JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The Jacksonville men's basketball team fell 83-79 in a nailbiter against the Kennesaw State Owls.
 
19 lead changes and seven ties set the scene for an intense matchup between Jacksonville, (10-9, 1-4 ASUN) and KSU. Four Dolphins scored in double figures, but it was the Owls who were able to escape with the narrow victory.

It was the afternoon of Jacksonville's Hall of Fame induction ceremony as well as Alumni Day at the game, and Swisher was packed with Dolphins of all ages to cheer for JU.
The visiting Owl's entered the game with the highest scoring offense in the Atlantic Sun, and the 18^th overall nationwide, scoring 84.3 points per game.
 
Jacksonville in the first half saw contributions across the floor from every player who played as all seven recorded points and six of the seven had at least one rebound. DeeJuan Pruitt and Gyasi Powell had seven points a piece and Marcus Niblack was two-for-two from deep, which is just the second game this season where the shifty guard has scored more than one, and he did it just in the first half.

Early on, the Owls had answers for everything the Dolphins had to offer, which included a 24-19 lead with nine minutes to play in the half. Demond Robinson, who is in the top 20 for points scored in conference play thus far, had nine of those points and was good from range and down low. JU tightened up the lanes and closed down on the perimeter as the half wore on, and Robinson was unable to find the hoop for the remainder of the half.

From the 8:54 mark and on in the half, it was all JU. Powell led the charge with five points in that span, that included a late bucket which proved to be the last of the half. Pruitt was just behind with four as the grad student was proving efficient on both sides of the court with his added two blocks and two boards. At the break, Jacksonville earned a 37-32 advantage.

Both sides came out swinging in the early parts of the second half, but it was Powell who came out unconscious from deep. While Kennesaw State answered a couple times, the redshirt junior went three-for-three from deep in just one minute's time, which forced an Owls timeout. Kennesaw State came out of its timeout with a triple and a double, that Powell matched, but the JU lead at the time was just two at 50-48.

Simeon Cottle of KSU, who had started the game 0-5, began to heat up from deep as he hit four consecutive threes to start the half, and Kennesaw State took the lead, 55-51, for the first time since the first half.

Niblack, who knew his team needed a spark, provided just that with 11 minutes to play when he took a pass from out wide and rose head level to at the rim, above flailing KSU hands, and slammed it down to the roar of the Swisher crowd. Jarius Cook and Stephon Payne III then provided some more offense, but KSU continued to answer as the game was tied at 69 with 5:22 to play.

The Owls over the course of the next two minutes hit three straight layups, with McCray sinking a pair of free throws in the middle, but KSU was up four with just over three minutes to play.

Kennessaw State then took advantage of its free throws and some misses by the JU offense to escape with the narrow 83-79 win.

WHAT THEY SAID
 

UP NEXT
The Dolphins return to the court on the road next week with a trip to Kentucky in store. The first of the two-game road trip is scheduled for Thursday, January 25 against the conference leading Eastern Kentucky Colonels. Tipoff is slated for 7 PM and the game can be streamed on ESPN+.
 
NUMBERS YOU SHOULD KNOW

• Gyasi Powell recorded 20 points and led the team in scoring. It's his second consecutive game where he set a career-high in points.
• Robert McCray V's 17 points was the 10^th game this season where he's recorded at least 15 points.
• Donovan Rivers set a new career high in blocks with three. 
• Today's contest was the first the Dolphins recorded 10 made three pointers in a game since December 2 against Georgia Southern