Kent State’s hopes of a third-straight conference title were all but eliminated with a last-second loss to Miami Tuesday night in Oxford. The Flashes trailed by as many as 12 points and tied the game at 60-60 in the final minute, but fell to the Redhawks, 62-60.

“I’m upset about the fact that we just lost this game,” Flashes’ coach Rob Senderoff said. “We were close, but at the end of the day, we didn’t make enough plays when we needed to.”

Kent State turned the ball over 14 times and made just 6-of-12 free throws, but the most glaring mistake came with just seconds remaining on the clock.

With the game tied at 60-60, Kent State had one foul to give and planned to foul Miami forward Julian Mavunga before he could attempt a shot. Mavunga instead drove to the lane and drew a foul on Flashes’ guard Michael Porrini. Mavunga made both free throws to give Miami a two-point lead, which proved to be the difference.

“If we were going to foul him, we should’ve fouled him on the floor,” Senderoff said. “We messed that up…that’s on me. I’m the head coach. I’ve got to get these guys better with that.”

“This game was lost in the details,” assistant coach Eric Haut said. “When you want to win tough games on the road, you’ve got to pay attention to the little things. That’s what happens on the road. Everybody’s going to give you their best shot. It was more than a couple free throws here and there,” Haut said. “There was a lot of things we could have done better.”

Miami entered the game 8-17 overall, which included a 4-8 Mid-American Conference record. The Redhawks faced a Kent State team that had won seven-straight MAC games was tied for second place in the MAC with a 9-3 conference record. Tuesday night’s result contradicted those records, but Senderoff dispelled the notion that the Flashes underestimated their opponent.

“Everybody knows that [Miami head coach] Charlie Coles is the best coach in this league,” Senderoff said. “Nobody is underestimating them. If you are, you’d be foolish. If our kids underestimated them, that’s on us. I don’t think we did, though. I think we didn’t play very well, and they played pretty well.”

Kent State played from behind from the start of the game and trailed by 10 with 9:01 remaining before a layup by senior forward Justin Greene completed an 18-8 run to tie the game at 58-58.

“We missed some shots around the rim that we normally make,” Haut said. “We missed some open shots that we normally make. We uncharacteristically had 14 turnovers against a team that doesn’t pressure. We didn’t deserve to win, to be honest.”

Mavunga and sophomore guard Quinten Rollins combined to score 35 points for the Redhawks. Miami made 9-of-23 3-pointers and recorded nine steals to maintain the lead for much of the game.

“At the end of the day, they made a couple more plays than we did,” Senderoff said. “That’s the bottom line.”

Kent State fell out of second place with the loss and will have to wait for tonight’s conference games to determine its current standing in the conference.

“We’ve got to get better at this time of the year if we expect to win games,” Senderoff said.

“We’ll learn from it. There’s a lot of season left,” Haut said. “We have three more games and the MAC Tournament.”

Kent State will travel to Bowling Green Saturday to take on the Falcons (14-12, 7-5), who are in fifth place in the MAC East but trail the Flashes by just 1 1/2 games.

“[Saturday’s game] is going to be a war,” Haut said. “We’re going to have to play as a win and come away with a road victory.”

“There’s a lot of seniors that know what’s ahead,” Haut said. “It’s all about our attitude and the way that we’ll respond, and I tink we will.”

Contact Nick Shook at [email protected]or NickShookDKS