Kent State University
7-5
Arkansas State
6-5
Kent State Heads Into Christmas Break With A 73-69 Victory Over Arkansas State
12/22/2012 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Box score (.pdf)
KENT, Ohio - Kent State held off Arkansas State for a 73-69 win on Saturday night in a perfect warm-up for the start of Mid-American Conference play next month.
"Playing Arkansas State is a lot like playing Buffalo, Eastern Michigan, Bowling Green, and a lot of other teams in our league," said Kent State head coach Rob Senderoff, whose team improved to 7-5 heading into an eight-day break for Christmas. "They are tough, experienced and extremely well coached. It was a very good win for us."
After playing keep away for almost 30 seconds while clinging to a two-point lead, the Golden Flashes sealed the win on a pair of free throws by Chris Evans with just six seconds to play.
"We did a really good job and kept moving the basketball so they couldn't foul us," said Senderoff. "At the end, Chris had the ball in his hands and at that point they had to foul … All season long, our seniors have come through when we've needed our seniors to make free throws."
Fellow senior Randal Holt broke out of a two-game shooting slump with 19 points to lead the Flashes. Evans finished with 16 points and six rebounds, and true freshman Kellon Thomas added 14, including two key baskets as the Golden Flashes were trying to shake the Red Wolves in the closing minutes.
After watching Arkansas State cut a nine-point lead to just one, Thomas hit a three from the left corner to put Kent State up 64-60 with 5:25 to play. Less than two minutes later, he flipped in a driving layup to push the lead back out to seven points at 69-62.
Thomas was part of an earlier spark provided by a bench crew that included Mark Henniger, Bryson Pope and Earvin Morris. That group entered the game in the first half and changed the momentum after Arkansas State jumped out of the gate to a 14-4 lead.
"Arkansas State came out on fire," said Holt. "They were really aggressive and we made some changes. Guys came in and were wonderful. They brought energy to the game and life back to our team. Those younger guys really stepped up tonight. Kellon was great. He made some big plays down the stretch. We have got to continue to get that from our team all year."
Henniger scored seven points and grabbed seven rebounds in 30 minutes off the bench. The junior was forced into extended minutes with Melvin Tabb suffering from flu symptoms. Tabb started, but only managed to play seven minutes.
"We were hoping we would get the Jordan flu game, and we didn't get it," said Senderoff, referring to Michael Jordan's historic performance in the 1997 NBA finals. "Melvin was sick. He hadn't eaten in two games, he didn't go through a lot of the pregame. We knew we were going to need Mark, and he came through for us and really played hard."
The Red Wolves kept fighting back behind the shooting of Ed Townsel and Cameron Golden. The starting guards finished with 24 and 15 points, respectively.
Kent State hopes to build on their back-to-back home wins when they return from Christmas break on Dec. 30 to face Fairmont State.
"We are going to enjoy this break a lot more now," said Henniger. "This will give us some momentum."
Highlights
Coach Senderoff
Mark Henniger, Randal Holt, and Kellon Thomas
