ESPN
- Kent State basketball has major beef with Akron’s student section.
- After beating the Zips on their home floor, the Golden Flashes let their rivals know in vicious fashion.
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Kent State and Akron do not like one another. Among the best rivalries in college sports, the one between the two northeast Ohio universities flies completely under the radar but should receive more recognition.
Moments like what happened on Friday is why.
Kent, Ohio and Akron, Ohio are about 10 miles apart. Both schools compete in the MAC.
On Friday night, the Golden Flashes and the Zips men’s basketball teams met on the hardwood in the Rubber Capital of the World. Kent State entered at 9-4 in-conference and Akron entered at 9-3 in conference.
The game went down to the wire. Down by two with 13 seconds left, the Zips took the ball up the court but couldn’t get a great look for the tie or for the win.
In turn, Akron fired up a shot at the buzzer, air-balled, and Kent State won against its rivals on the road. Immediately after the buzzer sounded, the entire Golden Flashes team ran over to the opposing student section and got right up in their faces.
While Kent State was waving goodbye and talking all of that talk, Akron students flipped them all of the birds and had to be held back from storming the court. It could have been much worse than it was, seeing as the Flashes tried to square up an entire student section, but it ended up without physical altercation and it made for one of the best, wildest celebrations in college basketball history:
Check out this Kent State celebration pic.twitter.com/bhiwkC2xYt
— Stuckey (@Stuckey2) February 12, 2022
Kent State won both meetings between the two teams this year so they took the chance to let their rivals know.