Saturday, December 03, 2005

Campbell and Kennesaw State defied preseason expectations with impressive 2-0 starts in Atlantic Sun Conference play after wins on Saturday.

Campbell scored 15 of the game's final 17 points to defeat visiting Mercer 86-80 at Carter Gym. Ruell Pringle's 19 points paced the Camels who were picked ninth in the preseason polls. Campbell wins their first two A-Sun contests for the first time since 1996-97 and captured back-to-back league victories since February of 2002.

At almost the same time, Kennesaw State was putting the finishing touches on a four-point home win over Belmont. Golden Ingle racked up a career-high 34 points to help drop the Bruins. The Owls landed 10th in the preseason rankings.

All told, the first weekend of play has been amazingly competitive as five of the league's first 10 games have been decided by three points or less.