MAC SPORTS

Mid-American Conference News, Scores and Stats

CLEVELAND -- Those waiting for the Mid-American Conference TV package to be announced should hear the final word very soon.

"It's still a work in progress, but we hope to have an announcement by the end of the week," the MAC's Deputy Commissioner, Bob Gennarelli, said Monday.

If all goes as planned look for a deal nearly identical to last season, with a combined 15 men's and women's games on Fox Sports Ohio starting in mid-January and extending to the end of the regular season.

Fox also will televise portions of the MAC Tournament, including both the men's and the women's semifinals, along with the men's quarterfinals.

The MAC also has three dates for games on ESPNU; Jan. 17, Feb. 14 and March 1, plus an ESPN date for Jan 31.

KSU photoAnna Kowalska's all-around game has helped Kent State turn around 180 degrees from a disappointing 2007-08 season.

The Golden Flashes started the season 6-12. Then, leading scorer and rebounder Anna Kowalska suffered a stress fracture in her right foot that would keep her out of action for a month. The roster was soon down to six healthy scholarship players, and KSU finished 9-21.

Surviving that season was a test of true grit. This season, with every player returning and a solid recruiting class, Kent State is 11-1 and owns a completely different outlook as it opens Mid-American Conference play Wednesday at 7 p.m. against league power Bowling Green.

"It's like totally different," the 6-4 Kowalska said. "We have the whole package now. That's the big key, including help from the bench."

An accumulation of buzzard luck has hit Mid-American Conference men's basketball. Injuries at one extreme and underperforming veterans at the other leading to a conference RPI drop from No. 12 last season to No. 19 right now among the 33 conferences in the country.

According to Western Michigan head coach Steve Hawkins, most MAC teams are generally facing the same problem.

"Coaches around the confence have been calling each other saying, "hang in there," Hawkins said. "Injuries, academics, whatever, to the wrong guy at the wrong time is one thing. And speaking for my team specifically, and from what I've heard from other MAC coaches, we have not had every kid play to their capabilites on every night. At our level, that is critical.''

Box score | MAC standings

For starters, Temple sophomore forward Craig Williams, who had made his first career start, shocked the Golden Flashes and the Owl faithful when he banged home his first threeshots and accounted for Temple's first eight points.

It ended in predictable fashion with Temple All-American candidate senior guard Dionte Christmas scoring 18 of his game-high 26 points in the second half and his eight points down the stretch of the first half helped Temple to a 34-25 halftime lead.

In between, Kent State (7-7), winners of four of their last five, appeared to be searching for some common ground on what has been a roller-coaster season.

"We certainly didn't have any tape on [Williams] coming into this game," admitted Kent State head coach Geno Ford afterwards. "[Williams] gave them a big lift early and then they got things going afterwards.

Women: Akron 67, Lehigh 59

The Zips' pressure defense held the Mountain Hawks to 23-for-76 shooting at Rhodes Arena.

It was the second straight victory for the Zips (5-8). The defeat snapped a five-game win steak for the Mountain Hawks (11-4).

Akron sophomore Kara Murphy led all scorers with 20 points and seven rebounds.

Men: Glenville State 82, Lake Erie 49

The Storm struggled in Glenville, W.Va., making just 30 percent of its 54 field-goal attempts, while the host Pioneers connected on 52 percent of their 67 attempts. Lake Erie (5-12) was led by Rick Leasure and Matt More with nine points each.

HAMPTON, Va. --- Tyree Evans scored 21 points to help Kent State beat Hampton, 68-43, on Saturday night.

The Pirates (6-7) didn't score for the first 7:17 of the game, falling behind, 14-0, before Vincent Simpson hit a 3-pointer with 12:43 to play in the first half.

Evans had 15 points in the first half, when Kent State (7-6) shot 56 percent and led by 17 points. The Pirates, who trailed by as many as 29 points with 12 minutes to play, shot 23 percent from the field and 18 percent from 3-point range.

Evans finished 8 of 13 from the floor and 5 of 8 from beyond the arc.

