Sports
Kent State prevails over Ohio after late-game drama
By: Andrew Bowlby
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KENT, Ohio (WOUB) – What can change in three weeks between meetings for a pair of college basketball teams? Certainly not much as Ohio (13-12, 7-5 MAC) and Kent State (17-8, 7-5 MAC) delivered another thriller on national TV with the Golden Flashes hanging on 76-75.
Only 21 days before Friday night’s game, it was the Bobcats escaping with a two-point win on their home court.
That game featured an all-out defensive battle, and one Ohio was without star AJ Clayton. In round two, the Bobcats had Clayton back and at least at the start, seemed to be determined to get into a more offensive outing.
Immediately, Ohio found success knocking down 10 of their first 11 shots from the field. AJ Brown, Shereef Mitchell, Jackson Paveletzke, Elmore James and AJ Clayton all made a three in the first eight minutes of the game and led the Bobcats to a 25-16 advantage.
For Clayton, his early triple didn’t translate into much success beyond that. He made just one other shot finishing the night with five points. It was the fifth game in the last seven that Clayton has been held to under 10 points. He also played for only 19 minutes, one of the lowest totals of the season.
Ohio’s hot offensive start was even more impressive coming against a Kent State defense that ranked best in the MAC and 64th nationally by KenPom.
After starting relatively quiet, in comparison to Ohio, KSU jumped back into the game. The Golden Flashes were led by Cian Medley who put up 14 points on 6/7 from the field. Medley was a major spot of improvement for Kent State after he scored just five points in the first meeting going 2/11 on his shot attempts.
The Golden Flashes finished the first half with a 44-40 lead over the Bobcats despite Ohio shooting 62%. They also held the lead without much of a contribution from leading scorer VonCameron Davis. He put up eight points in the first, but the Bobcats made everything difficult.
Ohio head coach Jeff Boals noted that the efforts to guard Davis led to Medley having a chance to shine.
“I thought we did a good job on him,” Boals said on his defense against Davis. “You’re going to give up something when you put so much attention on Davis.”
Even after a strong first half that Ohio found itself down, a quick turn was made coming out of the break. Brown drained an early three adding on to Clayton’s second make putting the Bobcats back ahead 45-44 and setting the precedent that the second half would go back-and-forth.
Kent State went the first 3:16 without scoring but never fell behind by more than a possession or two.
Mitchell then began to enter the conversation taking over the game and controlling it for Ohio. Just a few nights after the Bobcats closed out a similar game vs Bowling Green, they were once again reliant on their guards to finish the job.
Half of Mitchells 25 points came in the latter frame, but maybe more notably came while wearing the No. 12 jersey. His usually No. 4 jersey got blood on it during the first half. Boals confirmed Mitchell had been elbowed in the mouth and will likely need a few stiches, but that didn’t stop him from stepping up.
Along with some help, Mitchell kept Ohio in a game that started to favor the home team. KSU pulled ahead by five but the Bobcats responded with a 7-0 run. From that point on neither team could gain any separation and led to a dramatic finish.
On an offensive set trailing 72-70, Paveletzke lost the ball and dove to recover but it was taken away by Cli’ron Hornbeak and dunked in fastbreak. Boals was incensed no foul was called against Kent State.
“I thought there was a foul,” Boals said. “Every officiating video you see, they call that.”
Despite going down by four with 22 seconds left, the game was still not over. Vic Searls got what seemed like a garbage time layup but actually proved to be very important. Jalen Sullinger sunk a pair of free throws to put the Golden Flashes back up by four, but still, Ohio wasn’t done.
Mitchell made a tough three in transition and then forced a turnover on the Kent State inbound giving the Bobcats a final shot down 76-75. Mitchell took that shot and just missed.
“He got a good look at it, just missed it,” Boals added. “One play doesn’t lose you the game. What he did the prior minutes he played was phenomenal.”
It was a defeated Ohio team after losing by a couple of inches in a hard-fought game. The Bobcats tried something different down the stretch that they hadn’t up until this point in the season. With 8:37 to play, Clayton checked out of the game and Ohio played with Searls in. Clayton returned in the final seconds.
“We felt good with Vic [Searls], his post presence was really good, his defense was good, so we just kind of stayed with it.” Boals said.
The Bobcats did fall short Friday, but they split a two-game road trip with the win over Bowling Green. Now, it’s back home to play four of their final six regular season games beginning with Central Michigan on Tuesday at 7 p.m.