Daily Kent Stater | Mon. Mar. 8, 2010

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Sports: Find out what ‘powers’ senior Chris Singletary has used to help get the men’s basketball team where it is today.

DAILY KENT STATER Monday, March 8, 2010 • The independent student newspaper of Kent State University • Weather: Partly cloudy HI 48, LO 32

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Routing their rivals 8 + 23 + 20 + 13 = 4

Flashes clinch fourth regular season title in school history Cody Erbacher

POINT LEAD FOR THE FLASHES AT HALFTIME

POINTS SCORED BY KSU LEADING SCORER ANTHONY SIMPSON

POINT CUSHION FOR FLASHES WITH FIVE MINUTES TO GO

POINT VICTORY FOR KSU ON NATIONAL TV

REGULAR SEASON TITLES IN SCHOOL HISTORY

Daily Kent Stater The Kent State men’s basketball team turned Akron’s white out into a 13-point wipeout in front of a national TV audience en route to a Mid-American Conference regular season title Friday night. Led by sixth man Anthony Simpson, the Flashes (23-8, 13-3 MAC) scored an overwhelming 74-61 victory over the Zips (22-9, 12-4 MAC) at Rhodes Arena for a season sweep of their archrivals. Kent State clinched the No. 1 seed in this week’s MAC Tournament and an automatic National Invitational Tournament bid with the win. Akron fell to the No. 3 seed with the loss. Simpson, a senior forward, starred in the final regular-season game, leading all scorers with 23 points while adding nine rebounds. “Anthony’s capable of doing that every night,” said senior guard Chris Singletary, who only played 15 minutes because of foul trouble. “It just so happened tonight his number got called on, and he rose to the occasion and played a great game.” Simpson ignited the Flashes’ offense, which started 0-for-4 from the field, with a mix of powerful dunks and arcing jump shots. He also threw in a couple juke moves. The Zips’ fans attempted to throw Simpson off of his game by taunting him frequently, but he used it as motivation. “I just laughed at them,” Simpson said. “My teammates and the ref was like, ‘Don’t say nothing to them; it’s not that serious.’ To me, now I look at them and I can laugh, right? “They (are) mad, they had their white shirts. Now they can take them off and be real upset.” Akron jumped out to a 7-3 lead to start the game. Behind an 8-0 run, Kent State took more than eight minutes into the half while the Zips’ shooters went cold.

MATTHEW GRCIC | DAILY KENT STATE

Willy Wonka takes Charlie and Violet down the chocolate river to get a closer look at the factory. SignStage On Tour produced Charlie and the Chocolate Factory at Signs of Grace Church on Friday evening. SignStage On Tour is a professional children’s theatre company that tours nationally producing deaf theatre. All proceeds went to the CCCD School of the Deaf in Jamaica.

SignStage on Tour joins two cultures Deaf and hearing communities work together in play Kathryn McGonagle Daily Kent Stater TESSA BARGAINNIER | DAILY KENT STATER

Director of Athletics Laing Kennedy celebrates after cutting down a piece of net in the M.A.C. Center Friday night after the team arrived home from Akron. The Flashes beat the Zips 74-61 at James A. Rhodes Arena. With the win, Kent State clinched the Mid-American Conference regular-season title. The Flashes extended their lead to 31-23 by halftime as Akron shot just 27 percent from the field. Kent State led the rest of the way in the second stanza behind 15 points from Simpson. With five minutes left in the game, freshman guard Randal Holt drove inside for a layup to give Kent State a 20-point cushion. White shirts then streamed toward the exits James A. Rhodes Arena.

“To win a conference championship, you’ve got to win on the road,” Kent State coach Geno Ford said. “I thought we played really well, and they were not great in the first half, and that was the difference.” The win marked the fourth regular season title in school history and third in five seasons. Kent State returns to action in the Quicken Loans Arena Thursday against Ohio University, who beat

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View multimedia of the game. Ball State yesterday, 85-77, in the first round of MAC Tournament. Contact sports reporter Cody Erbacher at cerbache@kent.edu. React to this story and more at KentWired.com

USG CANDIDATES EDITOR’S NOTE: It’s that time of year again: Undergraduate Student Government elections. Today, the Daily Kent Stater presents the profiles of the candidates for executive director. The USG election is tomorrow. Students can vote then by logging onto their FlashLine accounts.

