Kent State Golden Flashes (17-16) vs. Akron Zips (23-10)
March 16, 2024 7:30 pm EDT
The Line: Akron Zips -4.5; Over/Under: -
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The Kent State Golden Flashes and the Akron Zips meet Saturday in MAC Tournament college basketball action from Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse. Let’s get into our Kent State vs Akron prediction. Check back all season long for free college basketball picks at Sports Chat Place.
Kent State Golden Flashes
The Flashes have hovered around the .500 mark for most of the season. After a 1-3 stretch in February, Kent State finished off the regular season with a 2-2 run. Those wins were over Buffalo and Central Michigan; the losses came to Ball State and Toledo. Thursday’s tournament opener was another win over Toledo.
Matched up against Bowling Green in the Friday tournament game, the Golden Flashes were able to keep it going. Kent State held a 34-28 edge in the first half, then hit a 39-32 run the rest of the way for a 73-60 win. Tops in scoring was Jalen Sullinger with 22 points, four rebounds and five assists.
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Akron Zips
Over on the Zips’ side, they were a nice 18-5 back in early February. Akron closed out the regular season on a rough 3-5 run, though. The losses in that time came versus James Madison, Toledo, Ohio, Eastern Michigan and Western Michigan. Thursday’s game was a victory over Miami-OH 75-63.
In Friday’s tournament matchup versus Ohio, the Zips were in trouble with a 26-16 deficit by the break. Akron stormed back on a 49-36 second-half run however, taking the tight win 65-62 in the end. Enrique Freeman was the top team scorer on 24 points and 21 rebounds.
ANDREW’S FREE KENT STATE VS AKRON PREDICTION
I might take a stab on Kent State here. The Flashes are playing well over their last couple of games and looked pretty good overall versus Bowling Green. In that one Kent State shot a nice 51 percent from the field and 66.7 percent from 3-point range, but did make just nine of 16 free throws (56.3 percent) and coughed up 12 turnovers.
The last time these teams met up back on February 23, the Zips took an 83-70 home victory. Both teams shot well in that one (above 47.3 percent), but the major difference was Akron’s 21 points off 13 Flashes turnovers. Kent State needs to be much more careful with the ball in this rematch, but I think they can keep the pace if all goes well.
