Owls hold off Bisons to reach ASUN title game
Kennesaw State drained three straight 3-pointers deep into the shot clock — including what may have been the biggest shot in the program’s Division I history — to hold off Lipscomb 80-71 in the semifinals of the ASUN tournament Thursday at the KSU Convocation Center.
Now, the top-seeded Owls (25-8) will play for a conference championship for the first time as a D-I program. They will get a rematch with regular season co-champion Liberty for a 3 p.m. tip Sunday at the KSU Convocation Center, with the winner earning the automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament.
The ESPN2 broadcast will be the team’s first home game on national TV.
“It’s going to be two really good basketball teams who will lay it on the line,” Kennesaw State coach Amir Abdur-Rahim said.
That is the same thing that could have been said about Thursday’s game between the Owls and fifth-seeded Lipscomb (20-13).
After trailing by as many as 16 points in the first half, the Bisons used a 12-0 to pull within 59-57 with 7:08 to play. The teams then began trading baskets, and Kennesaw State’s lead was 68-65 when Terrell Burden dribbled through the lane and back out to the top of the key.
With the shot clock running down, the Lipscomb defense suddenly sagged and allowed the former Campbell High School standout to take an uncontested 3 with only 2 seconds left on the shot clock. It was his third 3 of the game and pushed the lead to 71-65.
After a three-point play by Jacob Ognacevic, who led Lipscomb with 26 points, Kennesaw State had the ball out in front of its bench with 7 seconds left on the shot clock. Burden got the ball, crossed the lane and found a wide-open Brandon Stroud.
Stroud, who finished with 17 points and nine rebounds, took the open 3, again with
2 seconds left on the shot clock. The made basket pushed the lead to six again, which lasted for 10 seconds. Lipscomb hurried the ball up the floor and found Will Pruett in the corner for a 3 of his own to cut the lead back to 74-71.
Chris Youngblood came into the game as Kennesaw State’s leading scorer, but he was having a tough night. He was only 1-of-7 from the field to that point and had not scored in the second half. Despite that, the junior was convinced his shot was feeling good, they just weren’t falling.
With the shot clock running down, Kasen Jennings drove into the lane and tried to toss an alley-oop pass to Demond Robinson. Instead, the ball was tipped out toward the Kennesaw State bench. Youngblood got the ball and, in one motion, turned and let a 3-pointer go from nearly 35 feet.
“I was under the basket and was set to get the rebound,” Stroud said, “but I’m looking at it and it looked good.”
Burden had a look from the other angle from the top of the key.
“Earlier in the half, we talked,” Burden said. “I told him, just keep shooting (those 3s). I’m glad that was the one.”
Youngblood had let the shot go just in front of Abdur-Rahim, who, for just a second, allowed himself to be a fan.
“I was Mike Breen Jr.,” he said, referencing the catchphrase of the lead play-byplay man for NBA games on ABC and ESPN. “I gave him two bangs — ‘bang, bang.’”
Abdur-Rahim said while the tip coming to Youngblood may have been fortunate, the result was because of a lot of hard work.
“Luck comes from being in the right place at the right time plus preparation,” the coach said.
Youngblood said he saw the action unfold in front of him and did everything he could to be ready.
“I looked at the shot clock down there (on the opposite
side of the court), and I saw 3 seconds, so I knew I had to get rid of it fast,” he said. “I got my feet ready and the shot felt good.”
The ball went through the net as the shot clock hit zero. It put Kennesaw State up 7771 with 1:02 to play, and in turn, finally broke the momentum Lipscomb seemed to have been building in the frenetic finish.
“I’m a big Kennesaw State fan except for tonight,” said Lipscomb coach Lennie Acuff, who has been a mentor to Abdur-Rahim and got his coaching start under late Owls coach Tony Ingle when the two were at AlabamaHuntsville in the 1990s. “I love Youngblood, but I don’t know about that shot...”
Kennesaw State, facing one of the best defenses in the ASUN, shot 51.8% (29of-53) from the floor, 56% (14-of-25) in the second half and 44% (11-of-25) from 3.
The Owls jumped out on Lipscomb with a 17-4 run over the first 6½ minutes, which included eight points by Stroud and five by Burden, who finished with a team-high 20 points, six rebounds and seven assists.
Acuff said the opening salvo was one of the main reasons the Owls came away with the victory.
“They got after us and hit us in the mouth,” he said. “It’s going to be a great game in here on Sunday.”
Kennesaw State built its biggest lead of the game at 38-22 with 1:23 left in the first half, but Lipscomb got backto-back 3-pointers from Matthew Schner — who finished with 18 points — to cut the deficit to 38-28 at the half.
The Bisons shot 53.1% (17of-53) in the second half to get back in the game, but they only shot 40.9% (27-of-66) for the game, including 26.1% (6-of-23) from behind the arc.
“I thought we were pretty darn good on defense when we needed to be,” AbdurRahim said.
Quincy Clark added 12 points for Lipscomb, while Alex Peterson finished with 10 points on 4-of-4 shooting, for Kennesaw State.