Kent/Akron Basketball Game

Being my first year at Kent, I heard a little about the Kent/Akron rivalry but did not know how intense it actually was. Right when I stepped in the arena, I knew this was a big deal. The place was sold out with over 6,500 people and I had to find a seat along the side since the student section was full. Kent going into this game was in 2nd place in the MAC conference (14-4) and Akron was in 1st (14-3).

In the first half, both teams swapped the lead many times, but Kent seemed to have it more. Towards the end of the half, however, Akron began nailing three's from all around the arc. Nick Dials, Akron's leading scorer, was 4-7 for 3's. Kent finally changed their defense some at the end of the half to guard Dials more, but we were down 35-25 at halftime.

In the second half, Kent slowly chipped away at the lead shooting 68%. One of our forwards, Haminn Quaintance had some pretty exciting blocks down low and ended the game with 5. With less than a minute left, it looked like we had it pretty much in the bag. Then with 4.5 seconds left, a fight broke out! Below is a video of it (you can't see too much).

After the commotion died down, Kent shot 2 technical fouls and Akron shot one. We ended up winning 75-69. I'm already looking forward to next year's game and am thinking of heading to Akron when Kent plays them in March for the last game of the year! Below is another video of how loud it got in the arena after a big 3 by Kent.