SECOND HALF
FINAL: Yale 66, Kent State 59
The Flashes lose their first game of the season.
Unfortunately, they forgot a bit about Jimmy Hall, who finished with 22 points but didn't get a shot in the final six minutes of the game.
Hall was the only player in double figures after Kent State had four score 10 or more in the last two games.
Yale had five in double figures, led by Jack Montague's 13.
0:19... Dev Manley just missed an open three out of the timeout. It would have tied the game. Yale now adding to the lead at the foul line ... Sears hits two and its 64-59.
0:28.8 ... Yale now up 62-59 after two Sears free throws.
Kris Brewer couldn't get a call down one and driving to the rim. Senderoff furious with officials, slapping his hands on the scorers table.
1:58 ... A Derek Jackson three pointer on a pass from Jimmy Hall, beating a double team, has put Kent State up 57-56. The shot answered a three by Yale's Montague.
Bulldogs have called timeout.
3:48 ... Kent State back into the lead, but its a slim one at 52-51 ... and Yale heading back to the foul line after a questionable call by Courtney Green, whistling Khaliq Spicer as he tried to fight for an offensive rebound.
The Flashes have gotten away from feeding the post. Hall needs more touches. It's been a while since he has seen the ball on the offensive end.
7:44 ... Yale leads 48-46.
Defense has picked up for Kent State in the last minute as Jimmy Hall and Khaliq Spicer both have blocked shots.
The first block turned into a two-handed dunk by Spicer on a nice find Hall. Big-to-big passing has been such a key to the Flashes over the years.
Hall's 22 leads all scorers.
Yale is 9-for-14 from the field in the second half while Kent State is 6-of-13.
9:10 ... Justin Sears and Jack Montague are starting to get things going for Yale in the second half after getting shut down by the KSU defense in the first 20 minutes.
Yale leads 46-44 and has the ball coming out of the timeout.
11:01 ... Jimmy Hall has 20 points and Kent State is up 42-41 after briefly giving up the lead for the first time in this tournament at 37-36 on a split of free throws by Sears.
Yale really has no answer for Hall when he gets a deep touch in the post. The Flashes often posted Hall higher on the floor in the first half, and he had a few troubles. He is getting better position and making the Bulldogs pay for it.
The Bulldogs have got it going offensively, too, though, shooting 70 percent so far in this half (7-for-10) after just 35 percent in the first half (7-of-20).
15:47 ... A rocky start to the second half continues. Yale has now tied the game at 36-36 after a fallaway from 18 feet by Jack Montague.
Hall is on the bench going into this media timeout, but he can't stay there for long. Hall has 16 points on 8-of-13 shooting in his 18 minutes of work.
The Flashes are waiting for Devareaux Manley to catch a little fire from the perimeter. He missed two threes in the last minute and is now 0-for-3 from the arc.
Manley has been very good in other areas, though. He just blocked a shot with good anticipation on some help defense. It was Manley who also beat the buzzer with a driving layup to give the Flashes their 32-24 lead into halftime.
18:41 ... Jimmy Hall has a layup on a nice pass from Kris Brewer, but that's the only thing that has gone right for the Flashes in the first minute-plus of the second half. An 8-2 run has allowed Yale to cut the KSU lead to 34-32.
The Flashes lose their first game of the season.
Unfortunately, they forgot a bit about Jimmy Hall, who finished with 22 points but didn't get a shot in the final six minutes of the game.
Hall was the only player in double figures after Kent State had four score 10 or more in the last two games.
Yale had five in double figures, led by Jack Montague's 13.
0:19... Dev Manley just missed an open three out of the timeout. It would have tied the game. Yale now adding to the lead at the foul line ... Sears hits two and its 64-59.
0:28.8 ... Yale now up 62-59 after two Sears free throws.
Kris Brewer couldn't get a call down one and driving to the rim. Senderoff furious with officials, slapping his hands on the scorers table.
1:58 ... A Derek Jackson three pointer on a pass from Jimmy Hall, beating a double team, has put Kent State up 57-56. The shot answered a three by Yale's Montague.
Bulldogs have called timeout.
3:48 ... Kent State back into the lead, but its a slim one at 52-51 ... and Yale heading back to the foul line after a questionable call by Courtney Green, whistling Khaliq Spicer as he tried to fight for an offensive rebound.
The Flashes have gotten away from feeding the post. Hall needs more touches. It's been a while since he has seen the ball on the offensive end.
7:44 ... Yale leads 48-46.
Defense has picked up for Kent State in the last minute as Jimmy Hall and Khaliq Spicer both have blocked shots.
