Tag: Kent State Basketball

An honest mistake kept Kent State from punching its ticket to the men’s NCAA tournament in heartbreaking fashion

Oh, this is painful to watch.

Kent State nearly made the 2024 men’s NCAA tournament as a shocking underdog as the unexpected MAC title winners, but the team lost out on that chance in the most heartbreaking fashion.

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With just a few seconds to go in Saturday’s MAC championship game, Kent State got a single-point lead over Akron with hopes high of closing out the game with a huge victory.

However, Kent State’s Julius Rollins mistakenly fouled Akron’s Greg Tribble after the latter’s team got the ball back and sent Tribble to the free-throw line.

Tribble hit the two baskets and sent Akron to the tournament with the last-second title win. For Kent State, it was absolutely devastating way to lose the game.

Kent State coach Rob Senderoff’s reaction to the foul was just as tough to watch as Rollins realizing his honest-yet-costly mistake in the moment.

While you never want to point to one moment in a game as the sole reason your team lost, Kent State will probably be winding this game back and finding the moments that kept it from stunning the league with an unexpected tournament berth.

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James Madison scored 5 points in 2 seconds to force OT in stunning sequence

James Madison scored five points in the last two seconds of a game to force OT. Yes, really.

James Madison is already having a phenomenal football season, and the men’s basketball team looks to be carrying over that momentum.

In their second game of the season against Kent State on Thursday night, the Dukes somehow found a way to score five points in two seconds to force overtime.

That’s right. James Madison scored five points in the final two seconds of the game to get from 89-84 at 3.8 seconds left to tied at 89 at the final buzzer.

The Dukes’ Noah Freidel got a three to open things up as the buzzer hit zero, but then the refs put about a second left on the clock and gave Kent State the ball to most likely close things out.

However, James Madison then got an offensive foul going in its direction and a last-second layup from Freidel on the inbound pass to tie it in one of the most genuinely impressive few seconds you’re likely to see in college basketball this season.

James Madison wound up taking the game in double overtime, 113-108, which makes forcing the first overtime session all that more impressive.

After taking down No. 4 Michigan State on Monday in an epic upset, the Dukes are emerging as one of the best stories of the young college hoops season.

We’re very curious on how they’ll continue to play after two stellar wins.

Feature image courtesy of ESPN.

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