Recordpub.com - Kent State shoots for nine straight tonight

By David Carducci
Record-Courier staff writer
Kent State has been in this position before.
Just as they are starting to earn a little national recognition, the Golden Flashes head to Bowling Green's Anderson Arena trying to keep a streak alive.
Last year, Bowling Green ended KSU's short stint in the nation's top 25 with an 89-83 upset win at Anderson just a few days after the Flashes' thrilling nationally-televised victory at Saint Mary's on BracketBuster Saturday.
Tonight, Bowling Green (15-11, 8-4) will try to keep KSU (16-11, 8-4) from extending the nation's sixth-longest winning streak in a Mid-American Conference East Division battle that falls just a few days after the Flashes won their eighth in a row in a home BracketBuster win over Morehead State.
There is, of course, an obvious difference between the KSU teams of the last two seasons. Last year's Flashes were arguably the second best men's basketball team in KSU history. This year's Flashes have recovered from a slow start with enough time to turn a rebuilding year into potential championship season.
Just like last year, the Flashes visit Bowling Green believing they are peaking at the right time.
"You'd like to think that is the case," said KSU head coach Geno Ford. "We certainly are playing better than we were earlier in the year. We are actually light years ahead of where we were a month ago when we last played Bowling Green, but there are still a lot of areas that we need to improve in to win a championship. We still need to rebound better, and we'd like to be more consistent shooting the ball from the 3-point line."
In Saturday's BracketBuster win, the Flashes hit five 3s, all by sixth-man Tyree Evans.
"We can't rely on just one guy like that, especially against Bowling Green," said Ford. "Winning the battle of the 3-point shooting is going to be a big key to this game. We have to shoot it well because they play mostly 2-3 zone and those are the shots we are going to get. And then it's just as important that we make sure they shoot a low percentage from the arc, just as they did earlier this season when we played them in Kent."
Bowling Green struggled to 2-for-20 shooting from the 3-point range in KSU's convincing 72-48 win at the M.A.C. Center on Jan. 14. But then plenty of teams have struggled to hit shots from long range against the Flashes this season. At 33.3 percent, Kent State is ranked sixth in the nation in defending 3-pointers.
The Flashes did a poor job of guarding the perimeter in last year's heartbreaking loss at Anderson Arena. In that game, Brian Moten buried six of his nine 3s as KSU's defense continually lost track of him on the wing. The Flashes also had trouble with Falcons point guard Joe Jakubowski (21 points, including two 3s). When that same duo got hot from the perimeter last week, hitting seven of their combined 13 3-pointers, BGSU pulled off a 59-48 upset of the MAC East-leading Bulls in Buffalo. But when they were off in their last two home games (a combined 7-for-17 from the arc), the Jekyl-and-Hyde Falcons lost to sub-.500 clubs in Eastern Michigan and Canisius.
"We still know what we are in for," said Ford. "Anderson Arena is obviously a tough environment. It's a place where we lost last year. Because of that and the fact our guys know Bowling Green has just as good a chance as we do to win the league, means I'm not worried about our mental focus."
The Flashes were tied for the fourth-longest winning streak in the country on Wednesday, tied with Creighton and LSU. The Blue Jays and Tigers both extended their streaks to nine Wednesday night, dropping KSU to the nation's sixth longest streak.
More important than their national status, though, the string of consecutive wins has kept the Flashes rising in the East Division standings and strengthened their hopes of capturing either a MAC regular-season title or one of the four byes in the upcoming conference tournament.
Win out over the season's final four games, and the Flashes know they will hang another championship banner in the M.A.C. Center rafters. KSU begins the day tied for second in the East with Akron, Miami and Bowling Green, all one game behind Buffalo. With the Flashes playing at Bowling Green and Miami visiting Ohio University tonight, at least two teams will break out of that deadlock, and if Akron can win at Buffalo, three teams would be tied for the league lead.
The game will be televised by the Kent State Sports Network for Fox Sports Ohio, with a 6:30 p.m. tip scheduled.

David Carducci can be reached at dcarducci@recordpub.com