Kent State travels to Central Michigan Wednesday to face a team that was supposed to be the best team in the MAC.
Central, which is 4-2 in the MAC and 9-8 overall, still figures to be very good.
But the Chippews have lost two straight games to the best teams in the MAC East. They lost to Ohio 71-51 at Ohio last Wednesday. Ohio is the surprise team of the conference with a 15-3 record, 5-1 in the MAC. Then Central Michigan lost to Akron 74-72 Saturday in Mount Pleasant. Akron is also 15-3, 5-2 in the MAC.
Central had just lost its starting point guard to a knee injury when it beat Kent State 83-62 Jan. 3. Still a senior dominated team, the Chippewas won four games in a row before the losses to Ohio and Akron.
Central had major problems shooting foul shots in both losses, making only a total of 17 of 32 shots. It made only 3 of 9 in the six-point loss to Akron.
CMU’s star Chrystal Bradford, the 2013-14 MAC player of the year, struggled in both of those games, going only 7 for 39 from the field.
Kent State is 3-14, 1-5 in the MAC.It is coming off of a 78-55 loss to Western Michigan. It was KSU’s second-worst margin of defeat this season. (Duquesne beat the Flashes by 26.) Larissa Lurken played her best game in a month to lead Kent State with 18 points.
The game is at 7 p.m. Audio starts at 6:50 on Golden Flash iHeart Radio and 640AM WHLO. Video is on ESPN3, Live statistics are through the CMU website.