Feb. 25, 2009

KENNESAW, Ga. - Playing its best basketball of the season, the Kennesaw State women's basketball team will try to wrap up its season on a high note as it travels to face East Tennessee State and USC Upstate in a pair of Atlantic Sun Conference games this Thursday and Saturday.

The Lady Owls (15-12, 11-7) have won four contests in a row and are coming off of a dominating, 69-51, win over Jacksonville State last Monday night. Senior Britteny Henderson came off the bench to record a double-double with 19 points and 11 rebounds.

All four wins in the current winning streak, the longest of the year for the Lady Owls, have been by 10 or more points. KSU defeated Stetson by 13 to begin the streak, then followed that victory with a 22-point throttling of Belmont and a 10-point win over Lipscomb before Monday night's victory.

Senior Jennifer Baker leads the Lady Owls in scoring with 12.7 points per game. Baker has the same scoring average in all games as she does in A-Sun games. She has also connected on 42.7 percent of her shots from three-point range in A-Sun games, and on the strength of three games with at least six assists, the Soperton, Ga., native is now averaging a team-best 3.3 assists per game.

To keep the winning streak going, the Lady Owls will have to defeat a team in East Tennessee State that they have never defeated before. ETSU holds a 6-0 advantage in the all-time series with the Lady Owls.

Thursday's contest with ETSU (17-9, 15-3) is a rematch of a 79-78 loss for the Lady Owls earlier this season. KSU trailed 46-32 at the half, but came storming back to take a second-half lead of five points with just under four minutes to go. ETSU tied the game, and with the Lady Owls without the services of Henderson for the the overtime session due to a head injury, ETSU was able to pull away for the win.

That December 18 contest is also the same game in which the officials called for a media timeout in overtime.

Latisha Belcher and Siarre Evans both had double-doubles in the contest at Kennesaw. Belcher scored a game-high 22 points and grabbed 10 rebounds, while Evans had a game-best 16 rebounds to go with 19 points.

Freshman Angie Smith had a career-high 18 points in the loss to ETSU.

Following Thursday's game, the Lady Owls will travel to Spartanburg, S.C., for a 4:30 contest at USC Upstate. The Lady Owls pulled away for an 80-63 win at home over Upstate on December 13 of this season.