Both Miami and Kent State are playing much better than their records at this point in the season.

But at Miami, it was the problem that has cost Kent State all season — actually for three seasons — that cost the Flashes in Miami’s 66-59 victory.

The Flashes — who have committed more turnovers than any team in the MAC — had 17 Saturday, leading to 19 Miami points. More than a dozen times this season, their opponents points off turnovers have been greater than their margin of victory. The Flashes had taken care of the ball in the last two games — forcing more turnovers than they made against both Akron and Bowling Green and scoring more points off them both games.

Miami is not a team that forces a lot of turnovers — just 14 a game in conference play. But the Redhawks have been playing well lately with three wins in a row and four out of their last six.

The win moves Miami past Kent State into 10th place in the MAC — fourth in the East — and practically guarantees the Redskins a higher seed in the MAC tournament because of their season sweep of the Flashes. Miami is now 4-12 in the conference (6-21 overall). Kent State is 3-13, 5-22 overall. Bowling Green is in last place at 2-14, 9-18 overall.

Kent coach Danny O’Banion acknowledged turnovers was the difference, but she said that Miami played more physically and got more foul shots — the other statistic that shows how the Redhawks won. Miami shot 21 free throws, making 17. Kent State was 7 of 11.

“Usually the more aggressive team gets the more class,” she said in her postgame radio interview. “Miami was the more physical team, and they got the free throws. “It was frustrating in the paint – around the rim. Miami was more physical, which can’t be on the road if we want to win.”

Miami — which didn’t have an offensive rebound in the first half — had 10 in the second and got 10 second chance points. Kent State had 13 offensive rebounds and led in rebounds overall, 36-32. Notes:

• Larissa Lurken led Kent State with a career-high 22 points on 8 of 17 shooting, including four three-pointers. Jordan Korinek had 11 on 5 of 8 shooting but got into foul trouble for the second straight game and played only 23 minutes. Cici Shannon had 11 points and 13 rebounds — her seventh double-double of the season.
• Both teams shot very well in the first half — 60 percent for Miami and 54 percent for Kent State — and not very well in the second — 25 percent for Miami, 32 percent for Kent.
• Miami blocked seven Kent State shots. Kent State blocked three.
• Miami’s Baleigh Reid, a candidate for freshman of the year honors, also had 22 points — 16 in the first half.
• Kent State jumped out to a 23-13 lead, making seven of its first nine shots.
• It was KSU’s fifth straight close game. Over those five, Kent State beat Northern Illinois by two, lost at Buffalo by two, won at Bowling Green by four, lost to Akron by won and lost at Miami by seven.
• Kent State’s three guards besides Lurken went 3 for 19.
• Guard Krista White missed her second-straight game with a foot injury. So for the second-straight game, Kent had only eight scholarship players in uniform.

The Flashes return home next week for the final two games of the season. On Wednesday, they’ll play league-leader Ohio23-4, 14-2 MAC)  which beat Bowling Green 67-47 Saturday. They’ll finish their season next Saturday against Buffalo. Other Saturday MAC scores:

• Eastern Michigan (16-11, 9-7 MAC) 60, Northern Illinois (11-15, 7-9) 52, at Eastern.
• Western Michigan (17-10, 10-6) 51, Ball State (15-12, 11-5) 50, at Western.
• Buffalo (16-11, 9-6) 87, Akron (20-7 10-6), at Buffalo.
• Toledo, (17-10, 10-6) 62, Central Michigan( 12-15, 7-9)  53, at Toledo.

Full KSU box here. MAC standings here.

It feels strange to write that headline about Kent State and Miami, who play at 1 p.m. Saturday in Oxford.

The Flashes and Redhawks are tied with the MAC’s second-worst record — 3-11 in the conference and 5-21 overall. But both have played as well as anyone in the league over the last few weeks.

Kent has gone 2-2 in its last four games, and the losses were by a total of three points.

Miami is 3-2 over its last five, including a 69-53 victory in Kent Feb. 11. That game was probably the low point of Kent’s season. It had played well against good teams — Central Michigan, Akron and Ohio — before that but did nothing right after about the first six minutes against Miami.

