Recordpub.com - KSU wins NIT nail-biter

By David Carducci

Record-Courier staff writer

The eight-year drought is over.

Kent State captured its first postseason tournament victory since 2002 and advanced to the second round of the NIT in a thrilling 75-74 win over Tulsa on Wednesday night.

“It’s been a long time,” said KSU head coach Geno Ford. “It’s been eight years, and in that time we’ve now been to seven postseasons, won 20 games seven times, won our league three or four times. And this is our first postseason victory since the Elite Eight year. These games are hard to win.”

That’s a bit of an understatement.

To get the postseason monkey off their back, the Golden Flashes had to come back from a seven-point halftime deficit by scoring 47 second-half points against a team with a 7-foot, soon-to-be-NBA center and two of the best guards ever to step foot in the M.A.C. Center in a visiting uniform.

The 7-foot center, senior Jerome Jordan, scored 23 points and grabbed 12 rebounds.

The Golden Hurricane’s other senior star, Ben Uzoh, struggled through a hot-and-cold night, but he still managed 14 points. And his sharp-shooting backcourt mate, Justin Hurtt, fired in 22, while going 3-for-4 from 3-point range.

Until Wednesday, that group had been a perfect 17-0 this season in games they led at the half.

So, how does a team like Kent State (24-9) beat a team with three great players?

A balanced scoring line featuring six scorers in double-digits was the perfect answer.

Chris Singletary scored 16, Rodriquez Sherman added 15, while Anthony Simpson and Randal Holt came off the bench with 13 and 11, respectively. Justin Greene chipped in with 10. And possibly the best news came from Tyree Evans, who broke out of an extended slump with 10 points, including a solo 8-0 run to put the Flashes ahead late.

All of those names came up with key plays down the stretch as the two teams traded the lead nine times in the final five minutes and five times in the last 1:45.

“They have three great players, but not to take anything away from them, what we’ve done all year is win with balance,” said Ford. “We needed everyone to play well ... and when that happens, it’ll have to be more than one or two guys to beat us.”

After going 2-for-18 from 3-point range in his last four games and going almost 108 minutes without scoring a single point, Evans hit the floor needing a break to go his way to start to rediscover his shooting touch.

The big break finally arrived with 9:22 to play in the second half when Evans launched an open 3-pointer from above the key.

“I think it hit the rim three times,” said Evans. “It hit the back. Then hit the back again, then hit the side.”

When the ball finally nestled into the net, “it was like dropping a lot of weight off my shoulders,” Evans said with a sigh. “I had put a lot of pressure on myself. When I miss, I beat myself up. When one goes in, it’s like, whew.”

Feeling a little more free and easy, Evans promptly popped in a step-back 15-footer from the baseline to put the Flashes on top 59-58 on the very next possession. And on the next trip down the floor, he canned his second 3-pointer from about three-feet behind the arc.

The Golden Hurricane had several chances to break the game open in the game’s first 30 minutes, leading by as many as nine points. Instead, Tulsa found itself down by four with eight minutes to go.

“We didn’t break them,” said Tulsa head coach Doug Wojcik, whose team ended its season at 23-12. “If we were in Tulsa, we would have broken them. We just couldn’t pull away.”

The nip-and-tuck final five minutes saw Evans, Singletary and Sherman all hit shots to give the Flashes the lead — the last coming on a left-handed floater in the lane by Sherman with 20 seconds to play.

Tulsa’s last-second bid for the win — a 12-foot fade-away on the baseline by Uzoh — caromed high off the front-rim and back in Uzoh’s direction, where three KSU players were waiting to corral the rebound as the buzzer sounded.

It was the perfect home bounce.

“If it hit the rim and bounced to the weak-side, we would have been outnumbered,” said Ford. “I know 75 percent of those are supposed to go weak-side. We got one of the 25 percent that go the right way.”

After knocking off their second Conference-USA foe of the season, the Flashes are now set up for a trip to Big Ten Country. KSU will play at Illinois in the NIT’s second round Monday at 8 p.m. on ESPNU.

NIT FIRST ROUND

KENT STATE 75, TULSA 74

(At Kent State)

TULSA (74) — Steven Idlet 2 0-0 4; Bishop Wheatley 1 0-0 2; Jerome Jordan 8 7-11 23; Ben Uzoh 4 5-6 14; Justin Hurtt 8 3-4 22; Bryson Pope 1 0-0 2; shane Heirman 1 0-0 3; Joe Richard 1 2-2 4. Totals 26 17-23 74.

KENT STATE (75) — Justin Greene 5 0-1 10; Tyree Evans 4 0-0 10; Chris Singletary 5 6-11 16; Rodriquez Sherman 5 3-4 15; Randal Holt 3 3-3 11; Anthony Simpson 4 5-6 13. Totals 26 17-25 75.

TULSA 35 39 — 74

KENT STATE 28 47 — 75

Three-Point Goals — Tulsa (5-10): Hurtt 3, Heirman 1, Uzoh 1. Kent State (6-24): Evans 2, Holt 2, Sherman 2.

Total Rebounds — Tulsa, 43-32.

Total Assists — Tulsa, 13-11.

Total Fouls — Tied, 19-19.

Total Turnovers — Tulsa, 11-4.

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Contact David Carducci at dcarducci@recordpub.com