Akron extended its winning streak over Kent State to five Friday night, improving its record to 23-6 with a 15-1 conference record. The win also secured the regular season Mid-American Conference championship and top seed in the MAC tournament.
Kent State on the other hand, dropped its second in three games, though the other loss was a very respectable overtime road loss to Miami, who sits at second in the conference standings.
Since its first loss to Akron on Jan. 31, the Flashes have gone 5-2, bringing their record to 19-10 along with a conference record of 9-7, placing themselves in the mix for a top-three seeding in the MAC tournament.
As far as the matchup with Akron on Friday night, the Flashes kept themselves from going down double-digits in the opening minutes, which is something they have not been able to avoid in recent matchups with the Zips.
Despite a better start, Kent State still found itself down 12-5 five minutes into the game, but an elongated 21-4 run over the next seven minutes put the Flashes up 26-16 with eight minutes left in the first half.
As expected, the Zips fought back, cutting the lead to two multiple times before the end of the half, but Kent State was able to recreate a cushion, going up nine points late in the half, before a late turnover and Akron basket made the halftime score 39-32.
After Kent State hit a three-pointer to open the second half, the Zips again fought back, cutting the lead to 49-48 with just under 14 minutes left, then taking a short-lived one-point lead a couple minutes later.
Kent State came right back with a 12-2 run, taking a 63-54 lead with under eight minutes.
However, one more time, the Zips made a push and closed on a 23-9 run, winning by a score of 77-72 and preserving their perfect home record.
So, what went wrong for Kent State? In part, that was just a good team they played and they were bound to hit some shots and make some plays. With that, there were some problems that allowed Akron to come back essentially three times, with the third one being the killer.
Even though Akron shot 7-26 (26.92%) from behind the arc, well below its 35.5% average, the Flashes gave up multiple untimely wide open three-point shots, which are crucial to comeback attempts.
Kent State allowed multiple multi-possession attempts, allowing Akron to score on second, third, and even fourth chances.
When the Flashes went down 52-51, coach Rob Senderoff called a timeout, and out of that timeout, the team dominated the offensive and defensive glass on its way to that nine-point lead with under eight minutes.
However, after they built that lead, it was Akron who dominated the glass, and continued to do so through the final whistle.
In past games against the Zips, the Flashes have looked unprepared for Akron’s press defense, but Friday, they handled it pretty well. Despite that, Kent State turned the ball over 13 times.
One turnover that was crucial came with under ten seconds in the first half. The Flashes were up 39-30 with a chance to take a double-digit lead into halftime, but the inbound pass was tipped and stolen, leading to a fast-break layup for Akron, resulting in a possible four-point swing.
That was the second straight season that the Flashes have turned over an inbound pass and given up a layup just before halftime at Akron.
Free throws were another issue for the Flashes, making 10 of their 16, resulting in a rate of just 62.5%.
Akron was not especially impressive shooting free throws either, but its 14-for-19 (73.68%) was noticeably better. Kent State also committed untimely fouls, such as fouling Akron behind the three-point arc when the shot clock was under five.
Finally, and probably the least impactful, but still noticeable, was the officiating. The referees, Ron Tyburski, Steve McJunkins, and Tim Stewart were solid for about 32 of the 40 minutes of that game. They made and missed some calls on both sides for sure, but it’s hard to catch everything in a basketball game.
What became a little questionable was the fact that Kent was called for nine fouls in the first 32 and a half minutes, then, once Akron was down nine with under eight minutes to go, the Flashes were called for six fouls in the next five minutes.
With 7:30 left in the game and Kent State holding its nine-point lead, the foul count was nine for Kent State and 11 for Akron. The final foul tally was 17 for Kent State and 12 for Akron. Two of the Flashes’ fouls were intentional, late in the game, but still, from 7:30-2:00, the count was six to one.
It was just awfully convenient to not take notice of, especially considering Kent was only called for one non-intentional foul once Akron took the lead.
The MAC never does seem to put its high-end referees on the biggest regular season game of the year, and this is not being said just because Kent State loss. A couple years ago, the MAC’s referees displayed two horrendous performances in eight days, both when Kent State played Akron. The first was to close the regular season, and the second was in the MAC tournament semifinals. Kent State won both games.
The point is, should the Flashes play Akron in the conference tournament, they can battle through it and still win. This also is not to say Akron will get all of the calls. They too may be forced to battle through sub-par officiating in a tournament with the Flashes.
In last year’s conference championship that Akron won, both teams had to fight through some brutally bad officiating.
Both teams have shown the ability to fight through it and win these big games, and odds are, the teams will meet again in the tournament and somebody will have to do so again.
For now, Akron will look to end its eight-game road losing streak to Toledo (16-13, 9-7), which has lost four of its last five games. The Zips will then take on Buffalo (9-20, 4-12) on senior night.
Kent State will look to close out strong and get higher seeding in the tournament when they play at Western Michigan (11-18, 8-8), which is not a free win, winning four of its last five. The Flashes will then play Eastern Michigan (15-14, 8-8), another team that has won four of its last five, on senior night.
Odds are Kent State will get one more shot against the Zips. Looking at the standings and who plays who, it appears the Flashes would not play Akron until at least the conference semifinals and maybe even the championship. Now, each team would have to earn a spot in the semifinals or championship, so it is not a given, but these two teams appear to be playing the best basketball in the conference right now.
Before possibly playing Akron again, the Flashes will have their two regular season games and possibly an additional one or two games in the tournament to fix their mistakes, so they have a little time, but not one day to waste.
Kent State is right there with Akron. They can win. Losing Friday is not what they wanted, but losing by five on the road to the best team in the conference should give this squad confidence that they most definitely can beat the Zips if they earn one more shot.