The final game of the regular season. Two of the top teams in the division waging war. The Mid-American Conference East title on the line. A raucous crowd. Emotions running wild.
This is what college basketball is all about.
With the Miami (Ohio) and Marshall game being played simultaneously, a game with MAC East implications for Kent State and Buffalo, the Flashes were able to edge the Bulls by a score of 78-72 in front of a boisterous crowd of 1,328 at Alumni Arena on Tuesday night.
"We were on a six-game winning streak, but it's better to lose now than next week," said UB's senior guard Kate McMeeken-Ruscoe. "You can learn more from your losses than your wins. We can concentrate on what's wrong and try to fix that."
UB (17-10, 9-7 MAC), the six seed, will now face the 11th seeded Central Michigan Chippewas on Saturday at Alumni Arena in the first round of the MAC Conference Tournament. Tip-off is set for 7 p.m. The men's game against Akron has been moved to 3 p.m.
With Miami's defeat of Marshall, the relavance of the game to the division title was lost, as the RedHawks were able to clinch the MAC East title with their overtime win. Nevertheless, Buffalo and Kent State duked it out in front of the 13th biggest crowd ever for a women's basketball game at UB with MAC Tournament seedings on the line. Had UB won, they would have been seeded fourth and played last-place Akron in the first round.
No. 5 Kent State faces No. 12 Ohio in the first round. If the Bulls win Saturday vs. EMU they will take on No. 3 Ball State in the quarterfinals of the MAC Tournament in Cleveland's Gund Arena at 7:30 p.m. on March 12.
The game was still in doubt with 9:07 left after a Kim Kilpela free throw tied it at 56, but a Golden Flash wave was about to douse UB's aspirations for a first round bye and their seventh consecutive victory.
"This was a must-win game for us," said KSU head coach Bob Lindsay. "I think the difference in the game was that we made a few more plays than they did, and that was really the bottom line. We happen to play well here, for us it's fortunate."
From that point, Kent State went on an 8-0 run, which was capped off by a Morgan O'Hara 3-pointer that put the game at 64-56 with 6:33 remaining in the game.
Buffalo would not roll over and die, however, as McMeeken-Ruscoe found the ball in her hands at the top of the arc with 50 seconds remaining and her team trailing by six. She put up a 3-pointer that seemed to head toward the basket in slow motion, but when it finally came down, it touched base with the front of the rim and careened off into O'Hara's hands.
And that was that.
"Any time you can put together a couple of wins before the tourney it's great," said KSU forward Katalin Kollat. "It was a must win for us; now we have some confidence. I think it's a great win for us."
A killer for the Bulls was the fact that they sent the Flashes to the line an obscene 30 times, with Kollat taking half of those shots with 15. She finished the game 13-15 from the line with 23 points and 18 rebounds, eight on the offensive glass.
"We didn't win tonight because we gave them 30 free throw opportunities and 18 offensive rebounds," said Bulls head coach Cheryl Dozier. "You can't do that. 30 free throws to 15, that's the game right there. I felt like I was Reggie Witherspoon (the men's head coach). I can't comment on the officials, but I felt like I was Reggie."
McMeeken-Ruscoe led the UB charge as usual, scoring 22 points on 10-20 shooting. Jessica Kochendorfer was able to get things going early for Buffalo by hitting two 3-pointers, one more than she has hit the entire season.
Buffalo seemed to be really clicking in the first half; they jumped out to a 31-19 lead thanks in part to Hollie Cook's uncanny court vision and Brooke Meunier's hustle off of the bench. Cook finished with nine assists and nine rebounds while Meunier scored 13 points in only 21 minutes.
Kent stormed back, though, going on a 18-9 run to close out the half, making the score 40-37 in favor of UB.
"Normally we are pretty good at bouncing back from runs," said McMeeken-Ruscoe. "Today we just didn't do that; their post players did a great job. We fouled way too much. In the first half, that is what really killed us."
UB held the lead for the first nine minutes and 44 seconds of the second half, but once KSU caught up, things unraveled for the Bulls.
Buffalo will look to turn things around and get on another winning streak during the MAC Tournament, which starts at Alumni Arena Saturday against CMU.
"Buffalo has as good a chance as anyone to win the tournament this year," said Lindsay.
