Team suffers 19 turnovers

Team suffers 19 turnovers

Following the Kent State men’s basketball team’s 70-55 loss against Buffalo, coach Geno Ford said the Flashes wouldn’t have been able to beat a high school team Saturday afternoon.

“We couldn’t beat anyone today,” Ford said. “We were atrocious.”

After senior guard Chris Singletary started the Kent State offense with a 3-point play in the game’s first possession, the Bulls went on a 14-0 run.

“We were really poor in the first 10 minutes,” Ford said. “We haven’t played that bad since we played South Florida.”

Kent State (18-8, 9-3 Mid-American Conference), which had built an eight-game winning streak going into Buffalo (14-9, 7-5 MAC), had six turnovers in the game’s first six minutes.

Ford said it’s been a rough week because the team hasn’t been able to practice at its full potential.

“We’ve had a bad week to be fair,” he said. “We haven’t been able to practice all week; we have a bunch of guys hurt.”

The Flashes, who finished the game with a season-high 19 turnovers, trailed the Bulls 33-19 at halftime.

“We had beaten them in the first game, so they had a lot of reasons to play well,” Ford said. “I don’t know who in our league would have come in here and won today.

“We could of played well today and lost, that’s how well I thought they played. But obviously I didn’t think we played well or average.”

Singletary led Kent State with 18 points and eight rebounds, but the senior guard also led the team with seven turnovers.

Singletary was the only member of the Flashes to score in double digits, while the Bulls had three: senior guard John Boyer (18), senior forward Calvin Betts (15) and senior guard Rodney Pierce (14).

Kent State was losing by as many as 20 points with 7:49 left in regulation but kept the game manageable by cutting Buffalo’s lead to 66-55 with 1:22 left.

The margin was just too much to handle for the Kent State offense, as the Flashes wouldn’t score for the rest of regulation.

The loss marks the first time Kent State has lost to an opponent since Jan. 17, when the Flashes fell to Bowling Green. The Flashes’ winning streak began 26 days ago with a 35-point win against Buffalo.

Kent State will return to the M.A.C. Center on Wednesday to host Ohio at 7 p.m.

Contact sports reporter Cody Erbacher at [email protected].