The Kent St. Golden Flashes are looking to get back to the top of the MAC Conference mountain and coming in as the #1 seed in 2011 is a great start – now they need to produce on the court. The Flashes raced to a 16 point halftime lead, then thwarted a mile Buffalo Bulls comeback attempt to down the #8 seed 73-62 at Quicken Loans Arena.
Using a balanced offense led by Rodriguez Sherman’s 18 points, and a pair of double-doubles – Justin Greene scored 16 points and grabbed 10 rebounds while Michael Porrini Scored 13 points to go along with 10 rebounds of his own – the Flashes were able to keep the Bulls at a good distance all night.
Buffalo’s offense was a one man show with forward Javon McCrea dropping 28 points and grabbing 13 rebounds for the Bulls, who out-rebounded Kent St. 40-35.
Kent St. led 41-25 at the half before Buffalo made a little bit of a run. The Bulls cut the lead to 10 – 46-36 – with 15 minutes to go, and got within 4 at 56-52 with 8 minutes to go before the Flashes went on a 10-4 run to put the game away.
Kent State will face the winner of Thursday’s late game between Ball St. and Ohio.