|
Mt. Pleasant, MI – Kent State (17-7; 8-2 MAC) used a key 13-0 second half run to generate a 68-63 victory at Central Michigan (11-10; 6-3 MAC) in a battle of the Mid-American Conference East and West Divisional leaders. The Golden Flashes have now won seven straight.
Sophomore forward Justin Greene led the Kent State rally, scoring 18 of his game-high 22 points in the second half. Senior guard Chris Singletary also had a big night with 19 points, a game-high six rebounds and six assists, while junior guard Rodriguez Sherman finished with 13 points.
The Golden Flashes trailed by nine (48-39) with just under 13 minutes left after Central Michigan’s Jordan Bitzer hit one of his four three-pointers. Kent State quickly called time-out to switch defenses and set up an offensive attack in the paint.
The moved paid off as KSU forced four turnovers in a 13-0 run that lasted five minutes and gave the Golden Flashes a four-point, 52-48 lead with 7:37 remaining. Led by six points from Greene, 10 of Kent State’s points during the run came in the paint. The other three points came off the hand of Anthony Simpson, who capped off the stretch with a three from the right corner.
“The were hitting a ton of shots, and we could not guard them, so we went to zone out of the time out just to get them out of rhythm,” said head coach Geno Ford. “Our guys did a great job of getting out and finding shooters and we were able to string a few stops together.”
Central Michigan would stay in the game and tied the score at 53-53 after Robbie Harman drilled a three with 6:23 left. The momentum did not last for CMU, however, as Simpson, who shot 3-4 from three in Thursday night’s win, answered again - this time from the left corner with another three-pointer. In the last three games the senior forward is 7-8 (87.5 percent) from beyond the arc.
Kent State was up four (57-53), but another Bitzer three followed by a steal and breakaway dunk from Antonio Weary put the Chippewas up one with 4:10 still to play. Sherman took over from there, hitting a 15-foot jumper to regain the lead and then a three from the left wing to once again extend the margin back to four (62-58). The KSU defense would finish it off, forcing a stop and a missed three on the next two CMU possessions before the game was sealed by Sherman and Greene at the foul line in the final 20 seconds.
“Anthony (Simpson) and Rodriquez (Sherman) hit some big time shot for us in the crunch,” said Ford. “We shot 6-11 from three, and when we do that, we are pretty hard to beat.”
The Golden Flashes shot a season high 58.1 percent for the game, including 68,2 percent (15-22) in the second half. Its the fourth time during the seven game win streak that Kent State has shot 50 percent or better. Bitzer led Central Michigan with 19 points. The Chippewas shot 48.9 percent from the field, but just 29.6 percent (8-27) from beyond the arc.
KSU returns home on Wednesday, February 10 to host Ball State at 7:00 pm.
NOTES:
It was the ninth straight win over Central Michigan and the 16th straight in the regular season ...KSU has won 16 straight against the MAC West ...After committing nine turnovers in the first 22 minutes, KSU had just one the final 18...The Golden Flashes have held 11 of the last 12 opponents to 33.3 percent shooting or less from three...
Kent State held a 32-24 advantage in points scored in the paint, marking the 11th straight win by KSU when scoring at least 30 points in the paint.
Courtesy of Kent State Athletics.
|
