• Blog
  • About Us
  • Links
  MAC Reporter Online

Kent State, Akron both post tourney wins

11/15/2015

 
Picture
By EVAN MEYER
KENT, OHIO – The Kent State Golden Flashes and Akron Zips opened ther 2015-16 Men’s Basketball seasons Saturday night with victories in the inaugural Coaches vs. Cancer Tournament before an enthusiastic  crowd of 5,471 at the MAC Center.

(CLICK READ MORE TO CONTINUE . . . )

Picture
KENT STATE 79 – YOUNGSTOWN STATE 70

The Golden Flashes had four players in double figures, led by fourth-year junior Kellen Thomas. He registered a career-high 18 points, along with five rebounds an assist and a steal. 

“It was a great team win.” KSU had coach Rob Senderoff said. “We still have a lot of work going into our next game on Wednesday (at Southern Illinois), but it was a good start.”

Xavier Pollard came off the bench to score 15 points and three steals. Chris Ortiz had 12 points and 16 rebounds, while Jimmy Hall added 10 with nine boards.

KSU led the game throughout, building as much as an 11-point lead late in the first half before entering intermission with  40-33 advantage on the strength of shooting 50 percent from the field (17-of-34) and 25-14 rebounding edge.

In the second half, the Penguins, of the Horizon League, closed the margin to two, 65-63, when Matt Donlan hit a pair of threes -- the second coming from the left arc with 5:08 remaining. 

 The visitors, however, could not not get any closer as the Flashes rebuilt their lead to 10 points in the closing stages before winning by nine.

Senior Bobby Hain led YSU and all scorers in the contest with 20 points and seven rebounds with three assists and a steal.

The big stat of the game was KSU pulling down 53 rebounds to 34 for YSU.

“You can’t beat a quality team, if you can’t rebound the basketball.” Penguins head man Jerry Slocum said.

Kent State gets back into action on Wednesday when they travel to Carbondale, Ill to battle the Southern Illinois Salukis from the Missouri Valley Conference.

Picture
AKRON 65 – CLEVELAND STATE 53

The Zips used a 16-0 run midway through the first half to take control of the game and were never headed in their victory over the Vikings from the Horizon League.

“It was a typical Akron early season game.” Zips head coach Keith Dambrot said. “We played well in short stints, but we did not finish in the second half. Cleveland State played hard and it showed us we need to be in control for 40 minutes.”

Sophomore guard Antino Jackson had 12 points with five assists and a steal to lead UA while senior Reggie McAdams added 10 and five rebounds.

From the 10:18 mark of the first half, the Zips lead never fell below double digits, building a 40-22 advantage at halftime. In the second half, the game’s biggest differential was 21 points (61-40 with 5:26 remaining) before winning by 12 thanks to a late Vikings run.

“Overall, I don’t feel bad about the game” CSU head man Gary Waters said. “I thought we had some freshman jitters in the first half, and they (Akron) took advantage of it.”

Cleveland State, one of the youngest teams in all of Division I coming into the season, was led by junior guard Andre Yates. He led all scorers with 13 points and nine rebounds, while Demonte Flannigan had 11 with eight boards.

UA had some extra motivation on Saturday night, they came out onto the floor dressed in purple uniforms and with the name ‘Peters’ on the back rather than their tradition blue and regular names on the back. 

The purple color stands for pancreatic cancer and the name ‘Peters’ was for the late Dan Peters, who was an assistant coach on the Zips staff and passed away in 2014 due to the disease.


UA opens its home schedule on Monday night as Division III Hiram College comes to Rhodes Arena.


Comments are closed.
    Picture

    MAC Football 

    UPCOMING GAMES
    All times Eastern

    ​

    MAC FOOTBALL STANDINGS
    -- Final - 2022 -- 
    MAC EAST
    OHIO 7-1
    BUFFALO 5-3
    BOWLING GREEN 5-3

    MIAMI 4-4
    KENT STATE 4-4
    AKRON 1-7

    MAC WEST
    TOLEDO 5-3

    EASTERN MICHIGAN 5-3
    WESTERN MICHIGAN 4-4
    ​BALL STATE 3-5
    CENTRAL MICHIGAN 3-5

    NORTHERN ILLINOIS 2-6

    MAC Basketball 
    MAC BASKETBALL STANDINGS
    (Through 3-3-23)

    Team - MAC -- Overall
    Toledo 16-2 (25-6)
    Kent State 15-3 (25-6)
    Akron 13-5 (21-10)
    Ball State 11-7 (20-11)
    Ohio 10-8 (18-13)
    Buffalo 9-9 (15-16)
    Northern Illinois 9-9 (13-18)
    Miami 6-12 (12-19)
    Bowling Green 5-13 (11-20)
    Central Michigan 5-13 (10-21)
    Eastern Michigan 5-13 (8-23)
    Western Michigan 4-14 (8-23)

    RSS Feed

    Categories

    All
    Basketball
    Football
    Other

    Archives

    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014

Proudly powered by Weebly