Kent State Squeaks Past Men's Hoops in Thriller in MAC Quarterfinals, 76-73

CLEVELAND -- Kent State and Ball State battled to the wire in the quarterfinals of the 2018 Mid-American Conference Tournament Thursday afternoon. In the end, the Golden Flashes were able to hold off the Cardinals, 76-73.

Kent State, the No. 5 seed, advanced to the semifinals to face No. 1 seed Buffalo Friday afternoon.

The Golden Flashes (17-16) led throughout most of the contest and twice built a 10-point cushion in the second half. However, Ball State (19-13) clawed its way back to take a 69-67 lead with 2:28 remaining thanks to a Zach Gunn 3-pointer.

Kent State regained the lead for good following a steal and two made free throws by Adonis De La Rosa with 1:52 left. Ball State missed four shots to tie or take the lead after that point. Ball State's final chance came on a desperation 3-pointer from Trey Moses at the buzzer, which missed just to the left of the basket.

Gunn finished with 15 points and a personal-high five 3-pointers. Teague notched his eighth double-double with 17 points and 12 boards. Kyle Mallers hauled in a game-high and personal-best 13 rebounds.

De La Rosa tallied 17 points and 10 rebounds for Kent State. Three other Golden Flashes reached double figures.

Ball State Head Coach James Whitford:
"I thought it was a really hard-fought game and I was really proud of our guys. We put ourselves in position to win this game five, six, seven times. It was one of those games where it was a play here and a play there. I thought we really competed. Unfortunately, we came up on the wrong end, but it wasn't for a lack of effort or a lack of competing or lack of playing the right way."

By the Numbers
• Kent State defeated Ball State for the third straight time in the MAC Tournament. The two teams last met in the 2011 semifinals.

• Zach Gunn was 5-for-11 (45.4 percent) from behind the arc. The rest of the Ball State squad was a combined 1-for-13 (7.7 percent).

• Tayler Persons became the fifth Cardinal player ever to reach 1,000 points and 300 assists and the first to do so in his first two years on the team.

• Ball State was attempting to make back-to-back MAC Tournament semifinal appearances for the first time since the Cardinals made three straight trips from 2000-02.

How It Happened
• BSU missed its first six 3-point attempts and consequently trailed by 10 points midway through the first half, 24-14. Gunn finally connected on a 3-pointer from top of key and sparked a 10-1 run to get the Cardinals to within one point with 5:21 left in the first half, 25-24.

• Gunn's fourth 3-pointer from the left corner with 1:44 in the first half gave the Cardinals the lead, 35-34. It marked Ball State's first lead since 8-5.

• Kent State's Kevin Zabo hit a driving lay-up 15 seconds before halftime to even the score at intermission, 39-39. There were four ties and three lead changes in the opening stanza.

• After four lead changes and two ties early in the second half, Kent State put together a 12-3 run to take a 56-47 lead with 12:35 remaining.

• Ball State went 6:36 without making a field goal in the second half. Tayler Persons ended the drought with a floater in the lane with 8:28 on the clock.

• The Cardinals went on a 13-4 spurt after Persons' bucket to take the lead with 2:28 left, 69-67.

• With Kent State up by one point with 54 seconds remaining, the Golden Flashes secured an offensive rebound and then made a lay-up with 24 ticks remaining to go ahead, 74-71.

Kent State Squeaks Past Men's Hoops in Thriller in MAC Quarterfinals, 76-73

Team Stats

Tayler Persons

Tahjai Teague

Zach Gunn

Trey Moses

Players Mentioned

Zach Gunn

Kyle Mallers

Trey Moses

Tayler Persons

Players Mentioned

Zach Gunn

Kyle Mallers

Trey Moses

Tayler Persons