Feb. 22, 2008

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - The Owls will be playing their final game outside the state of Georgia on Saturday afternoon as they battle the second-place Jacksonville Dolphins at the Veterans Memorial Arena.

Kennesaw State (9-19, 6-8 A-Sun), who is riding a season-high, three-game winning streak, is inching closer to its third consecutive .500 season in the A-Sun as they need a pair of wins in their final two games.

In as much as the game is crucial for Kennesaw State, the Dolphins (14-11, 10-3 A-Sun) also need a win to stay within a game of the first-place Belmont Bruins in the race for the A-Sun regular season crown.

Kennesaw State is riding high after three consecutive wins, including its first road win of the season against North Florida on Thursday. Kelvin McConnell led the Owls with a career-high 20 points in the 63-54 KSU win. The rookie guard scored a team-high 14 points in the last meeting with the Dolphins and has led KSU in scoring in two of the last three games.

Jacksonville comes into the game on a two-game winning streak after defeating both North Florida and Mercer in overtime. The wins came after the Dolphins had dropped back-to-back road games against Belmont and Lipscomb.

The Dolphins would like a repeat of the performance they had against the Owls in early January as they shot over 57 percent from the field in a, 73-56, win on Jan. 10 in Kennesaw. Ben Smith, Jacksonville's leading scorer, scored a game-high 17 points to lead to a quartet of JU players who scored in double-figures.

However, since their last meeting, the Owls defense has gotten much stingier and points won't be easy to come by in the paint. Jacksonville's front line made 17-fo-27 shots in the 17-point win, but that was before the emergence of Tanner Jacobs and the increasing strong defensive play of Jonathan Whipple.

Before the first meeting with Jacksonville, Kennesaw State allowed seven opponents to score over 80 points. Since the Jan. 10 meeting between the teams, only one KSU opponent, Florida Gulf Coast, has cracked the 80-point mark. The Owls have not allowed any of their last three opponents to score more than 67 points.

The Owls and Dolphins will tip-off at 3:30 p.m. eastern standard time. The game can be heard live on SuperTalk 1230/1340 AM with Craig Corbin and Scott Webb brining all the action. The game is also available on the web on ASun.TV.