KSU Postgame Press Conference | Queens Postgame Press Conference
Updated ASUN Bracket | KSU ASUN Tournament Central
Follow KSU Men's Basketball - Twitter | Instagram
KENNESAW, Ga. – Senior
Demond Robinson scored a career-high 24 points, and No. 1 seed Kennesaw State survived a last-second attempt from upset minded Queens to advance to the semifinals of the ASUN Men's Basketball Tournament for the first time in six years with a 67-66 victory Tuesday night in a quarterfinal contest from the Convocation Center. The Owls moved to 24-8 overall with the victory, and will now host fifth-seed Lipscomb on Thursday at 7 p.m. in a game streamed live on ESPN+. The ninth-seeded Royals finished their season at 18-15.
With the game tied at 60-60 with 3:30 to play, the Owls scored six of the next seven points for a five-point lead with 58 seconds on the clock. KSU however would miss five of its next six free throw attempts and Queens hit a three-point to make it a 67-66 game with four seconds to play. KSU was fouled and again missed both free throw attempts, but the last second attempt by the Royals was off the mark.
OWL OF THE GAME: Robinson took over for the Owls on offense, establishing himself deep in the post to score KSU's first two baskets of the night. He would finish with 9-of-11 shooting for 24 points, topping his previous career-high of 22, while he also added six rebounds. His 24 points is tied for the sixth-most ever scored by an Owl in an ASUN tournament game.
STAT OF THE GAME: KSU held Queens to just one made field goal over the final 5:14 of the second half.
THE FIRST HALF: KSU had a fast start to the game with an 8-0 lead thanks to a trey from
Chris Youngblood. Queens responded with a 13-2 run of its own, going up 17-12 with 11:52 to play in the half. The edge grew as high as seven twice in the half for the visitors, and at five, 29-24 with 21 seconds left. Robinson hit a jumper at the buzzer that hung on the rim for a second before falling in to bring KSU within 29-26.
THE SECOND HALF: Robinson opened the half with a layup to start a 13-3 run for KSU, while he capped the run with another layup for a 37-30 Owl lead. There would be five lead changes and seven ties following that, and Queens took a 59-58 edge on a free throw with 4:34 to play. The game was tied again at 60-60, before Youngblood drained a short jumper and Burden followed with a layup for a 64-60 lead with 1:43 on the clock.
POST-GAME QUOTES
KSU HEAD COACH AMIR-ABDUR-RAHIM
Opening comments -
"First off I want to take my hat off to Queens. My goodness, those guys are warriors, every game we've played against them this year, it's been like that. The culture they have there in their program, its one we admire. On the flip side of that, I'm the luckiest coach in America, I really am. I've got 16 guys in that locker room who allowed me to coach them, who allow me to push them. Because they allow me to do that, we're able to battle and fight out wins like tonight."
On the tough challenge from Queens -
"They remind me of who we were, and who we are. They play with an unbelievable chip on their shoulder. I remember when I was a small conference player, and I remember going to play the bigger teams and I wanted to prove I could play against those guys. Those guys have had success, they have played in Sweet 16s, Elite Eights, and D2, NAIA, those guys can play. Basketball is basketball. They pose a different challenge to us because like us they play four guards, and sometimes it's like playing five guards, so our communication needs to be good but this game could have gone either way. If we make a few more free throws maybe it's not as close, if they make a few more free throws, maybe we're not playing again on Thursday.
SENIOR TERRELL BURDEN
On the last few minutes -
"We talked about defense and consistently putting together stops from pretty much the 5:45 mark. Connection, talking, and rebounding, and finishing possessions."
On being the hunted instead of the hunter-
"It doesn't really feel different but we know the target is on our back now. Before we were fighting for respect, now we know we have people's respect and we have to keep working hard to stay at that level."
On getting a tight win in front of the home court
"It feels pretty good, the crowd was great tonight even though we had times when we weren't at our best, it feels pretty good to get any kind of we can get though."
SENIOR DEMOND ROBINSON
On when he realized he would be a focus for the offensive gameplan –
"I realized that when I woke up. I was just focused, was ready all day, my mind was on this game."
On Queens giving KSU a tough battle the past two games –
"Queens is pretty good on offense and defense. We focused on us, not on what Queens did, but on what we did and how can we stay in our culture and brotherhood and lift each other, if we've tired how can we lean on each other."
NOTES
-KSU's 24
th victory of the season extends the school record (Division I era) for most wins in a season, as the previous record was 14 in 2016-17. It also surpasses the Owls' total wins from the previous three seasons combined (19).
-KSU advances to the ASUN semifinals for the first time since 2017, and just the third time ever. The Owls are 0-2 all-time in the semifinals, but this will be the first time KSU is the higher seed.
-KSU won while trailing at the half for the fourth time this season (4-3 when trailing at halftime).
-
Brandon Stroud tied a school ASUN tournament record with four blocks in the game.
-Four Owls finished in double-figures, as Youngblood posted 12 points, while Burden and Stroud both added 10 each.
-KSU shot 47.2% in the game from the floor (25-of-53), but struggled from three-point range (4-of-19), and made just 13-of-26 at the free throw line.
