Kent State University
University of Louisiana at Monroe
Men’s Basketball Hosts ULM in Las Vegas Classic On-Campus Action Thursday
12/9/2015 12:21:00 PM | Men's Basketball
Kent State (5-2) will play two games in three days for the second time in an eight-day period as it returns to the M.A.C. Center to host the University of Louisiana at Monroe on Thursday at 7 p.m. The Golden Flashes will play Canisius on Saturday with both games being part of the 2015 Continental Tire Las Vegas Classic.
The Flashes are coming off a busy weekend in which they earned their first two road wins of the season. After a 66-62 win over Cleveland State at Quicken Loans Arena on Saturday, Kent State pulled out an 80-75 victory in a hostile environment at NJIT in what was a high-level December contest. Four players scored at least 15 points as the Flashes made a season-high 12 shots from behind the three-point line. Redshirt junior Kellon Thomas had a career night with 22 points on 6-for-9 from the three-point line along with six assists. Thomas hit several clutch shots down the stretch, including 8 of the team's final 10 points. Redshirt junior Jimmy Hall stuffed the stat sheet with 17 points, 6 rebounds, 5 assists and a season-high 3 blocked shots. Freshman Jaylin Walker scored a career-high 15 points and redshirt senior Xavier Pollard added 15 points off the bench, including two free throws to ice the game with .5 on the clock. The Flashes were outrebounded for the first time this season, 45-34, but held a 22-12 edge in second chance scoring and held the Highlanders to just 29.6% from the three-point arc (8-for-27), which is their lowest percentage since the season-opener at No. 2 Kentucky.
The frontcourt of Jimmy Hall (16.6 ppg, 8.0. rpg), Khaliq Spicer (9.3 ppg, 7.1 rpg) and Chris Ortiz (7.4 ppg, 5.7 rpg) has helped Kent State control play around the basket. The Flashes own a +6.4 rebounding advantage while outscoring opponents 35.4-25.4 in the paint and 13.2-9.0 on second chance opportunities. The trio has combined for 56 offensive rebounds, which is 3 more than Kent State has allowed. Hall has also shown a terrific ability to find teammates out of double-teams and averages a team-high 3.4 assists per game.
Redshirt junior Kellon Thomas has displayed more of a scoring mindset in his return to action and is averaging 13.0 points per game. Graduate student Galal Cancer has provided a good all-around floor game with 4.7 points, 2.6 rebounds and 2.4 assists per game. Freshman guard Jaylin Walker (6.4 ppg) has averaged 8.5 points per game since being inserted into the starting lineup four games ago.
The Flashes are receiving almost 10 more points per game off the bench than their opponents. Redshirt senior Xavier Pollard leads the way with 11.9 points per game and adds 2.6 assists per game. Pollard scored a season-high 23 points at Pittsburgh. Redshirt juniors Deon Edwin and Marvin Jones add 3.7 and 2.0 points per game, respectively.
Scouting ULM
ULM was just outside of this week's CollegeInsider.com Mid-Major Top 25 after winning back-to-back games against Chattanooga and UL-Lafayette. The Warhawks play tough defense and rank 12 in three-point field goal percentage defense (.261), 31 in fouls per game (17.0), 32 in scoring defense (62.3 ppg) and 39 in field goal percentage defense (.380).
Forward Majok Deng leads ULM with 18.3 points and 7.3 rebounds per game. Deng is coming off a career-high 30-point performance in which he shot 8-14 from the field, 3-5 from long range and 11-13 from the charity stripe. Forward Travis Munnings is second on the team with 10.7 points and 6.8 rebounds per game. Point guard Nick Coppola adds 9.7 points and 4.2 assists per game to go with a 2.27 assist-to-turnover ratio.
Series History
• Kent State won the only previous hardwood matchup between the schools, 69-53, at the M.A.C. Center on December 2, 2010.
• The Flashes are 4-2 all-time vs. schools currently in the Sun Belt.
• Most recently, Kent State went on the road to beat Arkansas-Little Rock, 60-55,in overtime last season.
FLASHback to Last Meeting
• Kent State defeated ULM, 69-53, at the M.A.C. Center on December 2, 2010.
• Trailing 18-14 with 7:04 remaining in the first half, the Golden Flashes used a 16-1 run over the next 4 minutes and 35 seconds to go ahead for good and lead 30-19 at halftime.
• KSU scored on 6 of 7 possessions during the run and shot 6-for-8 from the floor, 3-for-3 from the 3-point line and 1-for-1 at the charity stripe.
• The Flashes increased the lead to as much as 18 points on two occasions during the second half.
• KSU went 10-for-21 from the 3-point line and made 6 of 9 attempts during the final 20 minutes.
• Carlton Guyton led the way with 17 points and 7 rebounds.
• Justin Greene also scored 17 points on 7-for-8 shooting but did not have any rebounds.
• Michael Porrini played a solid floor game with 3points, 3 rebounds, 8 assists, 3 steals and 1 blocked shot.
• Hugh Mingo led ULM with 16 points and Tommie Sykes had a game-high 10 rebounds.
TV / Radio
Ty Linder and David Carducci will bring you the action on the Golden Flashes iHeartRadio channel.
Next Up For Kent State
The Golden Flashes will host Canisius on Saturday at 7 p.m. in the second of four games as part of the 2015 Continental Tire Las Vegas Classic. The Flashes will travel to Las Vegas for the final two games on Dec. 22-23.
