KENNESAW, Ga. – The Alabama State men's basketball team dropped a tight one at Kennesaw State 79-72 on Tuesday night at the Kennesaw State Convocation Center.

Alabama State (0-4) had their chances throughout as it trailed 66-63 with 4:08 remaining in the game after a Tony Armstrong jumper.

It was a part of an 8-0 Hornets' run highlighted by a dunk from Corvon Butler and six points from Armstrong. 

But redshirt senior guard Kendrick Ray, who entered averaging 19.3 points per game, made a layup and knocked down a 3-pointer and Johannes Nielson scored inside to give Kennesaw State (2-3) a little room to operate to make it 74-65 with 1:24 left. 

Ray finished 11-of-22 from the field and scored a game-high 33 points for the Owls as ASU was only able to get within six over the last 1:24. 

Alabama State was able to get their turnovers down to 13 for the game and shot 44 percent from the field including a sharp 50 percent in the opening half. 

"I thought we played a lot better," said ASU head men's basketball coach Lewis Jackson.

"We got the turnovers down to 13, but we had critical ones where we had shot clock violations.  We turned it over late and those are the things that we can't do.  We have to be poised.  We have to play with confidence.  That hurt us a little bit down the stretch.  We only gave up seven offensive rebounds, but we gave up two critical ones late in the game when they just outworked us.  We'll continue to get better."

Armstrong shot 8-of-12 from the field and scored a team-high 19 points to go along with six rebounds to lead the Hornets.

Rodney Simeon, who entered leading the SWAC in 3-pointers made (3.3 made per game), added to his torrid pace by knocking down 4-of-7 from 3-point range in the first half alone. 

However, he went cold after halftime and missed all six of his 3-point attempts to finish with 16 points. 

Alabama State trailed 40-39 at the half and last led 52-50 with 14:14 left in the second half after Armstrong scored in the paint.

A dunk by Ray put KSU on top 54-52 and the Owls then went on a 9-0 run to go up 66-55 with 6:23 left.

The Hornets made 7-of-14 as a team from 3-point range in the first half, but hit just 1-of-10 from long range in the second half. 

"I thought we had a good presence around the basket," said coach Jackson.

"We were getting what we wanted, but we took a couple of bad shots and only shot 50 percent from the free throw line.  And they got 24 points from the line where we only got eight.  That was a big difference in the game, but we will continue to work on it and grow as a team." 

Next, the Hornets will play against Northern Arizona (1-4) on Friday at 3:30 p.m. CT to take part in the Global Sports Classic tournament held at UNLV's Thomas and Mack Center and then play either Jacksonville State or Cal State Fullerton in a Saturday game with a time to be determined based upon Friday's result. 

The ASU-NAU can be heard with the play-by-play here: http://player.listenlive.co/36591

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