Wells, Sawyers Lift Owls to 65-60 Win Over Murray State

Release from Kennesaw State Athletics:

The Kennesaw State women’s basketball earned its third-straight victory with a gutsy 65-60 come-from-behind win over Murray State on Saturday afternoon (Dec. 6) at the KSU Convocation Center.

“I just thought it was a gutsy victory and it showed a lot of character and heart,” said head coach Nitra Perry. “These two guys [Kristina Wells and Deandrea Sawyers] have been playing really well and playing really hard. I think they set the tempo early on when the first half was not going well. Deandrea was holding it down on offense and Kristina has been guarding the toughest offensive player on the other team all year and she just brought it today with a double-double.”

With the win, the Owls improve to 6-2 on the season and have equaled their win total from last season in just eight games in 2014-15.

Senior Kristina Wells continued where she left off on Wednesday at Georgia State and earned her first double-double of the season with 15 points, including a 4-of-9 mark from the field and a perfect 7-of-7 from the free throw line, to go with 14 rebounds, while sophomore Deandrea Sawyers poured in a team-high 17 points on 7-of-12 shooting, including hitting 3-of-4 from behind the arc.

Playing their first game at home in over three weeks, the Owls came out fast as Sawyers scored KSU’s first five points en route to the a 9-3 lead with 12:33 remaining in the first half.

The Racers (3-6) quickly answered with the next six points to even the score at 9-9, before back-to-back jumpers pushed the Owl lead back to four at 13-9.

MSU then responded with a 9-4 mini run to take its first lead of the game at 18-17 with just under five minutes remaining in the half. Both teams traded the lead back-and-forth, before the Racers ended the half with four-straight points to take a 25-22 advantage into the break.

Out of intermission, the Racers built their largest lead of the game at 44-37 with just over eight minutes left on the clock.

Trailing by seven late in the game, freshman Tianna Germain entered the action and promptly rattled off seven points to propel the Owls on a 13-0 run over the next three and a half minutes to build a 50-44 lead with five minutes left in the contest.

Leading by its largest margin of the game at 59-48, the Owls were not of danger yet as the Racers cut the KSU lead to 61-57 with 30 seconds remaining following a 9-2 run. Free throws from junior Karly Frye and Wells then sealed the 65-60 win for the Owls.

Junior Jasmine McAllister registered her fifth double-double of the season with 10 points and 12 rebounds, while sophomore Aareon Smith added her third double figure outing of the year with 10 points, going 5-of-10 from the field.

Frye and Sawyers led the team with three assists each, while Wells also added three steals and two blocks in the win.

As a team, the Owls shot 36.6 percent from the field, but turned in a 47.1 percent performance in the second half.

KSU outrebounded the Racers, 48-43, including pulling down 18 offensive boards, which turned into nine second chance points for the home team.

The Owls capitalized on 10 MSU turnovers for 18 points.

The Racers were led by Olivia Cunningham with a game-high 18 points, while Netanya Jackson had 16 points and 15 rebounds in the loss.