The Eastern Michigan University men’s basketball program fell to Kent State on Friday, March 7, 76-69, after leading 67-65 with 3:45 to play.
Eastern Michigan concluded the regular season at 16-15 overall and 9-9 in Mid-American Conference play. Despite the loss, the Eagles are still on their way to Cleveland. The loss was just their second in the last seven games, as they were 11-13.
The Eagles led for 21 minutes, including their largest lead of the game, 57-43, with 11:50 to play.
It looked like the Eagles would finish the regular season two games above .500 in the conference. Instead, EMU extended its drought of not having a winning season in league play to seven years.
Kent State controlled the early part of the game, leading 20-7 at the 13:22 mark of the first half.
After this, Eastern Michigan brought itself back, tying the game at 26 with 4:29 to play in the half. The Eagles went to the locker room up 36-31, closing the half on an 18-5 run.
The second half started with Eastern getting ahead even more. At the 13:15 mark, they built their lead to 52-40, shortly before their largest lead of the game, 57-43, came.
After being up by 14, the lead began to vanish for the remainder of the night. They scored only 12 points, being outscored 33-12 against the Golden Flashes. Despite losing the lead for much of the second half, EMU held this title until the 3:09 mark, when the Flashes made a three-pointer.
After EMU had a trip to the line and only made one free throw to tie the game at 68, Kent State made two more baskets to go up by four and then eventually eight after some free throws were made.
EMU hit two free throws after this point to make it 76-70, but that was all there was remaining time for as the Green and White dropped another contest to Kent State. Kent State is the only program that swept EMU in the regular season.
EMU was led by three players that were in double figures. This includes Christian Henry (Chicago, Illinois), Jalin Billingsley (Cleveland, Ohio), and Yusuf Jihad, (Farmington Hills, Michigan), who had 18, 15, and 14 points for Eastern Michigan, respectively. Billingsley pulled down eight rebounds, while Henry had six assists. Henry also had two blocks to add to his game stat-wise.
Eastern Michigan as a team struggled with keeping the basketball. Their offense allowed 16 turnovers to the Golden Flashes, which they converted for 21 points off Eastern Michigan’s turnovers.
On the positive side, Eastern went 17-for-18 from the free-throw line, their second-best total for the 2024-25 season. They scored 31 points off the bench, in contrast to Kent State’s 25. Eastern Michigan also scored more points in the paint than Kent State, leading this category 26-24.
Up next, Eastern Michigan will have five days off before its first game of the single-elimination MAC Tournament, where it will play Miami University at Rocket Arena in Cleveland. Tip-off is set for 4:30 p.m. ET, and the game will be streaming live on ESPN+ as the Eagles start their quest for the first NCAA Tournament berth since 1998.
Find more coverage of the Eastern Michigan University men’s basketball program from The Eastern Echo.
