Kent uses late push to beat CSU

KENT » Scoring lulls in any Division I college basketball game spell trouble.

Extended scoring lulls for visiting teams in Kent State’s M.A.C. Center spell deep trouble.

Cleveland State went Mojave Desert-dry in the first half against the host Golden Flashes on Dec. 2 and never fully recovered. They came up on the short end at 72-62 despite a spirited comeback in the second half.

Kent weathered the storm in the second half and improved to 5-3. CSU slipped to 2-5 with the loss.

CSU senior forward Anthony Wright topped all scorers with a career-high 21 points. The 6-foot-7 Pennsylvania native matched his career high with 11 rebounds.

Senior guard Kenny Carpenter finished with 14 points for the Vikings. Freshman guard Tyree Appleby added 13 points.

Senior guard Kevin Zabo paced Kent with 17 points. Junior center Adonis De La Rosa and junior guard Jalen Avery added 16 and 15 points, respectively.

Over a 12-minute span in the first half, CSU scored only nine points while the Golden Flashes were putting up 23 and building a 31-14 lead. The Vikings used a 10-4 run over the final four minutes of the first half to narrow the gap to 35-24 at halftime.

Keyed by Wright, Carpenter and Appleby, the Vikings seriously went to work in the second half. Off a 3-pointer by Carpenter with six minutes remaining, the Vikings narrowed the gap to 55-50. A pair of driving layups by Appleby closed the gap to 55-54 with 4:47 remaining in the second half.

“We let them back in the game in the final two minutes of the first half and it really got tight in the second half,” KSU coach Rob Senderoff said.

First-year CSU coach Dennis Felton had a similar read on the track of a game that could have been but did not turn into a one-sided affair.

“We played soft at both ends through much of the first half. Then we started playing with more force and an edge near the end of the first half,” Felton said. “In the locker room at halftime, the message was to go out in the second half and make this a long, tough night for Kent State in their gym. We did that.”

Over the final four minutes, Avery scored seven points and De La Rosa added six points as the Golden Flashes used a 17-8 run to secure the victory.

KSU had decisive advantages in points in the paint (38-26) and secondchance points (19-8).