The Kent State men’s basketball team took to the road one last time in the 2024-25 regular season to take on the Western Michigan Broncos Tuesday night.

KSU, which came into the game with a 19-10 record, should have handled the Broncos easily, as they came in with an 11-18 record themselves. It is not easy to win Mid-American Conference games on the road, however, and the Flashes found themselves in a back-and-forth battle that turned into a one-point affair.

The game was decided by three points going into the halftime break, which was favoring KSU, and the team held on to claim its 20th victory of the season in a 76-75 grudge match. The team’s overall record is now 20-10.

There is only one game left in the regular season for every MAC team, and the win against WMU Tuesday was huge for the Flashes’ postseason seeding.

KSU finds itself tied for the three spot with Ohio University, as both teams have the same conference record (10-7), but the Flashes have a better overall record than the Bobcats by four whole games, giving KSU the edge in the standings.

In order to maintain its spot as the third seed in MAC Tournament play, the Flashes will need to win their last game, or the Flashes and Bobcats both lose. If the latter happens, it will not matter how teams below the Flashes and Bobcats do because KSU will have a much better overall record than any team under it, keeping the team in the third spot for the playoffs.

If OU wins and KSU loses, KSU will drop to the fourth seed and nothing lower.

How it went

The game was tight throughout, as the Flashes led by only three points at the halfway point of the first half. 

WMU hit a three to tie the game up with about nine-and-a-half minutes left in the half, and the 19-19 knot would last until there was 8:44 left.

The early stages of scoring were headed by Kent State’s two-headed offensive monster, redshirt senior forward VonCameron Davis and senior guard Jalen Sullinger.

In those first 19 points scored, Sullinger contributed a jumper and a 3-pointer for five points, and Davis added a mid-range jumper and four free throw makes for six points, adding up to 11 of the 19 points scored up to that point.

Blows were traded between the two teams, as the game was knotted up again at 24-24 later in the half.

The Flashes trailed in the half for a few minutes before taking the lead late with two good free throw shots from junior forward Delrecco Gillespie to put the team up 40-39.

On the defensive side, KSU prevented a 3-point make, got the rebound and took it up the floor before one last layup by Sullinger was converted with three seconds left in the half. This pushed the Flashes’ lead to three going into the break.

The second half was still hotly contested, but the Flashes were able to pull away slightly in the opening stages of the half.

The lead hovered anywhere from one to four points before it increased to seven points on a free throw make by Davis. Kent State led 50-43 with a little over 15 minutes left in the game.

Kent State maintained a good lead until about seven minutes remained in the game. WMU tied it back up at 60-60 on an and-one layup with the free throw make.

KSU answered the punch with one of its own, as the team knocked down an and-one layup and free throw conversions to build a five-point lead back in less than a minute.

The game continued to go back and forth until WMU took its first lead of the second half with about four minutes remaining after a fast break layup. The Broncos led 69-68.

The Flashes still rolled with the punches, building a five-point lead one last time with 2:06 left. The lead was built on free throws and a good jumper from Davis.

With under a minute to go, it got even tighter.

Down four points, WMU converted on an and-one with the free throw to cut the lead to one. The Flashes took it up the floor with the intention to put the game away.

The ball swung Sullinger’s way, who wanted to hit on a big time jumper, but it missed the mark and landed with the Broncos. On the defensive side, the clock bled down to under 30 seconds with only one point separating the two teams.

WMU came up with the ball and drew a foul, leading to two crucial free throws. The Broncos hit both free throws, swinging the lead to WMU’s favor. The Broncos were up 76-75 with 29 seconds left.

The Flashes took it up the floor with the shot clock off, and the team called Sullinger’s number again. He went up for a layup to retake the one-point lead but missed. KSU grabbed the offensive board and took its timeout to draw up a play.

Coming out of the timeout, the Flashes drew up a redemption play for Sullinger, who pulled up for a 3-pointer with 12 seconds left but missed once again. One last time, KSU crashed the offensive glass and reset the play.

This time, the ball was in the hands of sophomore guard Cian Medley. The play led to a foul by WMU, which sent Medley to the line for two free throws. 

A conversion on both would give the Flashes a one-point lead with four seconds left. Medley, an 80% free throw shooter this season, came to the line with only five points on the night.

The guard knocked down both clutch free throws to give KSU the late 77-76 advantage, which led to a WMU timeout.

Any make would do for WMU, who came out of the timeout and took a jumper as time expired, but the Broncos missed on the chance, giving the Flashes the victory in a nail-biter.

How did the teams compare?

Even with the win, Kent State shot notably worse than Western Michigan in the game. KSU shot 35.8% from the floor for the whole game while WMU shot at a 42.6% clip.

From 3-point range, WMU shot a low 28.6% for the game, but KSU shot even worse at 3-15 (20%). In the second half, KSU attempted eight 3-balls but missed every single one of them.

KSU had the slight advantage in points in the paint (36-34), but the team contributed less fastbreak points (8-7), bench points (23-10) and points off turnovers (10-5).

Where KSU made the most impact was second chance points. WMU only had eight points in that category, whereas KSU had 25 second chance points. This was fueled by KSU’s edge on the glass.

The 53 rebounds KSU grabbed highly outperformed WMU’s 31. Of those 53 rebounds, the distribution was almost equal, as the team hauled in 27 defensive rebounds and an absurd 26 offensive rebounds.

The other advantage the Flashes found in the game was getting to the free throw line. For the whole game, KSU went for 31 attempts, making 26 of them (83.9%) with a couple coming in clutch time with under five seconds.

KSU made more free throws than Western Michigan attempted in the game.

Player contributions

Kent State had key players contribute in multiple facets of the game.

Sullinger had a game-high and team-high 31 points on the night on 10-24 shooting from the floor and 3-7 from 3-point land. He also went a perfect 8-8 from the line. He was the primary scorer on the night, but he also contributed four rebounds.

Sullinger was one point off of tying his career-high in points.

Gillespie was an absolute monster on the glass all night. He left Kalamazoo with 18 points and 18 rebounds for his third career double-double. His 18 rebounds are tied for a career high, and he had only four defensive rebounds while terrorizing the offensive glass for 14 offensive boards.

The only other player in double-figures was Davis, who hit his 22nd game this season with more than 10 points. He finished with 11 points, two rebounds and one assist.

Looking ahead

The Flashes will close the season out at home against Eastern Michigan. Senior night will take place in the M.A.C. Center Friday night with a 7 p.m. tipoff.

The Eagles are one of the teams just under the Flashes in the MAC standings, as the team has a 16-14 overall record with a 9-8 record in the conference.

EMU has won five of its last six games, but the team is significantly below .500 on the road this season.

Since 2001, the Flashes have won 25 of the 31 matchups between the two teams.

KSU will look to close out another successful season that has the Flashes set up for a run in the MAC Tournament while having another season of over 20 wins.

This is the ninth time the Flashes have reached a 20-win season with coach Rob Senderoff calling the plays.

John Hilber is sports editor. Contact him at [email protected].