KENNESAW — It wasn’t long ago when the Kennesaw State men’s basketball team was just trying to earn a spot into the Atlantic Sun Conference Tournament. Based on their performances over the last three weeks, the Owls may be contending for a high seed.

Kennesaw State has won five games in a row after beating Stetson, 73-62, on Monday night at the KSU Convoca-tion Center. The Owls (11-12, 6-6) are on their second longest winning streak in their short Division I era, trailing on ly a seven-game streak during the 2005-06 season, and have a shot at extending the current streak to six games when Mercer visits Thursday.

“I said from Day 1 that this team always plays hard,” Kennesaw State coach Tony Ingle said. “They are never selfish, but they haven’t been playing together (earlier in the season). Now they’re playing together. Our freshmen are learning to compete and win at the Division I level.”

The Owls struggled from the field early last month, recording back-to-back lowest first half point totals in school history – in each case shooting less than 25 percent from the field.

Kennesaw State has matured since and showed the new-found maturity by shooting 51 percent against Stetson. The Owls also had four players score in double digits. Markeith Cummings led the way with 18 points. Kurtis Woods finished with 16. Former Kennesaw Mountain standout Spencer Dixon added 12, and Whitefield Academy alum Kelvin McConnell came off the bench to finish with 10.

The Owls also benefited from a quick start against the Hatters (5-16, 3-10). They jumped to a quick 8-0 lead in the first four minutes of the game with Woods and Cummings sinking open 3-pointers. They later went on a 7-0 run, highlighted by a Dixon 3, to open a 17-8 lead with 12:26 to play.

Stetson cut the lead to six points with 8 minutes left in the half, but Kennesaw State responded with a 11-0 burst that ended with a Woods trey from the right wing and a Dixon layup off a turnover.

The Owls went into the locker room with a 32-19 lead and never allowed Stetson to get within eight points in the second half, despite shooting 10 second-half 3-pointers.

“It gets us going when we get hot early,” said Cummings, who is the nation’s leading scorer among Division I freshmen with 18 points per game. “When someone gets hot early, we keep going to him and keep going to him and we kind of feed off that energy.”

A.J. Smith was 4-for-6 behind the 3-point line in the second half and led the Hatters with 22 points. Joel Narburg was also in double figures with 13 points and Mark Lohuis hit three second half 3-pointers to finish with 11.

The Owls were 16-of-22 from the free throw line in the second half alone with most of them coming late in the game. After Smith hit a trey to cut the Kennesaw State lead to nine with 4:10 left, the Owls hit 14 of their next 19 attempts behind the foul line to seal the win.

“We’re now learning to finish games and to be in them at the end,” Ingle said. “We’re also concentrating on the details and using every adverse situation and learning from them.”

Kennesaw State, which is still seventh in the Atlantic Sun standings, will have a tougher schedule after completing their four-game home stand with Mercer on Thursday and USC-Upstate on Saturday. The Owls are on the road at East Tennessee State (Feb. 12) and Campbell (Feb. 15) before hosting conference leader Jacksonville on Feb. 18.

Women’s Basketball

Stetson 54, Kennesaw State 51: The Lady Owls allowed a six-point lead with 11:12 left in the second half to get away, allowing Stetson to go on an 11-0 run to take a 47-42 lead.

Kennesaw State (5-16, 2-10) has now lost six straight Atlantic Sun games and much of it has to do with poor shooting percentages. The Lady Owls shot just 25.4 percent from the field against Stetson.

The Lady Owls cut the lead to 49-48 on a Semetria Gideon jumper with 2:34 left but that was as close as they would get. The Lady Hatters went on to clinch the game from the free throw line.

DeAndrea Bullock was the lone double digit scorer for Kennesaw State with 11 points. Angie Smith and Gia Lockett finished with nine each and Gideon led with 18 rebounds.

Tierra Brown scored 16 points for Stetson and Ashil Jackson finished with 15.