Kent State Travels to Loyola-Chicago Saturday for Final BracketBusters
2/22/2013 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Kent State game notes (.pdf)
Loyola-Chicago game notes (.pdf)
The Game
Kent State will travel to Loyola University Chicago on Saturday, Feb. 23, as part of the final BracketBusters weekend.
The Golden Flashes are 6-4 all-time in BracketBusters games and one of only 10 programs to have participated in the event in every year since its inception in 2003.
Loyola is 5-4 in BracketBusters, including a 66-54 win at Bradley last year. The Ramblers also own BracketBuster wins over William & Mary (2008), Eastern Illinois (2007), Fairfield (2006) and Evansville (2004). Their losses in the event have come against Saint Peter's (2011), Creighton (2010), Bradley (2009), and Illinois State (2004).
Kent State lost 80-73 to the College of Charleston in last year's BracketBuster.
This year's game will be the fifth meeting between Kent State and Loyola. The Ramblers own a 1-3 advantage in the series, including a 74-59 win over the Golden Flashes in Chicago on Nov. 30, 1996 in their last encounter.
The trip to Chicago will reunite Rob Senderoff and his coaching staff with Loyola assistant coach Armon Gates, who is a 2006 graduate of Kent State and a former Golden Flashes starting guard. Gates also served as an assistant coach at Kent State for two seasons from 2008-10. Gates either played or coached at Kent State with every member of the Golden Flashes' current coaching staff.
Loyola is 14-13 overall with losses in five of its last six games, including a 85-76 home loss to Valparaiso on Tuesday. Senior forward Ben Averkamp leads the Ramblers at 15.3 points and 6.5 rebounds per game while sophomore guard-forward Christian Thomas is averaging 10.9 points and 6.3 rebounds.
Kent State will be playing its first game in a week following a heartbreaking overtime loss at Ohio on Feb. 16.
Radio
640 AM / Golden Flashes iHeartRadio (Ty Linder)
TV
SportsTime Ohio (Michael Reghi and Dave Cecutti)
Next up for Kent State
Kent State hosts Buffalo on Wednesday, February 27.
Quick Flashes
• Kent State's two seniors, Chris Evans (17.0 ppg) & Randal Holt (13.8 ppg), combine to average 30.8 points per game, which accounts for 43.2 percent of the Golden Flashes' scoring and is the 3rd highest-scoring duo in the Mid-American Conference this season.
• KSU's all-time leader with 222 three-pointers , Holt needs six points in move into the top ten of the school's all-time scoring list.
• Evans is the only player to rank among the top 10 in the MAC in scoring, rebounding, field goal percentage, steals, and minutes played.
• Kent State holds a +3.5 advantage in points off turnovers per game so far this season. The Flashes are averaging 17.5 points while allowing 14.0 points per game.
• The Flashes have received a boost from their bench this season. They average 24.8 bench points in wins this season, but are only getting 16.3 points per game from the bench in losses.