No team is playing particularly in the conference right now. League-leading Ohio lost at home to Eastern Michigan 10 days ago. MAC West leader Ball State also lost at home to Eastern Wednesday, but Eastern lost at home to Toledo last Saturday. Toledo has won three in a row but lost three in a row before that.

All that turmoil leaves the seeding for the MAC tournament very much up in the air. Ohio (13-2) is pretty much guaranteed the first seed, then comes Ball State at 11-4 and Akron at 10-5. Toledo and Western Michigan are fighting for the last bye at 9-6 while Eastern and Buffalo are 8-7 and Northern Illinois and Central Michigan at 7-8.

If the tournament were today, Kent State would play Eastern or Buffalo, depending on tie breakers. Miami would play the other.

I need to add more about Miami’s team later this evening.

Saturday’s game starts at 1 p.m. and is part of a double header. Miami’s streaking men’s team plays MAC East leading Bowling Green at 3:30. Audio of the game is on Golden Flash iHeart Radio. starts at 12:50. You can get live statistics and video through the Miami website. Video will cost $10.95 for a one-month subscription; you’d need to cancel after the game or it renews automatically.

I did a long response earlier in the day to a good comment by Golden Flash101. You can read the comment and the response here. GoldenFlash101 has been doing great comments all season. You can see them if you scroll down on the same link.

As Kent State coach Danny O’Banion said after the game, it came down to Akron’s making one more play than Kent State.

That was senior Sina King’s five-foot shot with 4.8 seconds left to give the Zips a 54-53 victory over the Flashes.

Kent State had just taken the lead on two Larissa Lurken free throws. Akron took the ball down the court and did what everyone expected — got the ball to King, who is second in the conference in scoring at 20 points a game. King got a screen and was isolated on 5-6 guard Naddiyah Cross, made the basket and was fouled.

She missed the foul show, which probably was a good thing for Akron. Kent State’s Mckenna Stephens picked up the ball and after a couple of bounces, missed a desperation half court shot.

“It sucked. It sucked very hard,” Lurken said at a postgame press conference. Lurken had 11 points on two three pointers and five of six foul shots.

O’Banion and guard Melanee Stubbs were more positive, both pointing out how Kent State had battled back from behind by four points with three minutes to go.

On a night when. as O’Banion said, both teams “looked like the desert on offense,” four points was a lot. Neither team led by more than six in the game. The lead changed hands nine times.

Kent State held Akron — the highest scoring team in the conference with the highest field goal percentage — 20 points under its average. The Zips made just 30 percent of their shots — 14 percentage points under their average.

But Akron got eight more shots than Kent State, almost entirely because of offensive rebounding. The Zips had 17 offensive rebounds and nine second-chance points, compared to 10 offensive rebounds and four second-chance points for the Flashes.

In a one-point game, lots of things can make a difference:

• Cici Shannon, Kent’s second-leading scorer and the MAC’s leading rebounder, was in foul trouble all game and fouled out with 1:43 to go. She played only 16 minutes and had five rebounds, six points and two blocks. Forward Jordan Korinek had four fouls and played only 23 minutes. She scored eight points and had six rebounds. Akron coach Jodi Kest said part of her team’s game plan was to go inside and to try to establish position quickly against the KSU forwards. The Zips got two offensive fouls on Shannon.
• Kent State guard Krista White missed the game with what O’Banion called a “bum wheel — as medical as I can do it.” White was in a walking boot. O’Banion said she was “day to day.” White averages about seven points a game and is one of Kent’s better defenders. Without her, Kent State had only eight scholarship players in uniform and four guards, including Lurken, who’s primarily a wing. But because of the foul trouble, Kent State at times had all four guards on the floor. Point guards Mikell Chinn and Cross played together much of the time.
• Kent State didn’t shoot much better than Akron — 36 percent, about 4 percentage points below its average.
• Akron and Kent each made 30 percent of their three-point shots, but that was 6 of 20 for Akron and 3 of 10 for Kent State.

But in the end, the difference was King — a high-scoring, senior money player who had 20 points and 12 rebounds — and the winning basket.

