Men's Basketball leads wire-to-wire in Victory over Owls

Sunday, November 24

Kennesaw, Ga.

2 p.m.

Purdue Fort Wayne

5-2

Kennesaw State

2-5

IPFW

Kennesaw State

Photo by: Lucas Carter

Men's Basketball leads wire-to-wire in Victory over Owls

11/24/2013 3:38:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score

BOX SCORE | BOX SCORE (.pdf) | BOX SCORE (.html)

KENNESAW, Ga. - The IPFW Mastodons led wire-to-wire as the team won its fourth straight, improving to 5-2 on the season with a 76-66 win over the Kennesaw State Owls on Sunday afternoon.

Pierre Bland was a perfect 7-of-7 from the field and 8-of-8 from the charity stripe, scoring a career-high 23 points while pulling down six rebounds and dishing out six assists. Joe Reed scored 16 points, as Luis Jacobo added 11. IPFW out-rebounded the Owls 34-30, while Isaiah McCray pulled down seven rebounds, with Reed adding six rebounds.

The team's 5-2 start is the second-best of the program's NCAA Division I era, behind only the 7-2 start of the 2010-11 squad, and tied for the second-best start in the last 20 seasons of the program.

The Mastodons hit 24-of-50 shots from the field (48.0%) and 3-of-11 (27.3%) from long range, while converting on 78.1 percent (25-of-32) from the charity stripe, holding the Owls to 38.6 percent (22-of-57) from the field and 36.4 percent (8-of-22) beyond the arc.

IPFW scored the first five points of the game on a Steve Forbes lay-in, before Michael Kibiloski drained a three-point basket, and the Mastodons never trailed in the contest. An 11-1 IPFW run pushed the Mastodons to a 17-5 lead before the Owls answered with an 8-0 run, closing the gap to four at 17-13 halfway through the first half.

The Mastodons responded to seeing their double-digit lead closed to just four, answering with a 10-0 run, capped by a Bland three-point-play. The 'Dons led by as many as 16 in the first half; however, Kennesaw State ran together a 6-0 run late in the first half to cut the gap to six until Joe Reed hit a pair of free throws, a lay-up, and McCray made a free throw to end the half, putting the 'Dons ahead 40-29 at the break.

IPFW jumped out in the second half, scoring the first six points of the period, as the IPFW advantage never dipped into single digits the rest of the way, as the Mastodons led by as many as 21 with 3:56 to play in the game. The visitors let their foot off the gas pedal late, with Kennesaw State ending the game on a 15-4 run, but the IPFW lead was too much to overcome for the Owls in a 76-66 IPFW win.

The game marks the third this season in which IPFW has not trailed, and the Mastodons have trailed for just 35:14 this season, with 27 of those minutes coming in the team's season-opening one-point loss to the Dayton Flyers, and for just eight minutes and 20 seconds in the last six games.

The Mastodons return to action on Wednesday, November 27 when the squad faces off against the Panthers of Eastern Illinois University in Charleston, Ill. in an 8 p.m. tip-off at Lantz Arena.

~ Feel the Rumble ~