Kennesaw State men’s basketball earns home win over Jacksonville

By E. Marcel Pourtout, Editor

Behind a game-high 29 points and seven three-pointers from Yonel Brown, The Kennesaw State men’s basketball team continued their winning ways with a 78-65 home win over Jacksonville at the Convocation Center on Thursday night. It was the Owls’ third win in their last four contests.

Brown also had a team-high seven rebounds for Kennesaw State (9-17, 3-6 Atlantic Sun). Nigel Pruitt scored 19 points while Bernard Morena and Willy Kouassi each had eight points.

“We’re having different guys step up at different times,” Owls’ head coach Jimmy Lallathin said. “Yonel has always been a consistent guy. Nigel is our x-factor. When he has a good game, we’re in a good situation We keep finding different sparks from guys and that’s a big thing.”

Jacksonville(7-19, 1-8 Atlantic Sun) jumped out to a 26-19 lead with less than seven minutes left in the first half. However, behind baskets from Nick Masterson, Kouassi and Brown, Kennesaw State went on a 12-5 run to take a 31-29 lead at the 2:40 mark of the first half Both teams exchanged baskets to end the half and the score was tied at 35-35 heading into the locker room.

Bernard Morena, Brown and Masterson each had a team-high eight points at halftime as the Owls shot 46.9 percent from the floor.

Kori Babineaux scored a game-high 11 first-half points for the Dolphins who shot 45.2 percent from the field. He finished the game with a team-high 19 points.

With the score tied at 51-51 at the 10:45 mark of the second half, Kennesaw State proceeded to go on a 8-2 run, paced by two three-pointers from Brown to take a 59-53 lead with less than eight minutes left.

A putback layup by Pruitt increased the Owls’ lead to 68-58 with 3:20 left in the game to seal the victory.