Looking to act as liaison Matthew Gustoff Ever since Matthew Gustoff was initiated into Sigma Chi in spring 2008, he has held an elected position in the fraternity. Four semesters of leadership experience later, he said he feels he has what it takes to hold Undergraduate Student Government’s executive director position. Gustoff, a junior business management major, said he knows how much responsibility is required to be executive director and feels he can handle it. If he is elected, Gustoff said he is looking forward to being a liaison between the student body, student organizations and the administration. “Leadership’s never been

a problem for me,” Gustoff said. “That’s one of my greatest assets: to be able to get a group of people together to achieve a com- GUSTOFF mon goal.” In addition to his positions in Sigma Chi, Gustoff is also the vice president of programming for the Interfraternity Council. He worked as a hall representative for Wright Hall his freshman year. He is also involved in the city of Kent’s parks and recreation, where he does mostly athletics with children. If Gustoff is elected, he has six main goals he wants to accomplish. He wants to improve campus security, make the campus “greener,” work with the director of business and finance to produce a public annual report and to help voice the concerns of students to the administration staff. See GUSTOFF, Page 6

Hopes to L.E.A.D. Justin Pierce Justin Pierce never thought he would learn a lesson from boxing he would later apply to politics. “If you don’t do everything possible you can behind the scenes, when you step in that ring, you’re not going to see a good outcome,” Pierce, a senior finance and accounting major, said. Pierce said he can graduate in December, but will defer his graduation one more semester if elected. Pierce said he is the only known two-term president of Delta Upsilon. He claimed his fraternity has gone from low

numbers to high numbers in his presidency. He is also the current director of student a d v a n c e - PIERCE ment within USG. He has a very specific platform he calls the L.E.A.D. Movement, an acronym that stands for “link programs, exposure, accountability and diversity.” He said he believes this platform is an extremely realistic goal. “It’s going to be the theme,” Pierce said, “of every initiative student government focuses on next year if I’m elected.” It starts with the link programs he is planning on instituting. See PIERCE, Page 6

Oompa loompas, a gold-clad Willy Wonka and props labeled “Chocolate” and “Nut Room” were scattered around actors rehearsing for the production “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” but this wasn’t just any production. It was performed Friday night in American Sign Language with the help of Kent State students. Even though the event was last Friday, the preparation for it tells a different story. “I think there’s so much the hearing community can learn from the deaf community,” said Jen Carrick, director of Signs of Grace at Grace Church, which is hosting the play.

“And in ignoring that community, we’re really missing out, and I think both the deaf community and the hearing community, the deaf culture and the hearing culture, have so much to offer each other.” The childhood classic will bridge the hearing and deaf societies, Carrick said, when the actors take the stage to perform the tale about respect, honor and love that will be both signed and spoken. Grace Church in Middleburg Heights has been working in conjunction with SignStage, a part of the Cleveland Hearing and Speech Center, to bring “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” to life. “Just because you’re deaf doesn’t mean you can’t be an actor, a professional actor,” said SignStage director Bill Morgan. He said SignStage, which travels with deaf and hearing actors across the country putting on plays in sign language, agreed to donate the performance to Grace Church in return for rehearsal space. See WONKA, Page 6

Kernich murder suspect faces three more assault charges Ronald Kelly, the suspect charged with the attack on Kent State student Christopher Kernich, has been indicted on three more counts of misdemeanor assault. Kelly, who is also facing two counts of murder and one count of felonious assault, a seconddegree felony, was indicted by a Portage County grand jury. According to the Record Courier, Kelly allegedly assaulted three other Kent State students on the night of the Kernich assault. In the early morning hours of Nov. 15, Kernich was nearly struck by a car driven by Glenn P. Jefferson Jr. Kelly and co-defendant Adrian Barker got out of the car and allegedly assaulted Kernich, who died a week later from his injuries at Akron City Hospital. Kelly’s arraignment for the new assault charges will be at 1 p.m. March 29 at the Portage County Common Pleas Court. His trial is set for May 4 in front

of Judge John A. Enlow. Barker will be re-arraigned at 9 a.m. Wednesday after a grand jury amended two of his charges Friday. He has been KELLY indicted with two counts of murder and a count each of felonious assault and obstructing official business, a fifth-degree felony. His trial is set to begin April 13 in the courtroom of Judge Enlow. Jefferson has been indicted with two counts of obstructing justice, a third-degree felony. His trial is set for May 25 in front of Judge Laurie J. Pittman in the Portage County Common Pleas Court. — Josh Johnston

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