick points. Back-to-back treys from Kenny Dye and BJ McLaurin put the Royals up 71-63 with 3:52 on the clock, and the Owls came no closer then seven the rest of the game.
POST-GAME QUOTES
KSU HEAD COACH AMIR-ABDUR-RAHIM
"Tough day for us obviously, but I'm going to always look at myself first and how our team gets prepared. What I would say is I needed to do a better job of getting them prepared for a game like this, after a very emotional game where we came off a high. But hats off to Queens, I thought they did a heck of a job, they played up and were shorthanded. So a ton of respect for Coach Leonard and their group. We haven't been in this position, sitting at the top of the league, with more games to go. I don't think we had a hangover from Liberty, but we may have felt the energy in the gym not at the level as Thursday, especially with the quick turnaround. And the last part, we didn't own our principals and our daily habits that we work on every day, and that's on us. People can complain about the officials, but we turned the ball over 15 times. They ended up getting 20 points off our turnovers, and they had nine offensive rebounds for 10 points. That's 30 points that we can control, and we didn't."
NOTES
- The loss snapped KSU's school-record 14-game home win streak, which was the sixth-longest streak coming into the contest.
-Youngblood led the Owls with his second-straight 20+ point game, as he finished with 21 points and eight rebounds before fouling out. Robinson scored 16 points in his 19 minutes, while Terrell Burden added 15 points, eight rebounds and seven assists.
-Queens was hot from outside, hitting 12-of-25 for 44.1%. Despite shooting over its season average, KSU was outscored by 15 from three-point land (7-of-17, 41.2%).
-KSU lost for just the fourth time this season with scoring at least 70 points.
NEXT TIME OUT: The Owls will close out the regular season on the road, starting with a Wednesday, Feb. 22 contest in Florence, Ala., against North Alabama. The game will tip at 7 p.m. and will be streamed live on ESPN+.
