by Kent, OH; It was the Kent State Golden Flashes pulling off the home win over the Bowling Green Falcons with a 96-93 win. The win now puts Kent at 12-3 on the season while Bowling Green drops to 11-5. “Great win for these guys. Hard fought win. We knew they (Bowling Green) were a good team coming in,” head coach Rob Senderoff said following the game.
But most importantly, Senderoff earned his 300th career win while with the program. “I’ve been with coach for four years so it feels really good for him to get to those 300 wins against a good team too,” senior Delrecco Gillespie speaking about the head coach following the big win.
The Golden Flashes were led by Gillespie who finished with yet another double-double tallying up 32 points, 10 rebounds, and one assist. Morgan Safford finished with 22 points, six rebounds, and two blocks. While Cian Medley finished with a double-double himself racking up 11 points, 10 assists, and one rebound.
You could tell nearly right away that it was going to be a close game. The Falcons came out going back and forth with Kent State as they came away with a 21-20 lead with 11:21 left to play in the first half.
In fact, it would remain just as even at halftime as it was a 45-45 game. Both teams were very similar in all categories too as the Golden Flashes were shooting 46%, totaled nine rebounds, four assists, 14 points in the paint, and committed 10 personal fouls themselves. While Bowling Green was shooting 53%, totaled 13 rebounds, four assists, 10 points in the paint, and committed seven personal fouls. All with neither team holding more than a six point lead with seven lead changes total.
But Kent State was determined to turn things around quickly as they came out of the half on a 7-0 run to take a 52-45 lead in just over two minutes. They were even able to open it up to their largest lead of the game at 59-50 with 15:35 left in the second half. “Simply put, we got chewed out after the last game about our response going into halftime, and we knew that as seniors we couldn’t have that again. So we made it an emphasis to put our foot on the gas,” Safford said about learning from the previous game.
The Falcons would not go away though as they stormed all the way back to take a 68-66 lead. Making it a 18-7 run entirely, Javontae Campbell began to catch fire as he ignited their second half offense. Voted to be on the preseason All-MAC first team, Campbell led the way for the road team with 28 points, six rebounds, and nine assists. “He has as good as a motor for any guard I’ve coached against,” Senderoff said postgame. “Outside of when we play him, I enjoy watching him play.”
But another big reason why Bowling Green stayed around in the game was because of Kent State foul trouble for the entire night. They allowed 31 free throw attempts, including 15 alone in just the second half.
To finish it out, the game went back to being how it was in the first half. A very hard fought effort from both teams going back and forth with each other. It was exactly what you would expect from a MAC game with two of the top teams in the conference. Tied up at 84 a piece at the under-4 media timeout, it was set up to be anyone’s game with both teams in the bonus.
The Falcons found themselves going on a 9-6 run coming out of the media timeout silencing the home crowd for the moment being. With 1:26 left to play, the Golden Flashes found themselves trailing 93-90.
It was a collective effort from Bowling Green as they had the chance to make the go-ahead basket with just over four seconds left, but they would miss it and the foul game started as the Falcons would find themselves falling just short by three points in the end. It ended up being Kent State pulling out the electric 96-93 victory in front of their home crowd. The Golden Flashes now hit the road for a two-game road trip that begins in Central Michigan on Saturday afternoon. “Everyone really competed at a high level and that’s what we need moving forward,” Senderoff added to the team’s strong performance.