Notes:

• Chinn had a career-high 11 assists and — at 5-foot-6 — led the Flashes with seven rebounds.
• For the second game in a row, Kent State had fewer turnovers than its opponent (13 to Akron’s 16) and scored more points off turnovers (14 to 10). KSU made only three turnovers in the second half.
• Kent State blocked seven shots — two by Shannon and Stephens and one each by Korinek, Cross and Montia Johnson.
• Attendance was 1,134, the highest of the season. “An awesome environment,” O’Banion said.

Kent State, which is now 5-21 and 3-12 in the MAC, plays its last regular-season road game at Miami Saturday. The Redhawks beat Bowling Green 58-51 at home Wednesday to move into a tie with KSU for 10th in the conference (fourth in the East). BG is last at 2-13. Akron is now third in the MAC (second to Ohio in the East) at 10-5 and 20-6 overall.

Other MAC scores Wednesday:

• Eastern Michigan (15-11, 9-7 MAC) 56, Ball State (15-11, 11-4) 41, at Ball State.
• Northern Illinois (11-14, 7-8) 69, Central Michigan (12-14, 7-8) 62, at Northern.
• Toledo (19-10, 9-6) 67, Western Michigan (16-10, 9-6) 57, at Toledo.
• Ohio (22-4, 13-2) 78, Buffalo (15-11, 8-7) 79, at Ohio.

Full KSU box score here. MAC standings here.

In Kent State first six conference games this season, the Flashes went 1-5. Opponents outscored the Flashes by an average of 18.3 points per game.

Aside from 55-48 victory at home against an injury-ridden Bowling Green, there was little good to say.

Since then, the Flashes are 2-6. They beat Northern Illinois at home and Bowling Green on the road. They lost by just two points on the road to Central Michigan and Buffalo. They lost by just seven at Akron. They led first-place Ohio by two points at halftime. Opponents have outscored them by an average of only 6.5 points.

Yes there was a disastrous first half in a 70-53 loss to Eastern Michigan and a disastrous game in a 58-44 loss to last-place Miami in that stretch.

But we can say that Kent is playing its best basketball of the season — probably the best of coach Danny O’Banion’s three seasons and Bob Lindsay’s final season before that.

Wednesday the Flashes play Akron again. They’re hardly favored — Akron is still in second in the MAC East at 9-5, 19-6 overall. Kent State is 3-11, 5-20. But they may have about as good a chance as they’ve had since they last beat the Zips in February 2012. (The score was 77-76 at Kent.)

What makes the Flashes better?

You can probably start with seniors Mikell Chinn and Cici Shannon.

Chinn suffered a concussion at Kent State’s Thanksgiving tournament in San Luis Obispo, California. She missed eight games. She moved back into the starting line-up against Miami, where her six assists against two turnovers were one of the only bright spots.

Then she had five assists and six key foul shots in the win against Northern Illinois. She had seven assists and five rebounds at Buffalo. She had 10 assists and seven points (one off her career high) in Saturday’s win at Bowling Green.

She is second in the MAC in assists in conference games with an average of 4.9 per game. She’s fourth in assist/turnover ratio and 11th in steals.

“Our offensive production over the last two weeks has really improved, and I think a large part of that is due to her,” O’Banion told KentWired, the online edition of the Kent Stater. “Our challenge has been running offense well enough and maintaining possession well enough so that can actually execute our offense.”

Shannon has been the MAC’s most dominant rebounder. She has averaged 10.9 rebound a game in conference play, two more than the next best player. She’s third in the conference in blocked shots and 26th in scoring, despite every team collapsing on her defensively. O’Banion calls her the most improved player on the team.

