By David Carducci
Record-Courier staff writer
Kent State continued its dominance of the Mid-American Conference’s West Division by cruising to an easy 76-46 victory over Northern Illinois on Monday at the M.A.C. Center.
The win, combined with Akron’s 62-59 home loss to Eastern Michigan on Monday, moved the Golden Flashes (15-7, 6-2) into sole possession of first place in the East Division.
The top spot in the standings is the payoff for a two-week turnaround that has seen KSU answer a frustrating two-game losing streak by rattling off five wins in a row.
After emotional “must-win” victories over Buffalo and Akron to start the streak, then a gut-check win over Western Michigan on Saturday, the Flashes welcomed the relatively easy runaway on Monday.
“This was big,” said KSU center Justin Greene, who led all scorers with 18 points on 7-of-9 shooting. “We almost lost to Western Michigan, and coach Ford told us good that teams don’t play bad two times in a row.”
As it has been all through the current winning streak, KSU made its biggest statement on the defensive end of the floor.
Northern arrived in Kent as the top scoring team in MAC play, averaging 75.1 points in its first seven conference games. The Flashes held the Huskies 34 points shy of that thanks to a stifling second half.
KSU outscored Northern 38-17 in the second half. The Huskies (8-12, 4-4) shot just 21.4 percent in the final 20 minutes (6-for-28) and finished at 29.5 percent for the entire game (18-for-61).
Shooting the ball wasn’t Northern’s only problem. Of Northern’s 23 turnovers, 18 came on steals by Kent State — the most by a Flashes team since a 22-steal effort in the 2002-03 season opener against Urbana.
Frank Henry-Ala came up with four of the Flashes’ steals.
“I thought we were really good defensively,” said Ford. “We flew around and really communicated. But (Northern) has played a tough schedule. We’ve played two games in three games, too, but we were at home. They had to play, then fly all the way here, then play again. That’s not easy
“I’m sure they weren’t as sharp offensively as they usually are,” Ford said.
Greene said he could see the air go out of the Huskies’ sails after the second half was just a few minutes old.
“I remember when Randal (Holt) got a fastbreak layup, the (Northern) guy who inbounded the ball looked like he just didn’t want to play anymore,” said Greene. “He just looked up at the scoreboard, and he was ready to get out of here.
“That’s what we want to do to teams every night,” Greene said. “We want to build big leads and try to break their spirit.”
Holt’s steal and breakaway layup arrived with 13:06 remaining in the game and put the Flashes ahead 51-33. Just 29 seconds later, Holt added his third 3-pointer of the game.
The Flashes’ true freshman point guard ended up with 11 points in 19 minutes as KSU’s reserves helped give the team’s starters a needed rest in the middle game of a tight three-game-in-six-day stretch. Anthony Simpson added 12 points and seven rebounds in 23 minutes off the bench.
Kent State goes on the road Thursday to play Eastern Michigan, where the Flashes will try to extend their winning streak against West-Division clubs to 14 games, dating back to the 2007-08 season.
Since taking over as head coach, Ford is 10-0 against the West.
He will have a rested lineup in Ypsilanti after starters Chris Singletary, Tyree Evans and Rod Sherman logged jsut 24, 21 and 19 minutes, respectively, on Monday.
Evans scored just six points on 3-for-7 shooting, but he was responsible for holding Northern star Xavier Silas to just seven points on 1-for-9 shooting.
“Silas is the most talented offensive player in the league,” said Ford. “He’s been playing great, averaging 24 points per game and shooting 40 percent from 3. Tyree did a great job guarding him. He got through screens and made Silas take tough shots.”
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Contact David Carducci at dcarducci@recordpub.com