COLLEGE BASKETBALL

Last-second shot sinks Falcons against Kent

Black, Clarke each score 18 for BG in loss

2/12/2014

KENT, Ohio — Devareaux Manley made a 3-pointer with nine-tenths of a second to play to give Kent State a 62-61 win today night against Bowling Green State University in Mid-American Conference men’s basketball.

Manley’s basket marked the second straight game the Falcons were beaten by a last-second basket. It also ruined an impressive homecoming for BG senior Cameron Black, a Kent native who scored a career-high 18 points.

Jehvon Clarke also scored 18 points while Start graduate Anthony Henderson added 12 more for Bowling Green (10-14, 4-7 MAC), which suffered its third straight loss.

Derek Jackson scored 25 points to lead Kent State (13-11, 4-7), which also got 14 from Manley.

The wild finish capped a game that was full of wild point swings in the first half. The Falcons got off to a torrid start, scoring the game’s first 13 points by making six of their first seven shots while KSU missed its first eight.

But the Golden Flashes came storming back, using a 15-3 run to take a 23-22 lead with exactly eight minutes left in the first half.

BG responded with a 13-4 run during those final eight minutes, including a Clarke layup at the buzzer that gave the Falcons a 35-27 halftime advantage.

Bowling Green scored the first four points of the second half to lead 40-27 with just a minute gone before the Flashes responded. Kent State ran off 12 straight points to cut its deficit to 40-39 with only five minutes gone.

From that point Bowling Green never led by more than five points, then saw Kent State take a 59-58 lead when Mark Henniger dunked off a feed from Jackson with 2 minutes, 29 seconds to play.

Clarke split a pair of free throws to tie the game at 59-59 with 1:57 left, and from that point neither team scored until the game’s final seconds.

BG’s Spencer Parker rebounded a Kent State miss with 9.4 seconds left and was fouled, then made both free throws to give the Falcons a 61-59 lead.

Black blocked a shot by KSU’s Kris Brewer out of bounds with three seconds left, and the Flashes ran an inbounds play that set up Manley for the winning 3-pointer.

Bowling Green’s inbounds play in the final second was knocked away, denying the Falcons a shot at the basket and securing Kent State’s fourth straight home win over BG, which next plays Saturday at Ball State.