JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Jacksonville University couldn't overcome two frigid shooting snaps, one in each half, as the Dolphins fell in the final seconds, 51-50, to Kennesaw State Saturday at Veterans Memorial Arena.

The Dolphins, 7-17 and 1-6 in the Atlantic Sun Conference, ended the first half hitting only one of its last 16 field goals and had just two field goals the last 12:29 of the game yet still had a chance to win in the waning seconds.

With the Owls (7-16, 2-5) up 51-46, JU's Marcellous Bell, who scored his team's last seven points, hit a three-point shot and a free throw for a four-point play with 30.8 seconds to play.
On Kennesaw State's inbounds, the Owls broke the JU press and freshman Damien Wilson found himself alone for an apparent dunk when the Dolphins' Antwon Clayton (Eustis, Fla.) bolted toward him from half court and was able to block the attempt.

The block was one of Clayton's career high four on the afternoon.

The Dolphins brought the ball down court and missed with eight seconds to play but had another chance after Kennesaw knocked the rebound out of bounds.

The final ticks saw a missed layup and mad scrambling under the JU basket before Clayton, who had 16 rebounds, tried a deperation jumper that hit the side of the backboard as the game ended.

Clayton's 16 rebounds are the most by a Dolphins player since Marcus Allen had 18 against Campbell on Jan. 4, 2007.

"I'm frustrated for our guys because you ask them to compete and they did and on the offensive end, when you shoot the ball as poorly as we did and still give yourself a chance to win, you feel bad for your guys,'' JU coach Tony Jasick said. "We couldn't get going on the offensive end.''

The Dolphins' second half shooting woes began with 12:29 to play when Josh Adeyeye, who led the team with 12 points, connected on a three and Bell, who had 11 points for the game, was the only player to score from the field after.

"We have a couple of guys who can shoot it and when they're shooting it offensively we can look pretty good and when they're not games like this can happen,'' Jasick said. "Again, you've got to give our guys credit for continuing to compete and battle and giving themselves a chance to win.''

The Dolphins shot 27 percent from the field for the game, hitting 17 of 63 attempts.
JU used a stingy defense early in the game to create turnovers and cause a pair of shot-clock violations to get to a 10-point lead with 10:15 to play in the first half.

That happened when J.R. Holder, a sophomore from Atlanta, Ga., hit on a three pointer for an 18-8 lead. Holder had 11 for the game.

From there, however, the Dolphins went cold and were outscored 15-2 the remainder of the half.

During the dry spell, they went 6:39 without and were a paltry 1-for-16 from the floor and fell behind 23-20 at the break.

As the Dolphins shut down, they shot 26.5 percent from the floor in the half, Brown heated up and scored eight of his 10 first half points in the stretch.

Kennesaw's Yonel Brown led all scorers with 15 points; Wilson had 12 and Bernard Morena 11.

Jacksonville returns to action on Feb. 6 at North Florida.