by Kent, OH; It was a Friday night primetime matchup between two familiar MAC foes. But it would be the Kent State Golden Flashes (13-4) with the 87-84 victory over the Toledo Rockets (10-7). The win improves Kent State to 14-4 on the season making it their 11th win over Toledo over the last 15 meetings including four straight, while dropping the road team to 10-8 on the season. It was a huge win for the home team as they improve to 5-1 in conference play. “Good crowd tonight, good environment against a good team, and it was overall a good win for our guys,” head coach Rob Senderoff said about the win.
The Golden Flashes were led by Delrecco Gillespie yet again who tallied up 29 points, 13 rebounds, three assists, and one block. Jahari Williamson followed up with 19 points, one rebound, and one steal, including shooting 5-for-7 from deep. While Cian Medley finished with 11 points, nine assists, two steals, and one rebound.
You could tell that it was going to be a very close game from the get go. In fact, the Rockets came out with an early advantage and led 19-14 with 9:46 left in the first half. But all it took was a little 7-2 run from the home team and it was tied up at 21 a piece at the under-8 media timeout.
Leave it up to Toledo though ending the first half on a very strong note thanks to a 20-14 advantage the rest of the way. A big part was thanks to Austin Parks who turned it on to end the half and the double team defense forcing Gillespie to just 3-for-7 shooting to start. It was a 41-35 halftime lead for the road team.
Both teams came out of the half with lots of scoring as Kent State went on a 13-10 run cutting their deficit down to three. “To see us come out in the second half and play as well as we did was great to see,” Senderoff said. The Rockets still held a 51-48 with 15 minutes left to play, but it was a tight game once again.
Senderoff’s squad would keep their foot on the gas taking a 57-53 lead across the next three minutes. With the home crowd back into it, Toledo tied it back up quickly to silence the home crowd. At the under-12 media timeout of the second half, it was anyone’s game at 57-all.
Whatever the defensive plan for Gillespie was in the first half completely went away in the second. The senior completely went off and ignited the offense scoring 20 points in the second compared to just nine in the first. With just eight minutes left to play, it was a 68-62 lead for the home team and you know who to thank for it.
It was Williamson’s turn to get heated up for the offense as his three ball was red hot all night long. Kent State still held a nice lead at 77-68 with 5:15 left. “Jahari hit a lot of good shots to help give us a lead,” Senderoff said postgame. Give it up to the Rockets though as they would refuse to go down easily. Tod Kowalczyk’s team cut it down to a three point deficit but could get no closer. The Golden Flashes ended up dominating the second half 52-43 in points as they get a gritty 87-84 win done in the end. It was much needed to help prepare for the undefeated Miami Redhawks on Tuesday night.