Quick comparisons on Kent State against a year ago:

• The Flashes’ record is 5-20 compared with 6-19 at this time last year.
• Their scoring margin is -10.7, compared to 13.4 a year ago. Their field goal percentage is 41.3, up 3 percentage points from a year ago. It’s more than 43 percent in conference play, third in the conference.
• Three-point shooting is about 3 percentage points better, too, and the Flashes are averaging 3.3 three-pointers a game, compared with 3.0.
• Their rebounding margin is +2.0, compared to -0.7, and their turnover margin, while still last in the conference, is -4.6 compared to -5.4. Assists are up almost two per game.
• About the only thing that’s significantly worse is foul shooting, which at just 60 percent is down 6 percentage points from last year.
• Their RPI is 292 compared to 303 a year ago. Schedule strength is 191, compared to 179 in 2913-14. (I suspect the schedule strength will go up; Akron and Ohio, whom they play at home next week, both have RPIs under 75.

Wednesday Akron game is a 7 p.m. at the MACC, with audio starting at 6:50 on Golden Flash iHeart Radio. You can get video and live statistics through the KSU website.

All sorts of nice things to say about Kent State’s 62-58 win at Bowling Green Saturday.

• It meant Kent State swept its season series over the Falcons for the first time since 2001-02. It was Kent State’s first win at Bowling Green in 11 years. It was Kent State’s first win — in any men’s or women’s sport — ever at BG’s Stroh Center.
• It was Kent State’s second win in three games and third straight good game. (It lost by two at Buffalo Wednesday.) It was its first MAC road victory of the season. It gives Kent State a 3-11 conference record, 5-20 overall. It gives KSU a chance to equal or better last year’s MAC record of 4-14. The Flashes are now alone in 10th place in the league (and in fourth place in the MAC East.)

It was a game in which many players in many positions contributed.

• Senior point guard Mikell Chinn, who missed more than a month earlier in the season with a concussion, equalled a career high with 10 assists. She scored a season-high seven points. “Mikell stepping up in a way a senior point guard steps u,” coach Danny O’Banion said in her postgame radio interview. “Their game plan was the leave our point guards open. Once Mikell realized that, she did a great job adjusting.” Chinn made two layups and a 15-foot jumper in the first half and a free throw with seven seconds to go that clinched the game.
• Sophomore wing guard Larissa Lurken, who has had an up-and-down season despite being Kent’s leading scorer, had one of her best games. She had 16 points on four three-point shots and four of four foul shooting. She had been averaging only 51 percent after shooting almost 80 percent last season.
• Cici Shannon had 10 points on four of five shooting and eight rebounds. It was only the second game since she had 20 rebounds against BG in January that she didn’t have double digit rebounds. O’Banion said Bowling Green often had two players try to block out Shannon after missed baskets.
• Mckenna Stephens had 11 points on five of seven shooting, mostly on midrange jump shots. She added some excitement by missing three foul shots in the last minute but made a fourth to give Kent State a three-point lead.
• Until those three misses and one at the end by Chinn, Kent State had made 10 of 12 free throws. The team, which is a distant last in the MAC in foul shooting, has shot well in the last three games. It wouldn’t have been in any of them without that shooting.
• For one of the few times this season, Kent State committed fewer turnovers than its opponent (10 to BG’s 13) and scored more points off of turnovers (14-10), Three of those turnovers were Chinn steals. Lurken had two steals.
• Kent State led by five at half time and extended the lead to 16 in the second half. That’s its largest lead of the season. it was sort of holding on for dear life at the end.
• The Flashes outscored BG 28-16 in the paint and 10-2 on second-chance points. Its bench outscored the Falcons’ bench 23-16.
• Bowling Green, which has lost four players to season-ending injuries, played only eight women.
• O’Banion called this was a “special team.” “We’ve talked a lot about the potential of this team. We have just enough to be successful — not a surplus but enough,” she said.

The Flashes are home Wednesday to play Akron, which is 19-6 and 9-5 in the MAC. The Zips lost to first-place Ohio 71-55 in Akron Saturday. Kent State played very well when it lost to Akron 74-67 in Akron Jan. 31.

Other MAC scores Saturday:

Ball State (15-10, 11-3 MAC) 51, Northern Illinois (10-14, 6-8) 50, at Northern.

Miami (5-20, 2-12) 78, Buffalo (15-10, 8-6) 68, at Buffalo.

Central Michigan (12-13, 7-7) 63, Western Michigan (16-9, 9-5) 51, at Central.

Toledo (15-10, 8-6) 81, Eastern Michigan (14-11, 7-7) 72, at Eastern.

