KENT: A late-game skirmish between Kent State and the University of Akron players during the game Wednesday night at the M.A.C. Center marred what was otherwise a riveting rivalry game in which the Golden Flashes rallied to pull into a first-place tie with the Zips in the Mid-American Conference East Division.

Tempers between the rivals were kept in check during the Flashes' 75-69 victory until 4.6 seconds remained.

With the Flashes leading 71-67, a hard foul by UA's Steve McNees on KSU's Haminn Quaintance resulted in a bevy of pushing and shoving that quickly got out of hand as other players joined — most to try to break it up.

Still, the melee briefly spilled into the first row of seats in the far left-hand corner of the floor, causing an injury to a woman that required medical attention. While the referees wrestled players away from each other, fans began to throw debris on the court, prompting Kent State coach Jim Christian to grab a microphone, imploring order to be restored.

''Listen to me!'' Christian said. ''Do not throw anything on the court!''

Once the game resumed, there were technical foul shots and free throws, with KSU's Quaintance, Mike Scott and Mike McKee combining to go 4-of-6 and UA's Nick Dials making both of his before the buzzer sounded.

''I feel bad about the way the game ended because I think there's tremendous respect amongst both programs,'' UA coach Keith Dambrot said. ''I just think it got into a heat-of-the-moment thing as young people sometimes lose their composure. But I think everyone should be forgiving. I don't think there's any hard feelings between the teams at all.''

Before the scrum, Kent State's second-half aggressiveness helped to overcome a 10-point halftime deficit, allowing the Flashes to build a nine-point lead with 2:48 to go. But the Zips, who were forced into a season-high 23 turnovers, made four of their 12 3-pointers in
the last three minutes to make it a two-point game late before things got out of control.

''This is a big rivalry and you can't really expect anything less than high intensity,'' said Dials, who finished with game highs in points (22) and assists (seven). ''We just gotta be a little bit smarter. You know, sometimes you gotta put that aside and play the game.

''No hard feelings or anything. It's just emotions getting the best of us.''

Despite leading 35-25 at the half, Dambrot wasn't happy with his team's play.

''I didn't think we played well in the first half,'' he said. ''We did a poor job getting the ball inside and settled for a lot of jump shots.''

Battling a triple-team down low led by Quaintance, UA's Jeremiah Wood was held to 14 points and five rebounds.

Quaintance finished with his fifth consecutive double-double (12 points, 10 rebounds) and five blocks, leading four Flashes in double figures.

''I don't want what happened at the end of the game to be the story of the game,'' Christian said.

''This is two programs and two teams that have a great amount of respect for each other and really compete hard. The incident is obviously a bi-product of that and not indicative of either team.''

Still, MAC officials will have the final say.

''The league office has requested the films from both teams,'' said Rick Boyages, the MAC's director of basketball operations, who was in attendance. ''We will review the video. . . . If there's something we missed, we'll deal with it at a later time.''