Recordpub.com - KSU men beat Central Michigan for 7th straight win

By David Carducci

Record-Courier staff writer

MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. — In gambling terms, it was the equivalent of rolling a hard six.

With Central Michigan’s sharpshooters heating up to put their team up nine midway through the second quarter, Kent State head coach Geno Ford decided to switch defenses from man-to-man to zone.

It wasn’t the conventional decision, but it paid off in a big way.

A quick 13-0 run vaulted the Golden Flashes into the lead and keyed a 68-63 win over the Chippewas on Saturday in a battle between Mid-American Conference division leaders at the Rose Center.

The win was Kent State’s seventh in a row and its 16th consecutive against a West Division opponent dating back to Feb. 2, 2008.

“They were having a lot of success offensively,” said Ford, who’s Flashes improved to 17-7 overall and to an East Division-leading 8-2 in conference play. “Switching to zone was risky because they shoot the ball so well and (CMU’s Jordan Bitzer and Antonio Weary) had just hit two 3-pointers in a row.”

Turning to the zone was simply an attempt to break Central’s rhythm.

Instead of finding open shots from the perimeter against KSU’s zone, the Chippewas turned the ball over on four straight possessions.

To jump-start the offense on the other end, the Flashes decided to start pounding the ball into the post, where Central forward William McClure had no answer for KSU post Justin Greene.

Greene started the 13-0 run with a two-handed slam on a perfect feed to the baseline by Chris Singletary (19 points). He followed with two straight layups for six of his 18 second-half points. Greene finished with a game-high 22.

When the Flashes chose to give the 6-foot-8 center a rest, his 6-foot-10 back-up came in and picked up right where Greene left off. A one-handed slam by Brandon Parks on another spectacular pass by Singletary made the run eight in a row.

“That’s what’s great about this team,” said Ford. “One guy is playing well, we take him out and the next guy comes right in and contributes. The same thing happened when Anthony Simpson re-entered the game at the end of the run. He replaced power forward Frank Henry-Ala, who’s defense was a big reason for Central’s five-plus-minute scoring drought.

“All Simpson did was come in and hit two huge jumpers,” said Ford.

Two nights after scoring a career-high 19 in a win at Eastern Michigan, Simpson scored his first points of the night on just his second shot — a 3-pointer on from the right corner to close the run and put the Flashes ahead 52-48 with 7:44 to play.

Less than two minutes later, Simpson hit again, drilling another 3 from the opposite corner to break a 53-53 tie.

Rod Sherman hit two key shots to help keep the Flashes ahead late, knocking down a jumper from the right elbow at the four-minute mark, then stepping a few feet back for a 3-pointer at the three-minute mark. The second shot put KSU ahead 62-58.

“I had made a few mistakes at that point, but my teammates told me to just forget about it,” said Sherman, who finished with 13 points. “That got me going. My confidence was as high as ever.”

Kent State held off a late Central charge, and even survived a strange face-off in front of the Chippewas bench after Justin Greene made a diving play to corral a loose ball and called a quick timeout with 18 seconds to play and the Flashes clinging to a 66-60 lead.

When Central’s William McClure went nose-to-nose with Greene seconds after the time out was called, KSU backups Alex Grimsley and Randal Holt were ejected for coming off the bench.

Kent State’s 58.1-percent shooting from the field (25-for-43) was a season high. It included 6-of-11 from 3-point range.

“The bottom line is, when we shoot 6-for-11 from 3, we are pretty hard to beat,” said Ford. “We play good defense. We are a pretty good rebounding team and we play really hard. If we can knock down shots like we did tonight, we are pretty good.”

The win was Kent State’s ninth in a row over Central (11-10, 6-3) dating back to the 2003 MAC Championship Game. It was also the 11th consecutive KSU win at Central’s Rose Center.

“This was huge for us,” said Sherman. “We are really starting to bond as a team getting these tough wins on the road in the conference. Now we can go back home and try to close out the West at home.”

The Flashes finish their cross-division series with the West on Wednesday night when Ball State visits the M.A.C. Center.

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Contact David Carducci at dcarducci@recordpub.com