KENT, OH – The Akron Zips came into the MAC Center Sunday afternoon with a chance to win the Mid-American Conference East Division and the number one seed in next week’s MAC Tournament in Cleveland.
The Kent State Golden Flashes had three seniors playing their final home game in Julian Sullinger, Al Fisher, and Jordan Mincy.
When the dust settled in this 127th meeting of two schools separated by 15 miles of Ohio Route 59, it was the Golden Flashes who prevailed 67-63 before 5,327 frenzied fans.
The win gave Kent State (18-13, 10-6) a tie for third place with the Zips (19-12, 10-6).
“Today was tough because you were fighting up hill all the time” Flashes head coach Geno Ford said after the contest.
“It was tough because of the seniors. I wanted to win so bad for Jordan, Jules, and Al” Ford added.
Fisher led all scorers with 18 points along with six rebounds, five assists, and three steals.11 of Fisher’s points came in the second half while Mike McKee came off the bench to add 10.
“I had a very bad first half…and I was mad and went into the locker room with my head down…Coach Ford and the players said to keep my head up.” Fisher remarked after the game.
Brett McKnight led Akron coming off the bench with 14 points while Anthony ‘Humpty’ Hitchens scored 13.
“We have a great deal of respect for Kent State and their program…But I really feel bad for our guys. We just have to learn to make plays when it matters,” Zips head coach Keith Dambrot said afterwards.
The tone for the game was set within the first two minutes.
On Akron’s second possession, Nate Linhart was coming down the baseline and passed the ball off to a teammate. Kent State’s Chris Singletary gave Linhart a punch to the sternum sending Linhart to the floor.
After a couple of minutes, Linhart , a senior from Gahanna, Ohio rose up off the floor, and looked for Singletary to give him a word or two.
While Linhart was being attended to by the Akron medical staff, the officiating crew, led by referee Terry Wymer, went to the scorer's table and looked at television replays of the incident. The game was being shown on FOX Sports Ohio.
After a couple of looks at the replay, Wymer called a flagrant foul on Singletary. In addition, the junior from Chicago was assessed a technical foul and was ejected from the game.
In a statement after the game, Wymer said “It was a flagrant foul in Chris Singletary. They had five shots available and the guys in the (television) truck did a great job. It was a non-basketball play and warranted a flagrant foul.”
“Chris is a big part of our team…Losing him was bad, but we still had 40 minutes to play and stick together and come out with a win” Fisher stated.
Linhart was the target of the Kent State partisans for the remainder of the game.
When the teams decided to play basketball, Akron opened an early six-point lead 13-7 on a three-pointer by Brett McClanahan at the 13:57 mark.
The lead grew to 10 at 21-11 at the 9:04 mark on a conventional three-point play by Brett McKnight.
After Kent State pared its deficit to four on a Fisher layup, Akron pushed the lead back out to 10, 29-19 on a Mike Bardo free throw.
The Flashes then scored the next eight points to close to within two 29-27 at the 50 second mark on two Fisher free throws. But a jumper by Anthony ‘Humpty’ Hitchens gave the Zips a 31-27 lead at halftime.
Akron went 11-for-13 from the foul line but were outrebounded by the Flashes 25-16 in the game’s first 20 minutes.
But Dambrot remarked “We got hurt badly with foul trouble. We had both McKnights (Chris and Brett with two fouls each) in foul trouble and we are not the same team with both of them out of the lineup.”
When asked about the run late in the first half to get the Flashes back into the game, McKee stated, “Our goal was to stay close and just chip away and tie it up at halftime and make it a whole new ballgame.”
The Zips however extended their advantage at the start of the second half to eight points on two occasions the last being 42-34 on a jumper by Darryl Roberts with 15:43 remaining.
Kent State then went on a 16-3 run to take its first lead since the 16:26 mark of the first half, 48-45 at the 10:46 mark on a Fisher layup.
The Flashes extended the lead to four points on two occasions, the last being 53-49 on two Sullinger free throws at the 8:26 mark.
Akron then went on an 11-2 run fueled by three three-pointers the last came from Brett McKnight with 4:32 remaining.
The Zips' lead then fluctuated between one and three points.
But then a three by McKee with 1:02 remaining in regulation gave Kent State the lead for good.
“I was running the wing and was not looking for the ball and then I heard ‘Mike” and the ball was on me…I didn’t have time to think about it. Just catch and shoot” McKee exclaimed.
“There was no excuse for that’ Dambrot said “You can’t do that and win big basketball games. We made two mistakes on McKee when it mattered.”
The Flashes scored four of the game’s final five points to take the victory, their seventh straight at home, and closed out the regular season with their 10th win in the last 12 games.
“It’s the biggest regular season game for both teams.” Linhart remarked. “The fans love it. It is usually a sellout. Emotions will run high every time.”
When asked about how his team will bounce back Tuesday in their first tournament game, Dambrot stated “We have been hit in the mouth about 55 times this year. Our guys have been able to rally themselves.”
Both teams have games in the first round of the 2009 MAC tournament on Tuesday at Quicken Loans Arena with Akron as the fifth seed facing 12th seed Toledo while the Flashes face 11th seed Northern Illinois.
NOTES: The first season split of the two teams since 2006 … The win was Kent State’s fifth in the last six games over Akron at the MAC Center … Kent State collected its 10th MAC win of the season the 11th consecutive season the program has reached that plateau. One of just four current programs to accomplish the feat (Kansas, Creighton, and Gonzaga the others) … Jordan Mincy-KSU played in his 132nd consecutive game tying former Golden Flashes player Bryan Bedford for the longest in MAC history … Flashes are 23-6 lifetime when Al Fishers is the leading scorer (Fisher led the Flashes with 18) … Kent State is 37-4 in its last 41 home games overall and 27-2 in its last 29 against MAC opposition … Frank Henry-Ala’s three pointer in the first half gave Kent State at least one three pointer in 327 consecutive games … Al Fisher-KSU collected his 23rd double digit scoring game of the season (tops on the club), led the team in scoring for the 14th time, and had the 48th double-digit game of his career ... Akron has lost three of its last four road games … Keith Dambrot-UA is 5-11 lifetime against Kent State (1-1 against Geno Ford)…Nikola Cvetinovic-UA registered the first three-pointer of his career in the second half…Brett McKnight-UA scored double-figures in consecutive games for the first time since a four-game span from Jan 28-Feb 8 … Anthony Hitchens-UA 13 points is the most since scoring 15 at Bowling Green on January 17th... The crowd of 5,327 was the largest of the season
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