by Kent, OH; It was an early season matchup between Ivy and MAC league foes. The Cornell University Big Red were looking at their first action of the new season. While the Kent State Golden Flashes were coming off a rough 97-103 loss overtime loss against the Troy Tojans on Monday night to open up the season. Luckily for the Golden Flashes, the bounced back nicely on Friday night with a 110-102 win in which four different players scored in double digits. “Happy we got the win. Proud of these guys for finding a way to get this one,” head coach Rob Senderoff said following the game. Senderoff also pointed out how Cornell is a unique team.
Graduate student Morgan Safford finished with a career-high 34 points including 9-for-15 from deep with 5 rebounds, 1 assist, and 4 steals to go along with it. “I sat out two years ago and last year I was hurt. I’m just super excited to be playing basketball right now,” Safford said postgame. Senior Delrecco Gillespie followed right behind coming up with back-to-back double-doubles to start the season by tallying up 15 points and 10 rebounds. Gillespie was also picked to be on the preseason All-MAC first team.
The first 10 minutes were essentially all Kent State as they got out to a 21-11 lead shooting 55% and it looked like Cornell was getting ready for a slow start to the season. But that would not be the case as they would finish the half outscoring the Golden Flashes 44-36 to really get themselves back into the game.
The Big Red came out shooting a very strong 64% from deep in which they went 14-for-22. They also had three different players with 3 three pointers in the first half alone. Kent State did go 11-for-22 from deep themselves which is why they still held onto a 58-55 halftime lead. Safford was leading the way with 16 points while shooting 4-for-6 from three.
It would be the Golden Flashes turn to get hot as they went on a 15-2 run right out of halftime. A quick 5-for-7 start, including 3-for-5 from deep would give Kent State a 71-57 lead with 15:37 left in the second half. Despite not popping up on the box score scoring wise like he did on Monday night, Rob Whaley was bringing the energy with two amazing passes from the paint to outside the arc on the run. The big man racked up 4 assists on the night.
The Golden Flashes took their perimeter defense from the first half personally. They held Cornell to just 28% from deep going 5-for-18 in the second half to help completely flip the game. The Big Red also shot just 42% in the second compared to the Flashes 55%.
Kent State would get their largest lead up to 78-60 with 13:11 left in the game. But Cornell would refuse to go away. Despite not shooting as efficiently as they were in the first half, the Big Red were still making enough shots to stay in the game with help from picking up the intensity on defense.
Cornell would even cut their deficit down to as less as 94-101 with just 3:39 left to play. The 34-23 scoring run helped the Big Red make it competitive down to the final minutes. They were able to shoot 61% on the run looking much more like how they did in the first half.
The Big Red kept it going as they trailed by just 102-106 with under two minutes to go. It was a tremendous effort being shown on both sides of the ball by Cornell. But it would not be enough though as the Golden Flashes narrowly came out with the 107-102 win to get their first victory of the season.
