Men’s Basketball loses third straight game

The Kent State men’s basketball team (15-8, 6-4 Mid-American Conference) dropped their third consecutive game following an 82-67 loss to the University of Toledo (14-9, 5-5 MAC) Saturday night.

“It’s a disappointing loss,” coach Rob Senderoff said.  “Toledo played excellent in the second half. We’ve got to put it together. Tough loss”

Kent State trailed Toledo 31-26 as the Flashes headed into the second half. Toledo hit nine three-point shots in the second, shooting 82 percent from beyond the arc.

“I think they made their first seven threes in the second,” Senderoff said. “Some of that’s us and some of that’s great offense by them. We’ve got to figure out how to defend better. The past few games, defensively, it’s just not good enough.”

Senior guard Galal Cancer led the Flashes in scoring, finishing with 19 points in Saturday night’s loss. 

“I think I just came out aggressive,” Cancer said. “We have two of our top scorers out and coach has been telling us we need guys to step up, so I just had an aggressive mindset.”

The Flashes made three out of the four total free throws throughout the game.

“We have to get the ball inside more,” Senderoff said. “We have to drive it stronger and get inside more.”

Kent State turned the ball over 11 times in the first half and five times in the second.

“We need to move the basketball better,” Senderoff said. “We had 11 turnovers, which we’ve done in multiple games here now. We haven’t put together a full game here in the last three games.  Confidence in each other and trusting in our teammates is what we have to work on.”

Junior Jimmy Hall finished with 16 points and nine rebounds as junior guard Deon Edwin tallied 15 points.

Kent State is home again Tuesday as the Flashes look to take on Northern Illinois University with tip off set to begin at 7 p.m.