Stan Heath sensed his team was tentative. Kent State, the No. 1 seed in the MAC men's basketball tournament, was even with Marshall at the half. After a record-setting regular season, the Golden Flashes were one poor half away from exiting the MAC post-season in the quarterfinal round.
"I just challenged the guys [at halftime] and said, 'If there's one thing, don't let somebody play harder than you,'" Heath said. "'If we are going to get beat, let's leave it out there on the floor.'"
KSU followed their coach's speech with an inspired run to open the second half. They took the lead over the Thundering Herd, and went on to eliminate Marshall, 82-70 at the Gund Arena in Cleveland, Ohio.
Kent State put the Herd away with an Andrew Mitchell 3-pointer, followed by a Demetric Shaw put-back, followed by a Trevor Huffman steal and lay-up. The run left Marshall seven points down with two minutes to play, and helpless.
"[Huffman's steal] was the game breaker right there," Marshall Head Coach Greg White said. "We couldn't come back from that."
Huffman led all scorers with 24 points. In the process he became the Golden Flashes' all-time career scoring leader.
The Flashes also broke another record - their 16 straight wins set a new school mark.
KSU will face the Toledo Rockets in the semifinals on Friday at 7 p.m.
Other MAC Tournament games:
Central Michigan vs. Toledo
Teams do not often shoot 37 percent, commit 16 turnovers - and win.
The Toledo Rockets, however, did exactly that in defeating Central Michigan 62-54. UT was aided by 27 Chippewas turnovers.
Ball State vs. Miami (Ohio)
The MAC West Division champion Ball State Cardinals used a 29-point effort from guard Theron Smith to overpower Miami 62-50.
Bowling Green vs. Akron
Bowling Green guard Keith McLeod hit a game-winning fade-away 3-pointer with 6 seconds to play, allowing his Falcons to squeak past the upstart Akron Zips 60-58. McLeod had a game-high 29 points. Akron had one last chance, but a 3-pointer by David Falknor came up short at the buzzer.
