Virgin Islands basketball player Deon J. Edwin and the Kent State University Golden Flashes got their Mid Atlantic Conference Season off to a winning start with a 87-84 overtime victory against Western Michigan on Tuesday January 5, 2016. Photo: KSU

Edwin, making his third start for his new team, played 30 minutes, scoring 6 points from eight field goal attempts and three 3 point efforts that all went wide. He picked up 3 rebounds, one assist and made two steals. Photo: KSU/File

Deon J. Edwin, seen here representing Bayside Blazers in the 2014 Hon Julian Fraser Save the Seed Basketball League. Photo: VINO/File

After a successful non-conference season that ended with a 9-4 record, Kent State are looking to defend the MAC regular season championship that they shared a year ago and got clutch performances down the stretch from a slew of players, highlighted by Jimmy Hall, Chris Ortiz, Xavier Pollard and Khaliq Spicer.

Edwin, making his third start for his new team, played 30 minutes, scoring 6 points from eight field goal attempts and three 3 point efforts that all went wide. He picked up 3 rebounds, one assist and made two steals.

Hall finished with team highs of 21 points and seven rebounds, and came up with a key steal late in regulation, setting the stage for an Ortiz three-pointer to give KSU a three-point lead with 24.8 seconds on the clock. Western Michigan's Thomas Wilder answered with a three to force the extra session tied 76-76.

Defense and some clutch free-throw shooting allowed the Flashes to close out the game in overtime.

KSU head coach Rob Senderoff said: "This was a great team effort. Tonight, everybody played at a very high level, and especially late in regulation and overtime. We needed contributions from everyone."

Kent State showed tremendous poise after losing starting point guard Kellon Thomas to his fifth foul with 2:47 to play in the second half. The Flashes were already playing with Pollard and Khaliq Spicer saddled with four fouls since the four-minute mark. That duo added to KSU's steal (11) and blocked shot (5) totals while playing all of the final nine minutes without committing foul No. 5.

Kent State's defense forced a total of 19 turnovers leading to a 28-7 scoring advantage off of those miscues.

The Flashes also dominated the paint to the tune of 50-24.

Wilder was held scoreless in overtime after scoring 28 points on 9-for-13 shooting in the first 40 minutes.

KSU return home to face Buffalo at 6:30 p.m. on Friday January 8, 2015 at the M.A.C. Center.