Akron beats rival Kent State in MAC title game

** Related Video Above: MAC Tournament started hectic downtown season on Thursday. **.

CLEVELAND (AP)-- Greg Tribble made two free tosses with 4.8 seconds left after he was inexplicably fouled by Kent State's Julius Rollins, giving Akron a 62-61 win over its bitter competitor in the Mid-American Conference champion to earn an NCAA Tournament bid on Saturday night.

The second-seeded Zips (24-10) won their fifth MAC title and 2nd in 3 years. Making it sweeter is that they did it against the Golden Flashes (17-17), the No. 8 seed who knocked off top-seeded Toledo in the quarterfinals.

Kent State was in position to manage another spectacular upset when Cli'Ron Hornbeak tipped in a miss by Jalen Sullinger to give the Golden Flashes a 61-60 lead with 6.2 seconds to go.

The Zips quickly inbounded the ball to Tribble, but he was fouled by Rollins, who obviously didn't recognize the Golden Flashes had taken the lead. Kent State coach Rob Senderoff covered his head and paced along the sideline after seeing his reserve make the expensive mistake.

Tribble then dropped both complimentary tosses and Akron held on when Sullinger, who scored 19 points, missed out on a runner in the final second.

Ali Ali scored 18 points and Enrique Freeman, the MAC's player of the year, added 17 and nine rebounds for the Zips. Freeman was named the competition's most impressive player.

VonCameron Davis scored 21 to lead the Golden Flashes.

This was the 5th conference between Akron and Kent State in the MAC title video game and 2nd in three years. In some way, they always appear to collide in March.

There is no love lost between Akron and Kent State, longtime rivals in football, basketball and every other sport. The schools are roughly just 12 miles apart and their enthusiastic fan bases-- sometimes dividing families and areas-- are in continuous conflict.

Astonishingly, the series was connected 82-82 going into the title video game.

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Kent State's zone defense was effective in the very first half as it restricted Freeman's touches and forced the Zips to have fun with persistence-- something they have a hard time to do.

With Akron's offense doing not have any rhythm, the Golden Flashes opened a 24-18 lead before Ali was and made a 3-pointer fouled making another one, and his 4-point play capped a 16-2 go to put the Zips up 34-29 at half.