Poor play in the game’s opening minutes has been an issue for Kent State at home this season. Saturday night was no different for the Flashes, who fell behind from the start of the game and simply never recovered.

Princeton (3-4) took a 16-2 lead in the first 8:23 of the first half, which was too much to overcome for Kent State (5-3). The Tigers never trailed throughout the entire 40 minutes of the game and defeated the Flashes 62-50 in front of 2,715 at the M.A.C. Center.

“[Princeton] played much better than us tonight,” Senderoff said. “[I’m] very disappointed in how we played coming off two very good road wins, two games where we played very well, very together. Disappointed is probably an understatement for how I feel right now.”

Kent State’s Chris Evans finished with 18 points and eight rebounds, but even his second half performance, during which he scored 13 of the Flashes’ 27 points, wasn’t enough to help his team win its third consecutive game.

“Nights like these are going to happen and you’ve just got to keep playing through it,” Evans said. “You can’t worry about the ball going through the net. You can’t let your offense dictate your defense.”

Kent State missed 10 of its first 11 shots in the game, while Princeton did the opposite, making six of its first 11 shots, including four 3-pointers.

“We haven’t started out well at home all year,” Senderoff said. “I don’t have an answer for it. I don’t know … not coming out ready to play, for whatever reason.”

The Flashes continued to get the unlucky side of the bounce throughout much of the game, as multiple close shot attempts danced around the rim before falling off and into the hands of the Tigers.

“The ball just wasn’t going in the rim,” Evans said. “I was missing [close shots] all night.”

But when asked if it were a matter of luck or instead a lack of effort, Senderoff needed one look at the statistics to answer.

“Sometimes the ball goes your way when you play harder,” Senderoff said. “We had three second chance points. We average 18 a game. They had two offensive rebounds and had more second chance points than us … that, to me, is effort.”

Princeton junior T.J. Bray made all three of his 3-point attempts to lead the Tigers with 15 points and six assists. The Flashes contained senior forward Ian Hummer, Princeton’s leading scorer, but allowed senior center Brendan Connolly to score 11 points.

“[Princeton does] what they do, and we knew what they were gonna do,” Senderoff said. “We just didn’t play very well.

“They deserve credit … but in my eyes, this isn’t about them, this is about how we played and we didn’t play very well in any facet.”

Kent State cut Princeton’s lead to as little as six with 2:49 remaining in the game, but a defensive lapse on the following possession resulted in an easy, two-handed dunk for Connolly and the Flashes never responded.

The Flashes return to the road for two away games this week, starting with Tuesday’s contest at Bucknell. Game time is set for 7 p.m.

Notes:

-Kent State’s 50 points were the fewest scored at the M.A.C. Center since a 50-39 win vs. Miami on March 4, 2008

-The loss to Princeton was Kent State’s first defeat in the 2012-13 season when Chris Evans leads the team in scoring (4-1) and rebounding (5-1)

Contact Nick Shook at [email protected].