‘Today was one of our best days’: Kent State men's basketball overpowers Ohio in second half
KENT — The Kent State men’s basketball team relied on its second-half defense in a comeback win Tuesday night.
The Golden Flashes rallied for an 82-75 win at the M.A.C Center, limiting Ohio to four second-half 3-pointers after the Bobcats made eight in the first half. The win kept alive KSU's hopes of a Mid-American Conference regular-season title.
It was the 21st consecutive home win for the Flashes (24-6, 14-3), who remain in second place in the league behind Toledo (24-6, 15-2).
KSU began its comeback Tuesday after Ohio (17-13, 9-8) built a 50-40 lead early in the second half. The Flashes went on a 16-5 scoring run to retake the lead.
“I feel like we've been in those situations a couple of times this year, and I felt like today was one of our best days,” redshirt senior Sincere Carry said. “We didn't argue, and we didn’t point a finger at anybody; We just kept our heads down and grinded out as a team.”
The final 10 minutes featured four lead changes before Carry’s fourth 3-pointer put KSU up 76-70 with 3:40 left to help secure the win. Ohio shot just 1 of 6 from behind the arc down the stretch.
After watching 50% of the Bobcat 3-pointers fall in the first half, Carry said, “they just outplayed us.”
What turned it around for Kent State was pretty simple.
“We just had to play harder, communicate a little bit more, and be on point for our rotations,” Carry said. “Then we started switching the floor so that we could be more active on defense and make them put the ball on the ground.”
After shooting 50% from the field in the first half, the Bobcats were held to 39.4% in the second half. KSU improved its 48.3% shooting to 60.7% during that same time.
Carry finished with a game-high 23 points and grabbed five rebounds. He has scored 20 or more in two of the last three games.
“It's great to see because he's come as far as any player that I've coached in one season,” KSU coach Rob Senderoff said. “He really struggled early in the year, and to his credit and his credit alone he kept with it. I think it's a great testament to him and his character as a basketball player, and when you watch him play now you would never know that he struggled.”
Redshirt senior Malique Jacobs added 15 points and five assists for KSU. He has averaged 16.6 points over the last three games.
“I’m just staying with myself,” Jacobs said. “Staying in the gym and being able to stay confident once I’m out there.”
Kent's Chris Payton scored 15 points, too, to go with nine rebounds. He has scored in double figure in nine of his last 12 games.
Kent State-Akron men's basketball, Round 2
The Flashes wrap up the regular season by hosting Akron at 6 p.m. Friday.
The Zips (21-9, 13-4) are in third place in the MAC. They defeated KSU 67-55 when the two teams met Feb. 3 in Akron.
A Kent State victory would tie the most regular-season wins in program history with the 2007-08 team, which won 25 games.
“We have a chance to go undefeated at home, and we have a chance to win the league if some things break for us,” Senderoff said. “Their student section was fantastic when we went there, and now we've got to sort of match that and step our game up even more here Friday night.”
Contact Jacob Shondel at jshondel@kent.edu
This article originally appeared on Record-Courier: Kent State men's basketball turns up defense, beats Ohio in MAC
