Senior Jalen Sullinger scored a career-high 34 points, Delrecco Gillespie posted a double-double and Kent State made it two consecutive road wins in the NIT, holding off Stanford 77-75 on Sunday night.
VonCameron Davis chipped in with 12 points for the Golden Flashes (24-11), who opened the NIT with a victory at St. Bonaventure on Tuesday.
Kent State will advance to the tournament quarterfinals, where it will take on Loyola-Chicago, a 77-76 upset winner at San Francisco on Sunday.
Jaylen Blakes had a team-high 23 points and Maxime Raynaud 22 as part of a double-double for the Cardinal (21-14), formally bringing to an end Stanford’s first season as an Atlantic Coast Conference school.
Seeking to win a third straight on the road dating back to the Mid-American Conference regular season, Kent State ran up a 13-point lead in the first half en route to a 43-34 advantage at the break. Sullinger had 20 of his 34 points and five of his seven 3-pointers in the 20 minutes.
It took Stanford less than five minutes to erase the deficit, opening the second period with a 12-2 burst that featured six points from Raynaud.
The Cardinal went up by as many as two at 49-47 at the 13:56 mark before Sullinger caught fire again, hitting a game-tying jumper and then a go-ahead basket.
When he added a 3-pointer with 10:29 remaining and assisted on a Cli’Ron Hornbeak layup 36 seconds later, the visitors had regained a 58-51 advantage, never to trail again.
Stanford closed within 74-72 when Blakes hit the first of two free throws with seven seconds left. But he missed the second, and when a Sullinger rebound turned into a Cardinal foul, the guard dropped in two foul shots to ice the victory.
Raynaud hit a 3-pointer with one second left, and Davis made one of two foul shots for the final margin.
Sullinger’s point total was two more than he’d had in January against Western Michigan and again in February at Bowling Green. He also found time for eight rebounds, a team-high five assists and three steals.
Gillespie’s double-double consisted of 10 points and a game-high 14 rebounds.
Raynaud, a highly regarded prospect from France, completed his senior season with a team-high 10 rebounds and four blocks.
Chisom Okpara had 13 points and Oziyah Sellers 11 for the Cardinal, whose eight 3-pointers in the game were just one more than Sullinger’s individual total.
–Field Level Media
