Kent State University
16-9 (7-5MAC)
Eastern Michigan University
13-12 (5-7MAC)
Flashes fall 75-70 at Eastern Michigan
2/13/2016 2:40:00 PM | Men's Basketball
YPSILANTI, Mich. – Big games by Jimmy Hall and Khaliq Spicer couldn't keep Eastern Michigan from capturing a 75-70 home victory on Saturday to square the season series between Mid-American Conference cross-division rivals.
Hall finished with 19 points and seven rebounds. Spicer added 15 points and nine rebounds, building on a 21-point, 13-rebound performance in a 73-58 home win over Eastern on Jan. 26. After scoring just five points without a field goal in the first half, the duo combined for 29 points on 12-for-18 shooting over the final 20 minutes.
"Khaliq and Jimmy were more aggressive," said head caoch Rob Senderoff. "We took much better care of the ball in the second half, which allowed us to get it to them more often, but we need them to play that way for the entire game though."
Kent State cut into a 31-23 halftime deficit on Saturday as Spicer converted three different three-point plays after hitting jump hooks over EMU defenders. By the 9:40 mark of the second half, the Flashes had forged into the lead at 49-48 after a three-pointer by Kellon Thomas, who finished with 15 points.
"During that stretch, we did a really good job of defending and rebounding on both ends of the floor," Senderoff said. "When we do those things, we're a good team."
The Flashes scored just nine points over the next seven minutes as the Eagles built a double-digit lead.
James Thompson IV led Eastern Michigan with 20 points and 18 rebounds. Nine of those boards came on the offensive end, helping the Eagles extend possessions late after KSU's defense appeared to get some much-needed stops. The Eagles shot just 1-for-14 from three-point range, but often those shots ended with the Eagles keeping the ball as they grabbed a total of 19 offensive rebounds.
Eastern Michigan out-rebounded KSU 41-32 for the game. The Flashes, however, outscored the Eagles, 18-17, off second chance opportunities.
"We just came off outrebounding the leading rebounding team in the league, and this afternoon we got crushed on the glass. This team needs to win to in the rebounding battle in order to win games. And then we couldn't get the stops we needed at the end of the game."
Four Eagles joined Thompson with double-figure scoring led by Ty Toney's 17 points. Tim Bond, Brandon Nazione and Raven Lee added 14, 12 and 11 points, respectively.
Chris Ortiz contributed eight points and four rebounds off of the Kent State bench. Galal Cancer totaled seven points and three steals while spending most of the night chasing Lee on the defensive end. Lee, who scored 46 points in a game vs Miami on Feb. 3, shot just 3-for-10 from the field and missed all of his four three-point attempts.
Kent State returns home next week to face Western Michigan on Tuesday and Akron on Friday.
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