SECOND HALF
FINAL: Kent State 79-77
Kris Brewer with a driving layup at the buzzer wins it.
The Golden Flashes are regular-season co-champions of the Mid-American Conference.
For the minute-by-minute, check the @CarducciKSU and @KentStMBB twitter accounts.
1:55 ... First Ibitayo fouled out for Akron. Now the Zips have lost Isaiah Johnson to his 5th foul. Johnson has been very good tonight with 14 points and 6 rebounds.
Kris Brewer has 16 points, all in the second half.
Jimmy Hall's defense has been possibly the biggest key to the Flashes owning a 70-67 lead at this point, blocking five shots to go with his 15-point, 6-rebound night.
Manley will go to the line, trying to add to this 3-point lead.
4:00 ... Kent State built an 8-point lead on a 10-0 run, but Akron has answered with back-to-back threes by Antino Jackson and Reggie McAdams.
Akron back within 2 at 67-65 after just being up 8.
Senderoff just took a timeout.
6:18 ... Kris Brewer was scoreless at halftime. He now has 11 points, including a transition 3 pointer that made Kent State the first to get to 60 with a 61-59 lead
First team to 60 in this rivalry has won 33 of last 35 in series.
Flashes are on a 6-0 run that includes some good work by Chris Ortiz, going 3-for-4 from line and adding some good work on the offensive glass.
Dambrot took this timeout.
Can the Flashes turn this 6-0 spurt into a bigger run and take control of this game?
Crowd has gone from scared to louder than at any time tonight and into this game!
This run started after Johnson picked up his 4th foul for Akron. Having his big body out has been a big key.
7:55 ... A driving layup by Ibitayo drawing a foul has given Akron a 59-57 lead at the timeout.
Kent State coaches are insisting an Akron player touched the rim before the ball fell in, but the officials are not going to look at it.
Ibitayo can put the Zips up by 3 if he makes the free throw with 7:55 to go.
11:18 ... Akron showing a great deal of fight.
Defense has not been good over last five or six minutes as Akron is getting what it wants at the rim, and now mixing in some threes.
Flashes need to pull it together as Akron is playing free and loose while the Flashes are playing like every possession means the season.
Right now it is tied 51-51.
15:46 ... Kent State up 43-36 at the first media timeout of the second half.
Kris Brewer with a driving layup at the buzzer wins it.
The Golden Flashes are regular-season co-champions of the Mid-American Conference.
For the minute-by-minute, check the @CarducciKSU and @KentStMBB twitter accounts.
1:55 ... First Ibitayo fouled out for Akron. Now the Zips have lost Isaiah Johnson to his 5th foul. Johnson has been very good tonight with 14 points and 6 rebounds.
Kris Brewer has 16 points, all in the second half.
Jimmy Hall's defense has been possibly the biggest key to the Flashes owning a 70-67 lead at this point, blocking five shots to go with his 15-point, 6-rebound night.
Manley will go to the line, trying to add to this 3-point lead.
4:00 ... Kent State built an 8-point lead on a 10-0 run, but Akron has answered with back-to-back threes by Antino Jackson and Reggie McAdams.
Akron back within 2 at 67-65 after just being up 8.
Senderoff just took a timeout.
6:18 ... Kris Brewer was scoreless at halftime. He now has 11 points, including a transition 3 pointer that made Kent State the first to get to 60 with a 61-59 lead
First team to 60 in this rivalry has won 33 of last 35 in series.
Flashes are on a 6-0 run that includes some good work by Chris Ortiz, going 3-for-4 from line and adding some good work on the offensive glass.
Dambrot took this timeout.
Can the Flashes turn this 6-0 spurt into a bigger run and take control of this game?
Crowd has gone from scared to louder than at any time tonight and into this game!
This run started after Johnson picked up his 4th foul for Akron. Having his big body out has been a big key.
7:55 ... A driving layup by Ibitayo drawing a foul has given Akron a 59-57 lead at the timeout.
Kent State coaches are insisting an Akron player touched the rim before the ball fell in, but the officials are not going to look at it.
Ibitayo can put the Zips up by 3 if he makes the free throw with 7:55 to go.
11:18 ... Akron showing a great deal of fight.
Defense has not been good over last five or six minutes as Akron is getting what it wants at the rim, and now mixing in some threes.
Flashes need to pull it together as Akron is playing free and loose while the Flashes are playing like every possession means the season.
Right now it is tied 51-51.
15:46 ... Kent State up 43-36 at the first media timeout of the second half.
A few questionable calls have hurt the Flashes here as the officials missed an obvious five-second call on a double team of Isaiah Johnson in the left post. Johnson was closely guarded on a double team for more like 11 seconds. The no call turned into a 3-pointer by Antino Jackson.
Derek Jackson has 21 points on a steal and a layup to kick the lead back out to 7 points.
