Dolphins late rally falls short against Kennesaw State

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – 15 steals by Jacksonville University (13-9, 1-4 ASUN) and 20 turnovers by Kennesaw State (8-13, 2-3 ASUN) weren't enough for the Dolphins Saturday against the Owls; Kennesaw defeated Jacksonville 81-71 at Historic Swisher Gym.

Kennesaw started the second half with a 9-2 run, increasing its lead to 25 points, 52-27, with 17:53 remaining. The Dolphins called a timeout, and Jasick got his players locked in. Over the next 10 minutes JU outscored Kennesaw 23-10, pulling within 12 points, 62-50. The run was fueled by four steals from J.R. Holder and Darien Fernandez, as well as 16 second-half points from Holder. The final eight minutes were incredibly close; JU outscored Kennesaw 21-19, and came as close as seven points, 73-66, with just over two minutes remaining. But the Owls closed the game with six free throws in a row, escaping with an 81-71 win over Jacksonville.

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"We've got to continue to improve our effort and energy on both ends,” said Dolphins head coach Tony Jasick. “Give credit to Kennesaw; they made a ton of shots to create the separation in the first half. We weren't able to recover fully from that, but to our guys' credit I thought we competed coming out of the locker room and we made it a game late. We just couldn't make enough plays offensively and defensively late to give us a chance.”