Full Kent State box score here. MAC standings here.

The last time Kent State swept a season series with Bowling Green was 2001-02. It was the peak of the Bob Lindsay era, when Dawn Zerman and Julie Studer were leading the Flashes to a MAC East and Tournament Championship and a berth in the NCAA Tournament.

Kent State had won 12 in a row and 17 of 18 against BG.

Then BG’s dynasty started. The Falcons won the next 13 games against Kent State, lost one, then won the next eight as they won the MAC regular season nine times and MAC Touirnament five times between 2005 and 2014.

Kent State ended that BG streak Jan. 10 with a 55-48 victory in Kent.

Bowling Green was 30-5 last year but returned only six players (two starters) from that team. The Falcons had 12 players at the start of the season; four, including leading scorer Erica Donavon, have been lost for the season due to injury. Three freshmen have started for BG at various times this season. In January, they imported a volleyball player to fill the roster.

So the Falcons have their worst record in decades and are tied with Kent State for 10th in the conference (fourth in the East) with 2-11 records. Overall, they’re 9-15. Miami is last in the MAC at 1-12.

Kent State has suffered its share of injuries this season. Seniors Mikell Chinn and Montia Johnson both missed more than a month with concussions but have been big contributors in the last few games. Chinn has moved back into the starting lineup and is playing more than 30 minutes at point guard. She ranks second in the conference in assists. Johnson, who was KSU’s leading scorer a year ago, had nine points in the Flashes’ two-point victory over Northern Illinois last Saturday.

Kent State beat BG in January behind an overpowering performance behind 6-4 senior center Cici Shannon, who had 16 points and 20 rebounds. Bowling Green’s injuries have left the Falcons’ front court depleted, and you can expect Kent State to try to pound the ball inside. The Flashes have done that successfully for the last two games. Against NIU and at Buffalo Wednesday (a tough 59-57 loss), Kent State post players have scored 69 of Kent State’s 99 points. Not all those points have come near the basket; freshmen Jordan Korinek and Mckenna Stephens have scored consistently with 10- to 17-foot shots.

The game is at 5 p.m., the second of a double header in Bowling Green. The Falcon men’s team, which is tied with Kent State for first in the MAC, plays Buffalo at 2 p.m.

Audio starts on the Kent Flash iHeart Radio at 4:50. Video — for a $6.95 fee — and live statistics can be seen through the BG website.

Kent State played a near-perfect first half at Buffalo, The Flashes were up by nine points at halftime. They were shooting 52 percent from the field.  They outrebounded one of the best rebounding teams in the MAC. They had 13 assists on 14 baskets. They committed only six turnovers.

But…

Buffalo pounded at Kent State on defense, on the boards and on the foul line in the second half to pull out a 59-57 victory.

It was a tough loss for Kent State, which had just won a two-point game at home Saturday with a shot at the buzzer against Northern Illinois.

The keys to the game were Buffalo’s second-half defense and offensive rebounding. The Bulls forced 17 second-half turnovers, leading to 20 points. After getting just three offensive rebounds in the first half, the Bulls got 12 in the second, leading to 11 second-chance points and, just as important, many more offensive possessions. In the second half, Buffalo had 29 shots to Kent State’s 18.

And the Bulls got to the foul line 27 times in the second half. If they hadn’t missed so often (they were just 11 out of 27), the game wouldn’t have been close.

“I’m encouraged by the guts our team is showing,” coach Danny O’Banion said in her postgame radio interview. “The rebounds are frustrating — to give up that many second and third opportunities…”

Announcer Dave Wilson asked O’Banion what she would tell the team in the locker room.

“Rebounding,” the coach said. “We knew that from the outset.

“And I’ll definitely, definitely let them know that Buffalo comes back to our place for the last game of the season.”

