Women’s basketball comeback and defeat Kennesaw State
January 14, 2018
North Florida women’s basketball team (8-9 overall, 1-1 ASUN) bounced back and took out the Kennesaw State Owls (4-8 overall, 0-2 ASUN) with a second-half surge for a 77-72 victory at the UNF Arena on Jan. 13.
In the opening minutes of the first quarter, both teams struggled with early turnovers, which kept the score close.
Kennesaw State made a late 14-5 run to close out the opening quarter.
The Owls’ forwards Carlotta Gianolla and Alexis Poole scored early with 5 points each while Ospreys’ Keonna Farmer posted 8 quick points.
In the second quarter, the Ospreys struggled to keep the score close. Kennesaw State controlled the boards and dominated in the paint before capping off the half with a 12-4 run. Owls’ guard Kamiyah Street led all scorers with 16 at the half.
Coming out of the half, the Owls continued to pour on the lead before the Ospreys quelled the run. UNF buckled down defensively and capitalized off defensive turnovers. A surge from the bench, who rallied with a 14-5 run, helped complement the defense.
Tesh Hanson noticed the shift in the energy. She finished with 10 points from off the bench.
“It (the energy) wasn’t there, and I’m not an energy person,” said Hanson. “Whenever you need energy, you look for Tiffany [and] everybody else. So, I was just trying to get people going.”
In the fourth, the Ospreys surged forward with a large boost from the bench once again and held on to defeat the Owls.
Farmer had a 26-point performance while leading two other Ospreys in double figures. Street and Poole shouldered the scoring load for Kennesaw with 26 and 21 points respectively.
Head Coach Darrick Gibbs talked about what helped his team fight back and cut the lead.
“[We] got a lot generated,” Gibbs said. “A lot of turnovers, got some easy buckets, our energy picked up and that was pretty much the difference.”
North Florida ended the afternoon outscoring the Owls in the paint (44 to 34), bench points (10 to 21) and off turnovers (30 to 14) despite being outrebounded by Kennesaw (34 to 28).
The women’s basketball team will remain at home to face Lipscomb (5-11 overall, 1-1 ASUN) on Jan. 15 at 7 p.m.