The teams combined to commit 27 turnovers in the first 20 minutes and 42 for the game.

Kent State-Hampton box score

KINGSTON, R.I. -- Delroy James and Keith Cothran scored 16 points and added five assists apiece to lead Rhode Island to a 79-50 victory over Akron on Saturday.

Jimmy Baron chipped in with 14 points and four assists to help Rhode Island (10-4) extend its home win streak to 13 against non-conference opponents.

Akron (8-5) played tough defense in stretches, but the Rhode Island offense was too explosive, riding an 18-7 first-half run to an 11-point lead at the break.

Akron closed to within six points in the second half, but James re-entered the game at the 18-minute mark and sparked Rhode Island to a 13-0 run.

Jimmy Conyers led Akron with eight points and 10 rebounds. Nate Linhart, Darryl Roberts and Brett McKnight added seven points apiece.

Rhode Island played strong defense, holding Akron to 35 percent (21-for-60) from the floor and forcing 16 turnovers. The Rams also outrebounded the Zips, 40-28.

Jeff Roberson/Associated PressKent State's Chris Singletary (center) struggled to find a shot during a November victory over Saint Louis. But that triumph has proven to be an exception to the rule for the MAC, which hasn't lived up to its reputation as a strong mid-major conference.

The MAC's East Division was 46-29 with no team under .500. The six division teams already had wins over Cincinnati, South Florida, Illinois State, Illinois, South Alabama, Xavier, Temple, Mississippi State, St. John's and Maryland.

This season, with roughly two weeks before league play begins, two of the six MAC East teams have records below .500. The best road win is Miami over a 5-6 Temple team.

The MAC West is even worse, as preseason favorite Western Michigan is 3-9 and still looks to be the division kingpin.

The black-mark losses are numerous: Southern Illinois-Edwardsville, Eastern Kentucky, Western Carolina, Arkansas State, Savannah State, Tennessee State, Brown, Maryland-Baltimore County, Robert Morris and Chicago State, among others

GREENSBORO, N.C. -- Nate Linhart and Anthony Hitchens scored 13 points apiece in Akron's 75-53 win over North Carolina-Greensboro on Wednesday.

The win was No. 100 for fifth-year coach Keith Dambrot.

Linhart also had a career-high five steals and Hitchens led all players with five assists.

Akron (8-4) led by as many as 16 points in a first half, as it scored 13 points off of 10 Spartans' (1-9) turnovers in the period.

The Zips led by 20 twice in the second half, before Nikola Cvetinovic scored a layup with 1:04 to play to bring the score to 75-53 for the game's largest margin.

Steve McNees scored 12 points and Darryl Roberts added 10 for Akron.

UNC-Greensboro was led by Ben Stywall with 11 points and 11 rebounds.

Akron made 11 of 24 from 3-point range and converted 80 percent (12 of 15) of its free throws.

KENT -- As an exercise to start removing the taste of embarrassment from their mouths, Kent State's 93-42 men's basketball victory over Shawnee State certainly helped the Golden Flashes on Tuesday night.

But the real work begins this weekend with back-to-back road games starting Saturday at Hampton, then Monday at Temple. Kent's performance will determine how much of the grime from KSU's 67-41 loss at Cleveland State prior to Christmas has been removed.

The victory over the small college Bears (5-8) puts Kent at .500 on the season (6-6) and face-to-face with a pair of games in which tough teams often find a way to win but struggling teams easily lose.

Kent remains one of the slowest teams in the Mid-American Conference. After going 9 of 15 from the line -- on target with their 60 percent for the season -- it's clear the Golden Flashes will not be winning many games shooting free throws, either.

"The first five minutes we played good defensively, then went pffftt," Dambrot said. "Then we went 10 minutes of good defense and went pffftt again. We're so erratic. It's toughness. No killer instinct. That's toughness. It's something we have to work on.

"Eventually we'll get over the hump. Games like that we would have won by 22, 24 points in the past. I think we're better than that.

"We're inconsistent, erratic and not quite tough enough. That's all. I can't just live with 15 minutes of good play."