Notes:

• Kent State is 4-20  on the season, 2-11 in the MAC. Buffalo is 15-9, 8-5 in the conference.
• Cici Shannon led Kent State with 13 points and 10 rebounds. It was her fifth double-double of the season and eighth game in the last nine with double-digit rebounds. She also blocked two shots. She also got into foul trouble in the second half and played just 11 minutes in the half.
• Buffalo’s plan to force second-half fouls got Kent State into all kinds of foul trouble. Point guard Mikell Chinn fouled out in the last minute. Shannon, forward Jordan Korinek and guard Krista White all had four fouls. Forward Montia Johnson and guard Larissa Lurken each had three. Every other player had two.
• Chinn had seven assists and three steals.
• Korinek had 10 points in 22 minutes. Forward Mckenna Stephens had eight points in 18. White also had eight points and four assists.
• For the game, Kent State had 19 assists on 22 baskets.
• Buffalo reseerve guard Karin Moss had seven steals, six in the second half, and five assists in a total of 17 minutes.
• Kent State held Kristen Sharkey, the third-leading scorer in the MAC to nine points. Mackenzie Loesing led the Bulls with 9 points.
• The Flashes outscored Buffalo in the paint, 30-20. It was 20-4 in the first half.
• Kent State led by as many 13 points in the first half. I think that’s the Flashes’ largest lead of the season.

The Flashes play at Bowling Green at 5 p.m. Saturday. Kent State beat the Falcons, who have had major injury problems this season, 55-48 in Kent on Jan. 10. Like Kent, Bowling Green is 2-11 in the MAC and is 9-15 overall. The Falcons didn’t play Wednesday.

Other MAC scores:

• Eastern Michigan (14-10, 7-6 MAC) 73, Ohio (20-4, 11-2) 61, at Ohio.
• Ball State (14-10, 10-3) 73, Central Michigan (11-13, 6-7) 64, at Ball State.
• Toledo (14-10, 7-6) 73, Northern Illinois (10-13, 6-7) 57, at Toledo.
• Eastern Michigan 54, Miami (4-20, 1-12) 51, at Miami. (Tuesday game)

Full Kent State box score here. MAC standings here.

The Flashes get their first look Wednesday at Buffalo, a team that was picked to win the MAC East but one that has had an up-and-down season.

The Bulls are 14-9, 7-5 in the conference, and are in third place in the East behind Ohio and Akron. They lost four or their first six conference games but have won fix of their last six.

They’re one of the bigger and stronger teams Kent State will face this year. Buffalo is led by 6-1 senior forward Krsten Sharkey, who in conference games ranks among the Mid-American Conference top five in four categories: second in offensive rebounds (4.1), third in scoring (17.7) and rebounding (9.2), and fourth in minutes played (35.3). 5-10 junior guard Mackenzie Loesing is 11th in conference play in scoring with a 13.5 average. Six-foot sophomore forward Alexus Malone averages 9.6 points a game. 6-2 senior forwrd Christa Baccas is third in the conference with 1.8 blocks a game, with Sharkey and Malone also in the top 15.

As a team, Buffalo is pretty much in the middle of the pack offensively. Defensively, the Bulls are second in the conference in field goal percentage (35.30) third in three-point field goal percent (28.8). They’re third in rebounding maring at +3.8.

Kent State is coming off of its second victory of the season, a last-second 54-52 win over Northern Illinois at the MAC Center Saturday. The Flashes are 10th in the conference at 2-10 and 4-19 overall.

In conference play, senior center Cici Shannon leads the league in rebounding (11.2 per game) and blocked shots (2.0). She’s 23rd in the league in scoring (9.9). Kent’s Larissa Lurken is 27th (9.7) and Jordan Korinek 30th (9.5). Senior guard Mikell Chinn is second in the conference with 4.1 assists per game and is third in the conference in assist-turnover ratio.

Seniors Shannon, Chinn and Montia Johnson were key in Saturday’s victory. Shannon had 11 points and 11 rebounds, Johnson had 9 points and Chinn made six key free throws in the second half.

The three hadn’t played together before between Thanksgiving and last Wednesday’s game against Miami. First Chinn, then Johnson missed more than a month with concussions. Kent Assistant Coach Geoff Lanier said even practice was going better with a “good full roster.”

