MILWAUKEE (AP) Jay Youngblood and Armon Gates scored 14 points each to lead Kent State to a 77-52 victory over Binghamton Friday night in the first round of the Blue and Gold Pepsi Classic.
Marcus Crenshaw, a freshman playing his first game for Kent State (1-0), added 12 points.
Troy Hailey led Binghamton (0-2) with 12 points and Andre Heard had 9.
Kent State took control early in the second half by going on a 14-3 run to take a 52-36 lead on a 3-pointer by Gates with 13:40 remaining. Gates hit two 3-pointers and Youngblood had five points in the run.
Hailey's three-point play made it 52-39 before Kent State took off on a 13-4 run, including seven straight points by DeAndre Hayes on two long jumpers and a 3-pointer, to make it 65-43. Kevin Warzynski added four points during the run.
Binghamton never got closer than 20 points the rest of the way and made only 7 of 28 field goal tries in the second half. For the game, Binghamton shot 33.9 percent.
Kent State shot 47 percent from the field in the second half, including seven 3-pointers.
Kent State advanced to Saturday's game against the winner of the Marquette-Sam Houston State game later Friday night.
