Senior Kori Babineaux scored 21 points and Jacksonville University had four players in double figures as the Dolphins picked up their first Atlantic Sun Conference win of the season beating Kennesaw State 83-70 Thursday.
Babinueax, a guard from Folsom, Calif., led a second-half JU charge scoring 13 of his points in the second half as the Dolphins (9-10, 1-1) won their ninth consecutive home game. It was his seventh 20-point game of the season.
Teammates J.R. Holder with 18 points, Josh Adeyeye with 15 and Marcel White with 14 joined Babineaux in double figures and they offset a 25-point night from Kennesaw's Kendrick Ray.
The Dolphins overcame the loss of 3-point specialist redshirt junior Darius Dawkins who was injured in the first half. Coming in to the game, Dawkins led the nation in 3-pointers made with 68. He had a pair before going down in the first half.
"Give our guys credit,'' JU head coach Tony Jasick said. "When you lose a player like Dawkins the team can respond in one of two ways and our guys responded in a big way.''
JU built a 43-37 halftime lead and built the advantage to as many as 16 points through the second half as Babineaux and White took control.
The Dolphins corralled 51 rebounds during the game, 20 on the offensive boards and hit on 11 of 22 3-point attempts.
"It was a real good team effort,'' Jasick said. "Our guys are contributing and competing hard in practice every day and hopefully this will strengthen our depth going forward.''
For KSU (5-13, 1-1) Ray was 5-for-6 on his 3-point attempts and teammates Yonel Brown with 16 points and Migel Pruitt with 12 supported.
The Dolphins raced to an early 12-5 lead and were up 21-13 with 10:33 when Holder made a layup and for the remainder of the half the game became an entertaining 3-point shooting contest.
The Owls connected on four consecutive 3-point attempts to get to within one at 26-25, the Dolphins edged away and KSU tied at 30 on a 3-pointer from junior Kendrick Ray. Ray had 16 of his points in the opening half.
JU's Josh Adeyeye then heated up and hit a trio of 3-pointers for a 39-32 lead with 2:07 to play and the Dolphins ended the half with a 43-37 lead.
JU returns home Saturday to face Lipscomb at 7 p.m. at Swisher Gym.