The officials also got razzed by the fans for a questionable call claiming Derek Jackson stepped out while saving the basketball on the baseline, robbing the Flashes of a 3-pointer that would have the Flashes up by double digits.
Second half is clearly going to be a war.
Akron showing a great deal of heart shorthanded.
FIRST HALF
HALFTIME: Kent State leads 37-29
And how about this ... late in the first half at Kalamazoo and Buffalo, Western Michigan has a double-digit lead on Central Michigan and Bowling Green has a double-digit lead on Buffalo.
If all of these scores hold up, Kent State would have the No. 1 seed in the MAC Tournament and claim the overall MAC Regular Season Championship.
3:16 ... Jimmy Hall just gave a Dikembe Mutombo finger wave after easily blocking a Antino Jackson layup on the fast break.
The young Jackson needed to better aware of what was going on as he tried to go coast-to-coast on a 1-on-4 that had Hall in front of him and Spicer chasing down a block of his own.
The KSU lead is 33-25.
Jackson has 19 points. He drilled three free throws after getting whacked on another three-point attempt.
6:12 ... Derek Jackson is on fire. He has 16 points on 5-for-5 shooting, including 3-of-3 from three-point range, and the Flashes take a 25-18 lead into the timeout.
The Flashes watched Akron pull within 4 points at one point as the Flashes settled for a few quick shots.
That happens sometimes when you start out as hot as KSU did in this one. You start to think you can make everything and stop running your stuff in favor of that first look. You almost can't wait to get the ball up to the rim.
Since that little stretch, though, the Flashes have settled down a bit. KSU is 8-for-16 from the field and 4-of-8 from three.
Akron is 7-for-16 overall and 3-of-9 from the arc.
Cheatham has 8 of Akron's 18 and is playing very well.
11:58 ... An 18-3 run by the Golden Flashes after the 6-0 start for Akron has the Zips looking a bit rattled.
Nothing is coming easy for Akron on the offensive end. Kent State is getting great looks on the other end, going 6-for-9 from the field and 3-for-5.
The last 3-pointer turned into a 4-point play as Derek Jackson hit from 22 feet while getting whacked by Akron's Isiah Johnson.
KSU is 6-for-9 from field and 3-for-5 from three-point range.
15:11 ... Kent State takes a 10-9 lead into the first break, handling a quick 6-0 start by Akron on threes by Jake Kretzer and Kwan Cheatham.
Kent State is getting some good looks inside with some nice passing and with guards like Derek Jackson in attack mode.
Devareaux Manley became the first Kent State player to make 100 threes in one season with a connection at around the 19-minute to get the Flashes on the scoreboard.
Spicer has a big two-handed dunk on a great find by Kris Brewer.
The Flashes are shooting 4-for-6 from the field and 2-for-3 from three-point range.
PREGAME
On paper, Kent State has to like its chances against a University of Akron team that has taken some significant hits to its roster due to injury.
This is a rivalry game, though, and anything can happen. It's also a rivalry game with one of the best coaches in mid-major college basketball on the opposite sideline. My bet is Keith Dambrot finds a wrinkle that will keep this game close. He won't have any trouble motivating the Zips, even with key players like center Pat Forsythe (foot) and Noah Robotham (knee) missing.
Without Forsythe, the Zips will likely focus even more on three-point shooting. They already rank 1st in the MAC and 4th nationally in terms of percentage of points coming from beyond the three-point arc at 42 percent.
If Akron gets hot, anything is possible. The Flashes need to close out in control, challenge every three, and force the Zips into contested twos.
Freshman point guard Antino Jackson is capable of hurting the Flashes from long range. He shoots the three at 32 percent. Nyles Evans is a 39 percent shooter who can also hit the three off of ball screens and switches. Aaron Jackson is the third guard in the starting lineup, and he hits his catch-and-shoot threes at a 33-percent clip. Jake Kretzer starts at the four and shoots the three at a little better than 32 percent. Off the bench, Reggie McAdams is a worry. The 6-foot-7 junior shoots 42 percent from beyond the arc and can sizzle off the bench. He has a 31-point night this season.
Akron attempts 28 threes per game this season. It could shoot as many as 40 tonight.
The Zips are also a very good defensive team in the half court, but without Forsythe, it will be interesting to see if they can defend post ups as well as they have all season (9th nationally this season).
Look for KSU to test that interior defense by going inside to Jimmy Hall early and often. Remember, Hall was missing when the Zips beat the Flashes in Akron last month.
KSU will need to try to get easy baskets in transition.
It's senior night for Devareaux Manley, Kris Brewer and Derek Jackson. They should be ready for this one, although we've seen seniors struggle before under the pressure of playing in front of friends and family in their last game at the M.A.C. Center. Hit a few early and that pressure should be ease.
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