The Flashes run into a team that is struggling just as much as they are when they play at Colgate Sunday.
Like Kent, the Raiders are 1-8. Their RPI is 281; Kent’s is 312 (out of 349 Division I teams.) Colaage has lost badly to some good schools — No. 15 Georgia (11-0) by 31, St. Bonaventure (8-3) by 16 and No. 17 Rutgers (8-2) by 16. It has won at home against Binghamtn, which is 1-10. It lost to Cornell (4-4) and Albany (6-4) at home. It lost to 5-4 Monmouth by 20 on the road in its last game Dec. 13.
The Raiders are led by 5-10 senior forward Carole Harris, a pre-season second-team pick inn the Patriot Conference. She is eighth in the league in rebounding (7.1), ninth in blocked shots (0.9), 10th in scoring (11.9) and 12th in steals (1.2). Six-three forward Josie Stockill is second on the team with 11.3 points per game and is third in the league in blocked shots (1.8).
As a team, Colgate’s statistics are very similar to Kent’s. The Raiders are scoring 53 points a game and giving up 66. They’re shooting only 36 percent (25 percent on three-pointers) and allowing opponents to shoot 43 percent. Kent State is actually a little better in all three categories. Colgate is about even with their opponents in rebounding and are minus 2.9 in turnovers per game. Kent State plus 2.5 in rebounding and minus 4.7 in turnovers. At 69 percent, Colgate is a much better foul shooting team than Kent State, which is shooting 59 percent.
Kent State, however, may still be missing starting wing Larissa Lurken, their leading scorer. She missed Wednesday’s game with the flu. Starting point guard Mikell Chinn has missed three straight games with a concussion. Forward Janae Peterson has played only three minutes this season because of physical problems, and two other guards blew out knees before the season started. Coach Danny O’Banion continues to call Lurken, Chinn and Peterson “day to day.”
Without those three, Kent State has eight scholarship players and two walk-ons in uniform.
The game is at 2 p.m. Audio is on Golden Flash iHeart Radio. Video and live stats are through the Colgate website.
After this game, Kent State is off for nine days for Christmas.