After working the entire

regular season to be the

best in the Mid-American

Conference, the Kent State

men’s basketball team fell from

the top, hard.

After working the entire

regular season to be the

best in the Mid-American

Conference, the Kent State

men’s basketball team fell from

the top, hard.

The top-seeded Flashes made

an early exit from the MAC

Tournament, losing 81-64 to No.

9 seed Ohio last night at Quicken

Loans Arena in Cleveland.

“It’s a disappointing end to

a great year,” Kent State coach

Geno Ford said. “We were

really not very good. I thought

our kids tried hard, maybe they

tried too hard.”

The Flashes lost for the

second straight year in the

MAC quarterfinals. Ford said

last night’s defeat especially

hurts because of the team’s six

seniors.

“I don’t know that in eight

years I’ve been associated with

Kent State’s program that I’ve

felt any worse for a group of

seniors than I do now,” Ford

said.

Kent State (23-9) struggled

on all ends of the floor, shooting

only 36 percent from the field, 15

percent from 3-point range and

50 percent from the free throw

line.

Ohio (19-14) outshot the

Flashes in every category.

The Flashes trailed by 16 at

halftime but cut the lead to 49-46

with just under 11 minutes left

in the game.

At the time, senior Chris

Singletary, the Flashes’ leader,

was on the bench with four

fouls. Freshman guard Randal

Holt made up for Singletary’s

absence by scoring five straight

points.

But Ohio responded with an

8-0 run. The Bobcats increased

their lead to 62-48 with a lot of

help from guard Armon Bassett,

who scored 38 points in the

game.

Unexpectedly, the Flashes

would cut into the lead for the

second time.

Singletary completed a

three-point play with 4:41 left in

regulation bringing the score to

66-60, completing a 7-2 run. But

that was as close as the Flashes

got, as Ohio responded with

another 8-0 run to put the game

away.

The Flashes trailed 40-24 at

halftime after shooting a miserable 8-for-32 (25 percent) from the

field and 1-for-10 from behind

the arc in the first half.

The first nine minutes proved

Kent State was going to struggle.

With the help of three 3-pointers

from Bassett, who finished

with 18 points in the first half,

Ohio took a 19-10 lead.

In the stretch, Singletary scored

six of Kent State’s points, but he

went 0-for-5 from the foul line.

Singletary hit his next four foul

shots and finished with 19 points,

but the senior fouled out late.

“I really just needed to relax

early — I was just too amped up,”

Singletary said. “I started thinking

too much. Then I just started relaxing,

being a player and stepping

up and making the free throws.

“That’s something I will work

on because we still got games

coming up.”

Kent State will return to the

court in the National Invitational

Tournament. The Flashes

secured a spot in the NIT after

winning the MAC regular-season

title.

Contact sports reporter Cody

Erbacher at [email protected].