'It turns me up': Kent State frontcourt feeds off Chris Payton in win over Cleveland State

KENT — Chris Payton Jr. corralled his last rebound as time ran out.

Fittingly, it was the 20th of the game for Kent State's veteran forward. Seeing Payton hit that mark wasn't so far-fetched as Saturday's matchup with Cleveland State wore on.

Payton's career-best 20 rebounds and 18 points helped power the Golden Flashes past the Vikings 83-77 at the MAC Center. The former Pitt player was one of four players who scored in double figures for Kent State (7-3), which won its third straight.

The monster double-double came in a game in which Payton sat for almost three minutes during one first-half stretch.

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"Personally I don't think I got off to the best start," Payton said. "Defensively there were a couple plays in the beginning where I just didn't take the right angle or make the right decision and possibly got pulled for it.

"I had to sit down and recalibrate. Then I went out there, got a couple of rebounds, looked up and saw I had seven. I said to myself 'I'm working to get 13 more.'"

Payton was able to get 13 more rebounds in the nick of time.

"When you're in a rhythm like that, you have to keep playing hard," Payton said. "That's what I tried to do."

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Eight of Payton's 20 rebounds came on the offensive end. He had a hand in helping the Flashes score 20 second-chance points and 50 in the paint.

Payton's previous career high of 17 rebounds came in last month's double-overtime loss to James Madison. He also had a double-double of 14 points and 11 rebounds in Tuesday's win at South Dakota State.

The rest of the Flashes are feeding off Payton.

"It turns me up," junior center Cli'Ron Hornbeak said. "When he does those things, it makes me want to do the same things."

Hornbeak converted all seven of his shots and finished with 15 points. He eclipsed his previous season high of 13 points set in the opener against Malone.

The offense doesn't always flow through Hornbeak. When the ball was fed to him Saturday, his post moves led to finishes.

"I've worked on it a lot, but the most important thing is just confidence," Hornbeak said. "The more confidence I play with, the better I play. As long as I play with confidence, I feel like I can do anything on the basketball court."

Kent State's frontcourt produced 49 points. It led to the Flashes shooting 59% in the first half and 55% overall. They also outrebounded the Vikings 45-29.

"They did a great job up front of finishing around the rim and rebounding," Flashes coach Rob Senderoff said. "We had a number of traffic offensive rebounds that we got just from tremendous effort. I think we did a really good job in that area for sure. I think it was one of the big differences in the game."

Jalen Sullinger hit four 3s and finished with 16 points for the Flashes. Giovanni Santiago added 11 points.

Kent State built a 46-28 halftime lead and led by as many as 21 with 7:26 left. The big lead proved to be vital down the stretch when Cleveland State rallied. The Flashes missed their final four free throws and finished 16 of 27 from the line.

In Senderoff's eyes, Kent State's 19 turnovers stood out from the 11 missed free throws.

"We just have to be smarter with the basketball," Senderoff said. "(Cleveland State) is a really physical team. They're going to try to take you out of things.

"We just have to make sure we keep our composure and make simple plays. ... We were able to finish when we took care of the basketball."

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This article originally appeared on The Repository: Chris Payton Jr. grabs 20 rebounds in Kent State basketball team's win