- Julius Rollins fouled after Cli’Ron Hornbeak gave Kent State the lead
- Kent State head coach Rob Senderoff admitted he ‘should have called a timeout’
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The end of Saturday’s MAC championship game took an interesting turn when Kent State’s Julius Rollins mistakenly fouled out in the final seconds.
Down 59-60 with 10.4 seconds remaining, Kent State guard Jalen Sullinger attacked the paint before unfortunately missing his floater. Center Cli’Ron Hornbeak, however, scored the next basket to give the Golden Flashes a one-point lead with 6.2 seconds remaining.
As the team walked the court to defend the final play, Rollins was apparently unaware of the time or the score. He then fouled Akron’s Greg Tribble, sending him to the free throw line for two shots.
Kent State head coach Rob Senderoff turned red on the sideline in disbelief as his teammates consoled Rollins after the costly mistake.
Meanwhile, on the court, Tribble sealed the 62-61 victory from the charity stripe, earning the Zippers their second MAC title in three years.
Kent State lost the MAC title game after guard Julius Rollins mistakenly fouled an Akron player
Rollins committed the foul in the final seconds as the Golden Flashes held a one-point lead.
Akron’s Greg Tribble made two free throws to secure the 62-61 victory and the conference title.
Despite losing the game due to an error, Senderoff said he doesn’t blame Rollins for the mistake.
“He probably thought we were down instead of up,” Senderoff said without going into much detail.
‘Like I told the team, I should have called a timeout there. I don’t blame Julio. There are 100 plays in the game and that was just one of them. What I told him is that if this is the worst thing that can happen to you when you’re 50 like me, you’ve had a pretty lovely life.
‘The sun will come out tomorrow. “It’s going to be a little cloudy for me and our guys.”
On the other hand, Tribble was certainly confused when he was fouled.
“I was really surprised when he intentionally fouled me,” Tribble said. “It ended up working out for us. It was surprising, but it was like free points. I’ll take them.’
Ali Ali scored 18 points and MAC Player of the Year Enrique Freeman added 17 and nine rebounds for the Zips. Freeman was named the tournament’s most outstanding player.
The Zips now hope to see their place in the NCAA standings. Freeman has been one of the steadiest players in the country all season, recording 30 double-doubles. He is a former player who has become one of the best players in the MAC in recent times.