Kent State beats Bowling Green, advances to third straight MAC men’s basketball title game
CLEVELAND — The Kent State men’s basketball team certainly seems to enjoy playing at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse.
Guards Giovanni Santiago and Jalen Sullinger combined for 11 3-pointers in a 73-60 victory over Bowling Green Friday night to send the Golden Flashes into the Mid-American Conference Tournament championship game for the third consecutive season.
“They shot the lights out all night,” Kent State coach Rob Senderoff said. “It's really great to be able to move on and play in another championship game because it's not easy to do.”
The title game will pit the Flashes (17-16) against rival Akron — a 65-62 winner over Ohio in Friday's second semifinal — at 7:30 p.m. Saturday with a berth in the NCAA Tournament at stake. The Zips won both of the teams' previous games this season.
After not being able to compete in last year's MAC Tournament, Santiago said he was happy to contribute this time around.
“It's never the same when you're not playing,” he said. “Knowing that this is my last year, I just wanted to do whatever I can to help us win.”
Even with the hot shooting from deep, the guards totaled 11 of Kent State's 12 assists.
“You have to have good guard play in March, and you have to take care of the ball,” Senderoff said. “You have to make the right plays, and tonight they did that at a really high level. That's why we're still playing.”
After Flashes forward VonCameron Davis’ 26-point performance the day before against Toledo, Santiago said, “They have to either double him or let us shoot.”
KSU connected on 12 of its 18 attempts from behind the arc. The day before against the Rockets, Kent State shot 5 of 23 from deep.
“As a shooter, you don't think about it too much,” Sullinger said. “There's always a next-time mentality, so we can see in the shots that we can make.”
After Bowling Green (20-13) bolted to an 11-6 lead to start the game, KSU responded with a 28-9 run to take a 32-22 lead with three minutes remaining in the first half. The Falcons closed to within 34-28 at halftime and 45-42 eight minutes into the second half, but the Flashes scored the next five points and never led by less than six points again.
Santiago and Sullinger were the only KSU players to score in double figures, but Cli’Ron Hornbeak added nine points and grabbed a game-high nine rebounds to help the Flashes to a 33-29 edge on the boards.
Marcus Hill scored 22 points for the Falcons.
As a team, the Flashes shot 51% and converted 12 of their 18 shots from behind the arc. The Falcons shot 37% and were successful on just 4 of their 20 shots from deep.
Coming into the game, Senderoff knew it was going to be important to win the rebounding battle.
“We knew if we were able to stay about even on the glass, we thought we'd have a chance,” he said. “We wanted to make sure we kept the body on the body as much as possible, and we did a great job with that.”
Just one win from the NCAA Tournament, Kent State needs to stay hot. And to win three games in three days starts with the players' belief, Senderoff said.
“Hopefully, we can execute the game plan as best we can, and if we can do that then we'll give ourselves a chance [Saturday],” he said. “Both teams are great teams, so we're going to have to make sure we're focused on what we need to do.”
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Kent State to play Akron in MAC men's basketball championship game
