KENT, OHIO – The Kent State Golden Flashes defeated the Bowling Green Falcons 83-69 Tuesday night at the MAC Center.
With the victory, Kent State (19-11, 9-8 MAC) finished its home schedule with a 13-3 record and all but assured itself of a first round home game on Monday evening.
“Senior night is . . .
. . . a special night and everyone contributed in this victory tonight.” KSU head coach Rob Senderoff said. “We had a really tough effort and a great win tonight.”
Junior Danny Pippen led the Flashes with 24 points and 10 rebounds. Senior Antonio Williams had 22 points, scoring 16 in the first half. Junior Tervell Beck came off the bench to score 15, adding five rebounds and senior Troy Simons scored 10 with six boards.
Bowling Green (21-9, 12-5) dropped its second consecutive game after a three-game winning streak. The latest loss sends the BGSU one game behind the Akron Zips, who came from behind to defeat Ohio 74-67 down the road at Rhodes Arena.
Junior Justin Turner tied Pippen for game high honors with 24 points, five rebounds and four assists. Fellow junior Daequon Plowden added 10 points and nine rebounds, while a third junior, Trey Diggs, came off the bench to score 10.
BGSU still has a chance to win the MAC Eastern Division and the number one seed in the 2020 MAC Tournament in Cleveland if it wins over Buffalo in the regular season finale at home and the Zips lose to Kent State at home.
Coming off their worst game of the season on Saturday at Miami, the Falcons started the game strong. They scored the game’s first five points and opened an 8-2 lead at the 17:51 mark on a put-back by Plowden.
KSU finally got into gear thanks to Pippen, who hit a pair of threes -- one from the top of the key and the other from the right arc -- to tie the contest 8-8 at the 15:24 mark. Pippen had 16 points going 6-of-10 from the field with five rebounds in the first stanza.
When Beck connected on a three from the left corner to give the home team a 15-12 lead at the 13:20 mark, KSU had a lead it would not relinquish.
Slowly and steadily, the home team built a lead that reached nine points on three occasions. The last was just before halftime 40-31 on a slam dunk by freshman Evan Bainbridge.
In the opening half, the Flashes shot 45.7 percent from the field (16-of-35), while BGSU held a 25-21 rebound edge. However, the Falcons only shot 10-of-36 from the floor (27.8 percent).
At the start of the second half, KSU opened a pair of 11-point leads, the second being 45-34 on a driving layup by senior Troy Simons.
Turner then started to bring the Falcons back into the game, scoring the Falcons next seven points and Bowling Green closed the KSU lead to 48-41 with 16:16 remaining.
The junior from Detroit, rebounded from his worst game of the season, scoring just four points against the RedHawks. He has scored double digits in 11 of his last 12 games.
The closest the visitors would get for the rest of the night was five points, 48-43, when freshman Dylan Ziegler made a pair of free throws at the 14:28 mark.
The Flashes, however, steadied their ship. They moved the lead back out to double digits and were up by 15 (65-50) midway through the period before winning by 14 to sweep the season series.
NOTES:
>> Kent State shot 17-of-31 from the floor (54.8 percent) in the second half and an even 50 percent over the 40 minutes (33-of-66)
>> The Flashes won the rebounding battle 42-31 and had 13 assists and eight steals.
>> KSU played without Anthony Roberts, who strained his groin before the Ohio game, and senior C.J. Williamson (suspension)
>> Bowling Green finished the contest at 34.9 percent from the floor (22-of-63)
NEXT:
Both teams end the regular season on Friday with KSU making the short trip to Akron to play the Zips while BGSU returns home to face Buffalo.