CLEVELAND -- Not this time Miami.

Kent State junior guard Al Fisher stroked a runner in the lane with just three seconds left then the defense held off Miami's Tim Pollitz as time expired to squeak out a 49-47 victory at Quicken Loans Arena.

The win places the top-seeded Flashes in the Mid-American Conference Championship game Saturday night against rival Akron, who lost to Miami in last year's championship game on a buzzer beating 3-pointer by former RedHawk Doug Penno.

"We got our only senior, our best player -- The heart and soul of our team. We got him a three-foot shot to tie the game and it came up a little short," Miami interim head coach Jermaine Henderson said. "I remember just a short couple months ago we were right on time. So, most of these guys wearing red and white got the bitter end of something sweet that was just good to us just a year ago."

The game was what one would expect from the two MAC East powers: a knockdown, drag out fight for conference supremacy. Just like their last meeting on March 5 -- a Kent State 50-39 win at the M.A.C. Center -- it seemed like the first team to 50 points would win the game.

In this meeting no one even made it that far.

"You're playing Miami," Kent State coach Jim Christian said. "You know there is going to be long possessions, you know you are going to have to continually guard and you're going to have to rebound because if you don't, they are going to run 30 more seconds off the clock. There weren't a lot of possessions in this game, so you've got to be intense the whole time."

It was the rebounding aspect that seemed to catch the Flashes off guard in the first half. Although the two teams were nearly equal on the stat sheet, Miami center Tyler Dierkers was all over the offensive glass.

By halftime, where the Flashes led 25-23, the junior already had nine rebounds -- four of them offensively -- and 11 points.

Halftime adjustments put an end to his success though as he could only muster two more rebounds and no second half points to round out his line for the night.

"We just had to keep him off the backboard," Christian said "All his work was on the offensive boards. We were over helping I thought; and just leaving him alone. You can't do that."

In a game where every possession is vital and offensive efficiency is an absolute must, the RedHawks had one major flaw in Friday's game. Miami missed six of its last nine free throws during a second half where neither team could distance themselves from other. That is until Fisher had the ball with three seconds left.

Rarely are players more intense than Fisher these days. The game-winning shot marked the second time in three games that Fisher has sunk opponents as time is expiring.

"We have total confidence in Al Fisher.," Kent State junior guard Jordan Mincy said. "Right before his shot I told my assistant coaches, I was like, 'I'm almost willing to bet my life on it;' I'm like, 'Al's going to win the game for us.' As soon as he did I went and grabbed both of them- coach (Arnette) Jordan and coach (Mike) Brown-I was like, 'I told you he was going to do it.' It was kind of like me having total faith in him, total confidence in him."