It's reality time for fans and coaches in the Mid-American Conference and other mid-major leagues. Yes, in a perfect world every basketball team would love to be built like Duke, North Carolina, UCLA and Kansas. Freshmen recruits would fill in the blanks for departing players and a history of success would go on. But for the rest of the college basketball world that is not how success is sustained.

The luxury of replacing a miss in recruiting or a graduating senior with a Top 50 talent is not available to everyone. Transfers, from other D-I programs or the junior college ranks, are generally the key.

AP PhotoCedric Jackson, Cleveland State guard

The most excitement about Cleveland State basketball was generated last week from a game-winning 60-foot shot against Syracuse heaved by a CSU transfer, Cedric Jackson, from St. John's. It's the most euphoric the CSU campus has been since the Vikings went to the NCAA Tournament in 1986, thanks in great measure to another transfer, Clinton Smith, from Ohio State.

It's tough these days to build a program, as current CSU coach Gary Waters did at Kent, with a few high school players (Kyrem Massey, Andrew Mitchell, Eric Thomas) who mostly had to sit a season without practicing while meeting NCAA academic standards. Transfers who have experienced both the academic challenges and the tough practices of a college program are much more prepared for what awaits them, and can offer quick rewards.

The end result a 73-62 victory for KSU over North Carolina-Greensboro. It came on the debut of junior walk-on guard Tyree Evans, and evened Kent's record at 5-5.

The good included Evans. He's the 6-1 player with the major college jump shot and troubled history that landed him at Kent as a freebie. Evans delivered 21 points, living up to his reputation as a shooter. He was 5-of-8 on 3-pointers, 7-of-11 overall, with his worst shots being a missed alley-oop dunk and a missed quick-trigger 3-pointer when UNCG was attempting to make a late comeback.

"I feel like a kid in the candy store," Evans said after the game.

A Cincinnati recruit out of high school, and a Maryland recruit as recently as last season, Evans came to KSU to be with his former JC coach (Bob Steinberg) and one of his teammates, Frank Henry-Ala, over the microscope of major college basketball, peering into his myriad of discretions. Evans then proved to be as advertised.

The University of Akron women snapped a three-game losing streak, defeating Robert Morris, 82-75, at Rhodes Arena on Wednesday night.

Sophomore Kara Murphy scored 21 points, and led four Zips scoring in double figures. Murphy added four rebounds and four assists.

Sophomore Amber Witt scored a career high 17 points for Akron.

Junior Victoria Arndt recorded her first career double double with 12 points and 10 rebounds, and Ashley Veal scored 12 points, had three rebounds and recorded a key block late in the game.

Both teams are now 3-6.

"It was a great team effort tonight," Akron coach Jodi Kest said. We showed good balance with four players in double figures."

RICHMOND, Va. -- Eric Maynor scored 19 of his 30 points in the second half, helping Virginia Commonwealth beat Akron, 73-69, on Wednesday night.

Kiril Pischalnikov and Joey Rodriguez scored nine points apiece for the Rams, and Pischalnikov grabbed a game-high 12 boards.

Anthony Hitchens led five Zips in double figures with 14 points. Chris McKnight added 13, brother Brett McKnight and Nate Linhart had 12 apiece and Steve McNees chipped in 10.

Maynor sparked a 19-6 Virginia Commonwealth run during the first half with nine points, two rebounds, two steals and an assist. The Rams (7-3) led, 29-20, with 4:18 left in the first.

After Linhart hit a field goal for the Zips (6-4), the Rams scored the final nine points of the half to take a 38-22 edge at the break.

The McKnight brothers sparked a 21-10 Zips rally to start the second half, cutting the Rams' margin to 48-43 with 10:10 left. Chris McKnight had eight points during the spurt, while Brett added six.

Akron could get no closer until a late rally cut the margin to 73-69 on Hitchens' follow-up basket with 32.6 seconds left. But Maynor had 14 points in the final 8:56 to seal the game for the Rams.

Virginia Commonwealth hit 16 of its last 17 free throws and outrebounded Akron, 34-27.