Feb. 16, 2008

Box Score |  Notes

KENT, Ohio-Al Fisher and Chris Singletary scored 17 and 16 points, respectively, to lead the Kent State men's basketball team to a 72-62 win over visiting Ohio Saturday afternoon in the Memorial Athletic and Convocation Center. The win lifted the Golden Flashes to a 21-5 overall mark with a 10-2 record in the Mid-American Conference, while the Bobcats slipped to 16-9 overall and 7-5 in the league.

KSU's Haminn Quaintence added 12 points and shared team-high rebounding honors with Fisher at six. Singletary also had the best floor game for the Golden Flashes with four assists and three steals.

Senior guard Bubba Walther (Cincinnati, Ohio) led the Bobcats with a game-high 22 points on 7-11 shooting (5-7 on 3-pointers). Senior forward Leon Williams (Baltimore, Md.) registered his 39^th career double-double with 13 points and 12 rebounds, while junior guard Allen Hester (Oakland, Ca.) had 12 points and junior forward Jerome Tillman (Beavercreek, Ohio) added 11. Junior guard Michael Allen (Detroit, Mich.) had a game-high six assists.

The Bobcats were plagued by turnovers once again as they committed 19 miscues to just 12 for the Golden Flashes, but stayed in the game by shooting a torrid .500 clip from the 3-point arc (9-18). Neither team had a lot of success at the free throw line as Kent State made just 62.5 percent (15-24) while the Bobcats connected on 61.9 percent (13-21).

For the game, the Golden Flashes were in rhythm most of the afternoon from the floor, making 55.6 percent (25-45), to Ohio's respectable 47.6 percent (20-43).

Ohio held a 29-26 edge on the glass.

The Golden Flashes got out early on a 7-0 run to start the game, but Walther keyed a Bobcat rally to knot the game at eight on a pair of early 3-pointers. Kent State showed some muscle again, however, and pushed its lead back to 12 with a 20-8 run to take a 28-16 lead on a Julian Sullinger free throw with 4:44 to go in half. However, the Bobcats battled back once again and closed the lead to seven (32-25) by the break on a Tillman layup right before the horn.

Kent State tried to put the game away with another spurt out of the locker room in the second half when it went up by nine (46-37) on a dunk by Singletary at the 13:26 mark. Ohio showed its resiliency though and drew to what would be its closest deficit with a 7-0 run that brought the Bobcats within two on another Tillman layup with 9:59 to go. However, the Bobcats missed their next three shots and turned it over once more and could never recover as the Golden Flashes hit seven of their last eight shots from the field.

"I really thought Kent State played very well today on their home court," said head coach Tim O'Shea. "We got back to playing the way we wanted on the second half and got Tillman going more. The schedule is now favorable for us with four of our last five games in the Convo. Bowling Green is a very, very important game for us on Tuesday and hopefully we get a lot of people in the building."

The Bobcats now sit in third in the MAC East, behind KSU and Akron (18-7 overall, 8-4 MAC). Ohio will be back in action Tuesday at 7 p.m. against Bowling Green (11-13 overall, 6-6 MAC).