MURFREESBORO, Tenn. — Kennesaw State women's basketball fell to Middle Tennessee 71-53 on Saturday night at the Murphy Center.
First Half
KSU shot 50% from the field in the first quarter as it traded buckets early with MTSU.
Keyarah Berry and
Trynce Taylor opened the scoring for the Owls while
TaTianna Stovall added a score in the post for an 8-8 game.
Stovall continued to make plays in the first with a jumper, followed quickly by a steal-turned
Shania Nichols' lay-in. After another driving score by Berry, KSU exited the quarter down 20-14.
The Blue Raiders took advantage of a five-minute Owl scoring drought and used a 14-2 second-quarter run to go up 39-22 at the half. MTSU edged KSU 46-44% in first-half shooting, but the Owls were unable to keep up with the Blue Raiders' seven 3-pointers and eight free throws while empty in both scoring categories.
Second Half
KSU was unable to cut the MTSU lead under 15 in the third quarter. Nichols scored six points in the third with
Kailyn Fields, Taylor and Stovall adding buckets too as the Owls went into the fourth down 53-34.
KSU outscored the Blue Raiders 19-18 in the fourth on 8-of-12 shooting. The Owl defense held MTSU to 6-of-14, but couldn't overcome a game-high 23-point deficit early in the period.
Latazia Williamson scored 12 of her 14 points in the fourth quarter on 5-of-6 from the field.
Game Notes
- Taylor and Williamson led the Owls with 15 and 14 points, respectively. Taylor's 15 came on 7-of-11 from the field with six rebounds. Williamson went 6-of-9 from the field for 14 with six boards.
- KSU finished the game shooting 49% from the field to MTSU's 43. Free throw and 3-point shooting swayed the game in the Blue Raiders' favor. MTSU went 14-of-16 from the charity stripe to KSU's 6-of-8. The Owls' 1-of-8 from beyond the arc couldn't keep pace with the Blue Raiders' 11-of-25.
- In an 18-point game, 20 KSU turnovers yielded 18 MTSU points.
- With two blocks on Saturday for 33 on the season, Stovall surpassed Jasmine McAllister (2014-15) for seventh at KSU in Division I-era (2005-pres.) single-season blocks.
- Berry played in her 111th career game on Saturday, surpassing Carlotta Gianolla (2016-20) and Alexis Poole (2017-22) for eighth at KSU in DI-era career games played.
Head Coach Octavia Blue Postgame
On the difficulty of winning on the road in Conference USA
"It's a competitive league, it's tough. You have to be mentally tough and physically tough to be able to pull off back-to-back wins on the road. That's a tall task. In our league, the elite teams are able to do that. Everybody has the same type of schedule, so we have to have the mental toughness to be able to rally and compete and perform at a high level. The schedule is set. It is what it is, and we've got to be able to show up."
"We can't get deflated. We have to continue to compete. That's what we practice for. It's February. It's the time of year when we should get stronger and learn how to fight through adversity on the road. This is going to be an ongoing thing for us, to learn how to do that."
On the challenge of stopping MTSU's offense
"They did what great teams do. We had a game plan to get the ball out of Blair Baugus's hand. She had 25 points the last time we played them. Today, we had coverages and didn't communicate and execute well out of those coverages. When we didn't sprint out of the double teams and traps on Baugus, they made us pay. We were stopping Baugus, but other players were stepping up. That's what good teams do."
Next Time Out
The Owls return home to face Sam Houston at Vystar Arena on Feb. 19 at 7 p.m. Watch KSU face the Bearkats on
ESPN+.
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