The roster does have one fewer player on it. Lanier confirmed that freshman guard Madison Ridout had left the team with “serious homesickness.” Ridout, who was Kent’s second leading three-point shooter, is the cousin of Lydia Poe, another freshman who left homesick before the school year even started. Both were high school teammates in Jackson County, about 45 minutes south of Athens.

Ridout had averaged 3,4 points in 13.3 minutes a game. Her leaving in leaves a hole in outside shooting this season, but the Flashes have three guards in their incoming freshman class. Two are averaging about 15 points a game, the third 20. All are the best players on league-leading teams. Guards Rachel Mendelsohn and Tyra Banks also will return next season after suffering preseason knee injuries this year.

Lanier spoke at this week’s coach’s luncheon Monday because head coach Danny O’Banion was undergoing her fifth of six chemotherapy treatments for lymphoma. Lanier said mid-treatment scans and tests doctors did last week came back clean.

He said the team “really, really wanted to win” for O’Banion Saturday in Kent’s “Play4Kay” game, who promotes awareness of women’s cancers. But for most of the year, he said, practices and games have been business as usual. “If she had hair,” Lanier said, “I don’t think the kids would know.”

The game is at 7 p.m. Audio starts at 16:50 on Golden Flash iHeart Radio. You can get video on ESPN3 (if you get ESPN on cable or by satellite) and live statistics through the Buffalo website.

If you’ve ever wondered about the referees looking, looking, looking at the monitor to figure out tenths of a second on the clock…

It made all the difference in the world for Kent State Saturday.

The clock originally said 0.2 seconds to go with the Flashes and Northern Illinois tied at 52. Then the refs spent long minutes looking to see when exactly the ball went out of bounds next to the Kent State basket.

Finally they decided it with 0.8 seconds.

That’s a huge difference. The rule is that if there’s 0.6 seconds or less, a team can only score on a tip — something that’s next to impossible. But with more, you can get a shot off.

And junior guard Melanee Stubbs caught the ball three feet in front of the basket and shot in midair for KSU’s 54-52 victory. (There’s great video of the play on Instagram here)

Stubbs was wide open and credited a great screen from Kent State senior point guard Mikell Chinn. Stubbs called the feeling “awesome” in a quick postgame interview on Golden Flash iHeart Radio.

The long minutes while the referees looked at the monitor gave Kent State — out of timeouts — a chance to draw up the play — actually two plays. If time had been less, the ball would have gone to 6-4 center Cici Shannon, hoping for a foul on a tip. Instead, coach Danny O’Banion drew up the play designed for Stubbs.

“We’ve been talking all year about Mel’s athleticism,” O’Banion said.

Chinn, who missed almost two months of the season with a concussion she suffered at Thanksgiving, played one of her best games. She made six of six foul shots in the second half, twice giving Kent State the lead in the last minute. But some of her biggest plays were on defene. Twice in the first half, Chinn, who is listed at a generous 5-foot-6, blocked shots by Amanda Corral, Northern Illinois’ best player.

Kent State held Corral, who averages 16 points a game, scoreless in the first half and took at 22-17 lead. Despite hard defense by four different KSU players, Corral scored 17 points in the second half, though she missed a foul shot with seven seconds to go that would have given NIU the lead.

Kent State’s game plan was similar to what it tried at Northern Illinois when it lost 66-49 in January. The Flashes tried to force Northern — not a good shooting team — to score from the outside. They wanted their larger, more experienced post players to score and beat the Huskies in rebounding.

In the first half, it was almost perfect. NIU shot only 21 percent. Kent State outrebounded the Huskies 24-8 and its post players scored 17 of KSU’s 22 points.

For the game, KSU outscored the Huskies 24-12 in the paint and an amazing 17-0 on second-chance points. It outrebounded Northern 38-19, with Shannon having her eighth double-digit rebounding game in nine games with 11. She also had 11 points .

Freshman forward Jordan Korinek had 10 points. Senior forward Montia Johnson, who was out with a concussion the first time Kent State played Northern, had 9 and Stubbs 8.