The first block turned into a two-handed dunk by Spicer on a nice find Hall. Big-to-big passing has been such a key to the Flashes over the years.
Hall's 22 leads all scorers.
Yale is 9-for-14 from the field in the second half while Kent State is 6-of-13.
9:10 ... Justin Sears and Jack Montague are starting to get things going for Yale in the second half after getting shut down by the KSU defense in the first 20 minutes.
Yale leads 46-44 and has the ball coming out of the timeout.
11:01 ... Jimmy Hall has 20 points and Kent State is up 42-41 after briefly giving up the lead for the first time in this tournament at 37-36 on a split of free throws by Sears.
Yale really has no answer for Hall when he gets a deep touch in the post. The Flashes often posted Hall higher on the floor in the first half, and he had a few troubles. He is getting better position and making the Bulldogs pay for it.
The Bulldogs have got it going offensively, too, though, shooting 70 percent so far in this half (7-for-10) after just 35 percent in the first half (7-of-20).
15:47 ... A rocky start to the second half continues. Yale has now tied the game at 36-36 after a fallaway from 18 feet by Jack Montague.
Hall is on the bench going into this media timeout, but he can't stay there for long. Hall has 16 points on 8-of-13 shooting in his 18 minutes of work.
The Flashes are waiting for Devareaux Manley to catch a little fire from the perimeter. He missed two threes in the last minute and is now 0-for-3 from the arc.
Manley has been very good in other areas, though. He just blocked a shot with good anticipation on some help defense. It was Manley who also beat the buzzer with a driving layup to give the Flashes their 32-24 lead into halftime.
18:41 ... Jimmy Hall has a layup on a nice pass from Kris Brewer, but that's the only thing that has gone right for the Flashes in the first minute-plus of the second half. An 8-2 run has allowed Yale to cut the KSU lead to 34-32.
FIRST HALF
1:15 ... Second foul on Kellon Thomas earlier has forced KSU to play most of the final two minutes without a true point guard. Kris Brewer had picked up his second foul. Derek Jackson is running the offense.
3:42 ... The Flashes have fought through a tough stretch for both teams that featured some pretty ugly basketball.
The Kent State lead is 24-16 but Yale's Javier Duren will go to the line out of this timeout.
Officiating by Todd Van Sosson, Courtney Green and Kelly Pfeifer has been pretty awful on both ends today.
7:04 ... Defense has been excellent.
Yale getting very few good looks at the basket and shooting just 33 percent (5-for-15). The Bulldogs are also just 1-for-5 on threes.
Jimmy Hall has 8 to lead the Flashes.
11:41 ... The Flashes have never trailed in this tournament. Could they get a wire-to-wire three game tournament victory?
Right now they are up 15-9 and have the basketball coming out of the timeout after forcing a 35-second violation.
Kent State's defense late in the shot clock has been excellent early. That will be a key today, according to Senderoff during pre game.
14:34 ... Kent State leads 8-7 at the first media timeout.
Kris Brewer has hit a three, and Khaliq Spicer has a powerful two-handed dunk courtesy of Craig Brown, who ripped an offensive rebound away from two Yale players and had the presence of mind to find the Golden Flashes center standing all alone on the right block.
PREGAME
This is a great mid-major college basketball game today at the M.A.C. Center with Yale facing Kent State for the championship of the Men Against Breast Cancer Classic.As Rob Senderoff said, this will be like playing a very good Mid-American Conference team, similar to an Ohio University or a Buffalo. In fact, the Bulldogs run some actions that are very similar to what Buffalo does offensively.
The Flashes will have to defend at a high level, just as they have in their wins over Southern Illinois and Illinois-Chicago. Those games saw Kent State defend as well as a team as they have in several seasons. Lots of talking. Great at challenging the three. Aggressive around the rim. Good rotations. No team has shot 40 percent or above against the Flashes in their four games so far this season.
That could change tonight as Yale has several players who shoot it at a high percentage, including two guard Jack Montague, who is hitting the three at a 75-percent clip (15-for-20) so far this season.
The best player on the floor this whole weekend, according to Senderoff, could be Yale junior Justin Sears – a bouncy 6-foot-8 junior forward who comes in averaging 47.9 percent from the floor. He is similar around the rim to Kent State’s Jimmy Hall. That will make two difficult matchups in a row at the four defensively in the last two games for KSU.
Yale also welcomes back 6-foot-7 center Matt Townsend, who has been away for the last two games while interviewing for a Rhodes Scholarship.
Final from first game, Southern Illinois beat Illinois-Chicago 67-60
Live Blog will start soon ...
You can listen to the game this afternoon on WHLO 640 AM and on iHeartRadio.
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