In the first round of the Mid-American Conference tournament, the Kent State men’s basketball team outworked the Ohio Bobcats on its way to an 86-75 victory in front of a rowdy crowd in Rocket Arena on Thursday.
Coming in at the six seed, OU put up a gritty fight and kept the game close against the higher-ranked Flashes through one half, but could not overcome a strong second-half performance from KSU.
Six lead changes occurred in the first half on a night that seemed like it could end in a close final score until the Flashes pulled away. KSU shot the ball at a higher percentage than the Bobcats, which in part led to the separation later in the matchup.
As a part of the Flashes’ scoring effort, senior forward Delrecco Gillespie led the team in scoring with 27 points and grabbed eight rebounds in the process. Graduate student forward Morgan Safford was right behind him at 24 points.
Turnovers were also a concern; coach Rob Senderoff discussed needing to be fixed after KSU’s final regular season game, and ended up being another big contributor in the win over OU, winning the giveaway battle by seven turnovers.
Leading the Bobcats in scoring, senior forward Aidan Hadaway finished the night with 24 points, with 20 of them coming in the first half. Hadaway shot the ball efficiently with a 56.3 shooting percentage, but fouled out with just under ten minutes remaining in the game.
Cleveland will get another taste of arguably the best MAC rivalry as the Flashes will take on the Akron Zips in the Semifinals on Friday.
KSU has been utterly outmatched in both meetings this season with “The School Down the Road” and will need to play sound, fundamental basketball to advance past the Zips to the championship game.
Josh Szeremet is a reporter. Contact him at [email protected].
