With seven minutes remaining, Kent State redshirt sophomore forward Jimmy Hall came back into Monday’s men’s basketball game with four fouls.

In that time, Hall scored 11 points and pulled down five rebounds to boost Kent State (23-11, 12-6 Mid-American Conference) to a 69-65 win over the Texas A&M-CC Islanders (20-14, 13-5 Southland) in the second round of the CollegeInsider.com Tournament.

Hall finished with 23 points and a Kent State postseason-record 13 rebounds for the game.

The Flashes were down by as many as 14 points in the first half.

“We showed a lot of toughness,” coach Rob Senderoff said. “We didn’t play great obviously, but our guys responded in a big way. (Senior guard Derek Jackson) and Jimmy (Hall) made some huge plays down the stretch. Defensively, we did a great job, particularly in the second half.”

The Flashes started the game down 10-0.

“They came out with a ton of energy,” Senderoff said. “It took us awhile to get our footing. When that happens to a lot of teams, they lose by 15 or 20 points. Our guys showed tremendous toughness and resiliency to battle back.”​

The Flashes looked to senior guard Kris Brewer in clutch situations throughout the regular season, but decided that this time, they would put the ball in Jackson’s hands with 27.1 seconds left in the game.

“We drew up a play for Derek to make,” Senderoff said.  “A lot of the time we will run it with Kris Brewer in that position. But we put Derek in that position, he drove it strong and dropped it off to Jimmy who finished.”​​

Senior guards Deveraux Manley and Jackson both scored in double figures, with 17 and 12 points, respectively.

Manley, who made four three-pointers against the Islanders, is now only 16 three-pointers away from passing former Flash Randal Holt on Kent State’s career three-pointers made list.

The win makes the Flashes the 21st team in the country to have 10 true road wins this season.

Texas A&M-CC junior forward Bryce Douvier led the Islanders with 16 points. Senior guard John Jordan added 14 points.

Kent State is the only MAC team remaining in the CIT after Bowling Green (21-12, 11-7 MAC) lost to Canisius (18-14, 11-7 Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference) 82-59 last Saturday night.

The Flashes will play against Northern Arizona (21-14, 13-5 Big Sky) in the CIT quarterfinals on Friday, March 27. Tip-off is at 9 p.m.

Contact Stephen Means II at [email protected]