Kennesaw State rolls to third straight win over rival Georgia State

The Kennesaw State crowd was already in a good mood when it showed up for basketball on Saturday. It was even better by the end of the afternoon.

There was a great deal of euphoria among the fans after the school’s football team won the Conference USA title on Friday, and the crowd of 3,064 responded with a lengthy standing ovation when coach Jerry Mack and a dozen of the players came out with the big silver trophy during an early timeout.

Meanwhile, the Kennesaw State basketball team reinforced the idea that it can also contend for a conference championship based on the way it rolled past in-state rival Georgia State, 92-69.

It was the third straight win for the Owls (7-2) and their third consecutive victory over Georgia State. The Panthers (1-9) have lost six in row.

“The athletic program as a whole is doing some amazing things,” Kennesaw State coach Antoine Pettway said, adding that his house was “going bananas” while watching the football game. “I felt it when we walked in, it’s a sense of pride.”

The outcome was determined early when KSU used an 11-0 run to take a 32-13 lead with 6:39 left in the first half. Georgia State fought to cut the margin to 10 points (36-26), but scored only two more points before halftime and trailed 43-28.

It was a coming-out party for KSU freshman Amir Taylor, a sturdy 6-foot-9 freshman who was starting his second straight game. The Grayson High School graduate finished with 18 points and 12 rebounds, both career highs, and his first double-double.

“I’ve just got something against Georgia State, so I feel like I had to go out there and play,” said Taylor, who would not disclose the reason for his animus.

The Owls also got 15 points from Braeden Lue, 13 from Darius Washington III and 12 each from Ramone Seals and Kaden Rickard. They scored 90 points for the sixth time in nine games.

“I thought our guys stepped up to the table and played really well tonight,” Pettway said. “We held them to 27% (shooting), and that was a major focus going into the game. We really wanted to guard them and take them out of what they wanted to run.”

Kennesaw State also outrebounded Georgia State 50-38 and scored 38 points in the paint.

The Panthers got top scorer Jelani Hamilton back in the lineup after he’d missed three games with a hamstring issue. Hamilton wasn’t back to 100% and scored seven points in 16 minutes.