By: Michael Pitts
NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Two games in three days including the first road trip of the early season are on deck for Kennesaw State women's basketball, beginning Thursday night, Nov. 14 against the Belmont Bruins.
After facing Belmont, KSU returns to the Convocation Center Saturday, Nov. 16 at 5:00 p.m. against the Erskine Flying Fleet.
KSU enters this stretch after a hard-fought defeat to Utah Valley Saturday where
Keyarah Berry erupted for 20 points off the bench, joined by
Keiara Griffin who tallied her second 13-point game to begin her Owl career. Senior
Prencis Harden posted her first double-double of the new season and 12th with the Black and Gold.
Through two games, Griffin leads Conference USA with a 71.4% field goal mark.
The Bruins enter Thursday's showdown coming off a 26-win season a year ago that included a trip to the WBIT Tournament. Both games for the Owls this week will be on ESPN+.
2024-25 marks Kennesaw State's new era as a member of CUSA.
Game Information
Matchup: Kennesaw State Owls (1-1, 0-0 CUSA) at Belmont Bruins (1-1, 0-0 OVC)
Date: Thursday, Nov. 14
Time: 7:30 p.m. ET / 6:30 p.m. CT
Location: Nashville, Tenn.
Arena: Curb Event Center
ESPN+ | PxP: Dr. Rich Tiner
/ Analyst: Jenny Roy Bream
/ Courtside: Landen Secrest
Live Stats
Game Notes
Game Information
Matchup: Erskine Flying Fleet (1-0) at Kennesaw State Owls (1-1; 0-0 CUSA)
Date: Saturday, Nov. 16
Time: 5:00 p.m. ET
Location: Kennesaw, Ga.
Arena: KSU Convocation Center
ESPN+ | PxP: Jack Sadighan
/ Analyst: Brandon Johnson
Live Stats
Game Notes
Purchase Tickets
Series History
Kennesaw State will face Belmont for the 16th time in program history, with the Bruins holding an 11-4 lead. The two were league foes in the Atlantic Sun Conference before Belmont departed for the Ohio Valley Conference in 2012. The Bruins won last season's meeting in Kennesaw, 65-54. KSU is 2-4 against Belmont on the road.
Saturday marks the Owls' first-ever meeting with the Flying Fleet from Erskine.
Setting the Standard
KSU women's basketball comes off a season of achievements from its final year in the Atlantic Sun Conference in 2023-24. On Dec. 2 against Coastal Georgia, the Owls posted their fewest points allowed in a single game at 25. An 85-75 win over Bellarmine (Feb. 8) was the second-most points scored by KSU in a road DI conference win and most since Feb. 18, 2006.
The team achieved its most weekly ASUN honors since the 2014-15 campaign and the second-most weekly DI conference freshman honors in program history.
Head coach
Octavia Blue became the fastest KSU WBB head coach to 30 Division I wins and 20 DI home wins while leading the Owls to their best conference start in DI history (4-0). KSU also marked its longest DI conference regular-season win streak of six games.
Kennesaw State led the conference in double-doubles behind
Prencis Harden, who led the ASUN with 10 a season ago. KSU also paced the league in offensive rebounds per game and offensive rebound percentage. The Owls also allowed just 33.6 defensive rebounds per game, the best mark in program history, beating the mark of 34.4 set in 2003-04.
Executive Producers
Kennesaw State begins the new year returning 88.67% of its point production from last season, the second-most in CUSA behind former ASUN foe Liberty by just .05% (88.72%). KSU also returns 74.1% of its minutes-accounted-for, the third-most in CUSA behind Liberty (85.2%) and New Mexico State (77.5%).
KSU's nine returners are tied with NMSU and Liberty for the CUSA lead. The Black and Gold also bring back five student-athletes who accrued at least 10 starts last season - the second-most in the conference behind the Aggies (6).
Carly 1K
Hooks currently has with 1,058 career points, the fifth-most among active women's basketball student-athletes in Conference USA. She surpassed 1,000 career points on the road last season at North Florida (Feb. 24).
The grad led the ASUN last season with three games of 30+ points with all coming on the road. She enters 2024-25 on a five-game streak of 10+ points and has scored at least 14 in each of her last three.
The Long Road Traveled
Kennesaw State women's basketball embarks ona grueling schedule in 2024-25 with around 10,606 estimated miles of travel. The Owls will make two separate trips to the west coast, at San Jose State (Nov. 21) and Seattle (Dec. 16).
Those two games bookend a five-game road stretch that is estimated to include 6,610 miles of travel. Following shorter trips to Clemson (Dec. 1 - 137 miles) and Chattanooga (Dec. 8 - 94 miles), KSU treks to Boca Raton, Fla. to face Florida Atlantic (647 miles) then straight to Seattle (3,274 miles). At the end of this stretch, KSU will have traveled over 4,000 miles in eight days.
Inside the Roster
Captains for 2024-25 include graduate guard
Carly Hooks, senior forward
Prencis Harden and, new to the team this season, senior guard
Kionna Gaines. Blue's fourth season at the helm sees nine returners on a roster loaded with experience in addition to five newcomers with just one true freshman.
Hooks and Harden join an impressive batch of returners that include
Trynce Taylor,
Keyarah Berry,
Morgan Dillard,
Kailyn Fields,
Lee Lee Willis,
Taylor Cullinan and
Sophia Rueppell.
Kennesaw State has seven seniors/graduates on the team this season, the second-most in Conference USA.
Four of the five newcomers transferred in to KSU during the offseason with a combined 264 games played and 142 starts. Graduate forward Keiara Grffin comes from CUSA rival Jax State while Gaines enters with three seasons of experience at Clemson and Auburn. A 2024 Academic All-American, Gaby Bendeck-Giron, transfers in averaging 14.4 points per game last season at Pensacola State while
Claire Davis joins the Black and Gold from Palm Beach Atlantic with eight games of 10+ points in 2023-24. True freshman and 6'6" center
Mame Kane comes from Dakar, Senegal, as the first KSU Division I women's basketball student-athlete from the country.
Fill the Convocation Center
Season and single-game tickets are available for Kennesaw State women's basketball's first season as a member of Conference USA! A total of 14 home showdowns, including in-state clashes with Georgia State (Dec. 19) and Mercer (Dec. 30), as well as key CUSA games against MTSU (Jan. 9), Liberty (March 1) and Jax State (March 8) set the stage for an exciting season.
Click
here for more information. Admission is free for Kennesaw State University students to all 2024-25 home women's basketball games.
Stay updated with the action on the court for KSU women's basketball on X @KSUOwlsWBB, Instagram at @KSUOwlsWBB and on Facebook here.