Notes:

• Kent State is now 2-10 in the MAC, 4-19 overall. NIU is 6-6 in the league, 10-12 overall.
• Northern shot 57 percent in the second half, with Corral making five of seven shots. Kent State shot 44 percent in the first half, 39 in the second.
• Kent State made 12 of 15 free throws — way above its season average of 59 percent.
• KSU had 18 tunovers, leading to 16 Northern points. But the Flashes had onl five turnovers in the second half. NIU, which commits the fewest turnovers in the MAC, had seven, leading to five Kent State points.

The Flashes travel to Buffalo Wednesday to play the 14-9 Bulls, who beat MAC West leader Western Michigan at Western 54-44 Saturday.

Other Saturday MAC scores:

• Ohio (20-3, 11-1 67, Miami (4-19, 1-10) 45, at Miami.
• Akron (19-5, 9-4) 82, Toledo (13-10, 6-6) 56, at Akron.
• Eastern Michigan (12-10, 5-6) 85, Central Michigan (11-12, 6-6) 64, at Eastern.
• Ball State (13-10, 9-3) 77, Bowling Green (9-15, 2-11) 52, at Ball State.

Full Kent State box score here. MAC standings here.

The most upbeat thing about KSU’s Saturday home game against Northern Illinois is the setting.

It’s a “Play4Kay” game, which is designed to raise awareness about women’s cancer. The “Kay” is Kay Yow, dthe former Northern Carolina State women’s basketball coach who was dignosed with breast cancer in 1987 and died in 2009 after three recurrences of the disease.

The game has special overtones for Kent State, whose own coach is fighting cancer. Coach Danny O’Banion was diagnosed with stage 2 lymphoma just before the season started and has been undergoing chemotherapy throughout the season. She’s continued to coach at full speed, missing pracctices only for treatment. She hasn’t missed a game.

O’Banion says she’s doing fine and the treatments have gone well. She’ll finish with chemo shortly after the season. The most obvious thing about her fight is her bald head — which she shaved herself so she could do it on her terms. She says with a bit of a smile that she’s managed to keep her eyebrows so far.

Coaches and teams over the country have rallied for O’Banion, who is well-known in women’s coaching circles. Dozens of teams — among them South Carolins, the University of Rhode Island, Ohio State, the University of Memphis and MAC schools — have worn lime green ribbons at games to show their support.

O’Banion has asked all cancer survivors or those currently battling the disease to go to the court at halftime to take a “victory photo.”

The Associated Press just did a long story on her that got a lot of play nationally. You can find it here.

It seems much less important, but O’Banion’s team is fighting its own battle just to win a game. The Flashes are 3-19 and have list eight games in a row, including a Wednesday loss at the MACC to Miami University, which had been in last place in the conference. The two teams are now tied for last with 1-10 MAC records.

In Northern Illinois, Kent State faces one of the better defensive teams in the conference. The Huskies lead the league in scoring defense, giving up only 55 points a game., though they’re pretty much in the middle of the conference in other defensive statistics. They’re among the best in the conference in turnover margin — but that’s in large part due to committing very few turnovers themselves — a league-best 11 a game.

Northern Illinois beat KSU 66-49 Jan. 17 mostly because of that defense, which collapsed on KSU’s post players. (“We threw whatever we could at them, be it a claw or the kitchen sink, to create turnovers down there,” NIU coach Kathi Bennett said after that game.) Northern also shot well above its season average in the first half, thwarting Kent State’s game plan to let the Huskies try to score from the outside. 

Northern started the season 3-7 but is now 10-11, 6-5 in the MAC. It had won four in a row before losing Wednesday to Western Michigan, which leads the MAC West.

Kent State is led in scoring by Larissa Lurken, who averages 11 points a game, and in rebounding by Cici Shannon, who averages 8.5 a game. In conference games, Shannon is best in the league with 11.2 rebounds a game. She had rebounded in double figures for eight straight games before settling for just 8 Wednesday.

In conference play, three Flashes — Shannon (52%), freshman forward Jordan Korinek (54% )and junior guard Melanee Stubbs (48%) — are all in the top 15 in the conference in shooting percentage.

The game is at 2 p.m. in MACC. Audio starts at 1:50 on Golden Flash iHeart Radio. You can get video and live statistics through the KSU website.