by It was a Saturday afternoon edition of the MAC-SBC challenge. This one coming from Kent, Ohio where the 14-8 Kent State Golden Flashes welcomed in the 18-6 Arkansas State Red Wolves.
It would be all about Jalen Sullinger for the winning Golden Flashes, leading the way with 27 points, his second most of the season, including 4 three’s, and 4 assists to go along with the special performance. Forward Delrecco Gillespie followed with 12 points, and 9 rebounds for Kent State.
“It was a really good win for us,” head coach Rob Senderoff said after the game. “Great for us to play as hard as we did at home today. We needed to beat a big team, especially at home.” Senderoff makes a great point after a 1-4 home record in January, very unlike Kent State.
Arkansas State was led by guard Joseph Pinion with 20 points, and guard Taryn Todd with 17 points. They also had two different players scoring 10 or more, giving them four total players with double digits on the afternoon.
The Red Wolves started off the game with a hot 7-0 run within the first two minutes. But things slowed down and the Golden Flashes were able to cut the Arkansas State lead down to 7-4 by the first media timeout.
Coming out of the timeout, a bucket by Jalen Sullinger followed by a steal and another basket by Cian Medley gave Kent State a 8-7 lead. But that did not last long as Arkansas State continued to answer back in what was turning out to be a back and fourth game.
Both teams were struggling from beyond the three point line to start the game, as most of the points were coming from inside the paint.
By time the next media timeout rolled around, Kent State was able to grow a lead of 14-9 with 11:47 left to play in the first half.
The Golden Flashes lead quickly went away after a 5-0 run by Arkansas State, but both teams would just continue to go back and fourth with each other for the most part.
The scoring finally started to go up as both teams turned to more of an up tempo offense. The three’s began to fall as well with both teams combining for 5 of them, and 4 alone coming from Arkansas State.
The Red Wolves started to get more physical as well, having two put-back dunks during their 20-11 run. Arkansas State held a whopping 29-23 lead with 7:41 left in the first half.
It would next be Kent State’s turn to go on a run. The Golden Flashes went on a 11-2 run being led by Delrecco Gillespie with 4 points on the run. It would be both Gillespie and Sullinger each with 10 points as the Golden Flashes held a 34-31 lead with 3:20 left in the half.
The first half could be summed up as very physical on both ends. Arkansas State committed 9 team fouls, while Kent State had racked up 7 of them in just the first half.
Outside of the big 20-11 run by the Red Wolves, it would primarily be a defensive game. The Red Wolves forced 7 turnovers while the Golden Flashes forced 6 turnovers.
Arkansas State held a very narrow 39-36 lead at the half as neither team had more than a 7 point lead.
If you thought the physicality of this game would go away because of halftime, well, you would be wrong. As Kent State would start off the half with a very slow 4-0 run, while committing three personal fouls in the first three minutes.
A deep three by Jalen Sullinger would take us into the first media timeout of the second half, where the Golden Flashes held a 45-43 lead.
Sullinger absolutely started to feel himself in the second half. He racked up a quick 10 points in under 9 minutes of play to begin the half, when he had 10 points the entire first half.
The second half would be extremely tight and back and fourth to start. Heading into the second media timeout, Arkansas State would have a 52-51 lead with 11:11 left to play.
The physicality would not let down one bit. Both teams were in the bonus with 8:44 left to play setting up for a pretty tight finish.
At the next media timeout with 7:55 left, the Red Wolves would still have a narrow lead at 58-56. This could come as a surprise with Arkansas State shooting 25% in the second half at this point, but going 7-for-7 from the free throw line will help hide a lot of the second half issues going on.
Despite all of the issues to start, Arkansas State grew their second half lead to as much as 68-63. The Red Wolves could thank a 10-4 run that was led by Taryn Todd’s 7 points. Todd had 7 of his 17 total points on just that run alone.
The Golden Flashes would go on a quick 3-0 run heading into the final media timeout of the game. As Arkansas State had just a 68-66 lead with 3:28 left to play.
This one would be coming down to the wire, literally. As there was no room for error on either side in the final three minutes where there were 5 different lead changes.
The physicality did not slow down one bit whatsoever. It even got to the point where both teams were exchanging foul shots every other possession.
With Jamal Sumlin hitting two big time free throws late, Kent State had a 76-75 lead heading into Arkansas State’s final possession.
The Red Wolves were able to get two good looks, but the ball was unable to find the bottom of the net as the Kent State Golden flashes got the defensive stop they needed.
Kent State would go onto win 76-75, improving to an overall record of 15-8, with their MAC record still sitting at 5-5 on the season. While Arkansas State drops to 18-7 overall, but still sits in first in the SBC with a record of 9-3.
