Kent, Ohio -- Kent State senior guard Trevor Huffman was in one kind of "zone" scoring 32 points to lead the Golden Flashes to a 81-54 victory over the Cardinals. Ball State was in a "zone" where nothing was going the Cardinals' way.
"We weren't ready to play and that is on me," head coach Tim Buckley said. "We showed absolutely no energy, or togetherness all the things you need to have on the road."
Huffman has had a way of coming up big against the Cardinals over his four years at Kent State scoring 100 total points against Ball State. However, Huffman said he really does not put more focus towards playing Ball State.
"I take it from game to game," Huffman said. "My teammates really looked for me today and the ball just went in, I shot so much my neck hurts. I guess that is what they call the zone. It's the purity of the game and something you dream about when you are a little kid. When I hit that one-legged shot I said that wasn't supposed to go in. I was just feeling it. It is unexplainable."
Ball State's three-point shooting attack that carried the team through out the early part of the season, was held to just 13 percent. The Cardinals' lowest three-point percentage in the last 10 years came during the 1999-2000 season, also against Kent State. Ball State was held to just 38.5 percent shooting in the first half and 36.7 percent for the game from the floor.
"They are really tough and hard-nosed, play well as a team," Buckley said. "I don't see much of a difference with them and Butler."
Senior guard Petie Jackson was held to just seven points fouling out late in the game with five turnovers. Jackson was benched for six minutes in the second half for not going after a loose ball according to Buckley.
"They came after him and he didn't play well," he said. "We had three great practices before we came here and you hope that you will play like you practice."
Theron Smith led the way for Ball State scoring 20 points.
Kent State head coach Stan Heath said his Golden Flashes just followed the lead of his senior guard, Huffman.
"Trevor was in attack mode and everyone followed," Heath said. "We didn't have a let up tonight. We focused on their three big guns. We focused on Smith and double teamed him. Trevor and Drew (Andrew Mitchell) needed to be on a short rope with Jackson and Williams and we gave them more attention."
Buckley said his team has to work on some things outside of shooting and rebounding in order to improve as a basketball team.
"We have some things that need to work on that don't deal with strategy," he said. "When we turned the ball over we pulled farther apart. We didn't come together."
For Kent State (8-4 overall, 1-0 MAC), the Golden Flashes start off the Mid-American Conference where they left it -- on top. The defending MAC champs travel to Marshall on Saturday, while Ball State (7-5 overall, 0-1 MAC) will go to Eastern Michigan for its MAC West opener.
"I think we made a statement, Kent State forward Demetric Shaw said. "It's MAC time, MAC time is money time."
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