Kennesaw, Ga. - Sophomore guard Chris Perez (Santiago, D.R.) scored a career-high 24 points and grabbed seven rebounds, one shy of his career high in that category, to lead the Stetson men's basketball team (5-8, 2-1 Atlantic Sun) to a 66-62 victory at Kennesaw State (3-11, 0-3 A-Sun) on Monday. The victory snapped a five-game Stetson losing streak and marks the first A-Sun road win for Head Coach Casey Alexander.
Early turnover trouble for the Hatters and several alley-oop slam dunks for the Owls sparked KSU to a 15-6 lead in the first 11 minutes, but Stetson recovered strongly with a 21-3 run in the final nine minutes and change to take a 32-21 lead into the locker room. Sophomore guard Aaron Graham (Miramar, Fla.) started that streak with a three-pointer; Stetson hit five trifectas in six attempts during that time. Graham and Perez (who scored 15 of the 32 Hatter first half points) made two each and freshman guard Dennis Diaz (Deltona, Fla.) knocked down one.
Just as it did to open the game, Kennesaw State started the second half strong, using eight Spencer Dixon points to come within 41-39 with just under 12 minutes left. Time and again the Owls would assail the Stetson lead but each time the Hatters were able to stay one or two steps ahead of their hosts. Junior guard Amara Thompson (Tucker, Ga.) was a major part of that effort with four points, a key assist and a big rebound in the final five minutes.
Graham drilled a three with 1:20 to go that pushed Stetson's advantage to nine points (63-54), but the Owls refused to go quietly, slipping within five and then within three on two Markeith Cummings free throws with three seconds left. Stetson safely inbounded the ball, drew a foul and saw Graham make one of two free throws with 1.2 seconds left to go up by four and lock up the victory for the Hatters.
Perez went eight for 11 from the floor and five for seven from the free throw line to score his career-high 24 points; Graham finished with 15 and junior center Adam Pegg (Clearwater, Fla.) joined them in double figures with 10 points plus a game-high nine rebounds. Thompson finished with nine points, six rebounds and five assists for the finest outing of his young Stetson career. Junior guard Joel Naburgs (Victoria, Australia) dished out six assists for the Hatters.
Cummings led four Owls in double figures with 17 points and seven rebounds. Dixon (15 points, six assists), Aaron Anderson (12 points, nine rebounds) and Delbert Love (10 points, four assists) also enjoyed solid games for Kennesaw State, which had defeated Stetson four straight times prior to tonight.
"Any conference win is a big win for us, especially on the road and definitely to stop a losing skid," Coach Alexander said. "Our guys found a way to gut it out late tonight. Amara Thompson gave us a huge lift with a big basket late in the game; his biggest strength on offense is his ability to get by his defender and open up opportunities for others and he did a nice job of that for us tonight, especially allowing Chris Perez to slide down to power forward."
The Hatters are back in action at 7:30 pm Wednesday at A-Sun rival Mercer. Live Stats links and Hatter Vision's simulcast of Mercer's ASun.TV broadcast will be available at GoHatters.com.
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