It was the game Miami had dreamed of since the conference season started.

For Kent State, it was a nightmare.

The last-place Redhawks dominated KSU Wednesday for their first conference victory. The score was 69-53. The two teams are now tied for last in the MAC East (and the MAC overall) with 1-10 records. For the season, Miami is 4-18, Kent 3-19.

For a Kent State team that had played well when losing to some of the conference’s best teams, the loss was very disappointing. The Flashes played well for the first five minutes and led 13-6. Then nothing went well.

The overall reason is pretty simple: Miami shot better and played better defense.

The Redhawks were last in the conference in field goal percentage going into the game at 36 percent. But they shot 49 percent Wednesday (62.5 percent in the second half). They also made 15 of 17 foul shots.

Kent State, on the other hand, made 35 percent of its shots, 5 percentage points below its season average. The Flashes made 11 of 19 foul shots.

In her postgame radio interview, coach Danny O’Banion said Ohio played several zone defenses that kept Kent State’s post players from getting comfortable and that KSU players passed up some good shots.

Notes:

• This is one game you can’t blame on turnovers. Kent State had 13, leading to 12 Miami points. Miami had 12, leading to eight KSU points.
• Miami outrebounded Kent State 33-29. Cici Shannon’s string of double-digit rebounding games ended at eight. She had eight rebounds but played only 21 minutes and fouled out.
• Larissa Lurken led Kent State with 15 points on five three-pointers, four in the first half. She took only four shots in the second half.
• Jordan Korinek returned from a concussion to score eight points in 34 minutes, but she had only one rebound.
• Montia Johnson, who also had been sidelined with a concussion, also scored eight points in her 15 minutes. She had missed the first nine games of the conference season and played only two minutes in Saturday’s game. Johnson was KSU’s leading scorer last season, averaging about nine points a game.
• Melanee Stubbs, who had a 54 percent field goal percentage in conference play, made only 2 of 12 shots.

The Flashes are home again Saturday for a 2 p.m. game with Northern Illinois. The Huskies, who beat Kent State 66-49 Jan. 17, lost at home to MAC West leader Western Michigan Wednesday, 60-51. They had won four in a row before that game and are 10-11 overall, 6-5 in the MAC.

Other MAC scores from Wednesday:

• Ohio (19-3, 10-1 MAC) 71, Bowling Green (9-14, 2-10) 46, at Bowling Green.
• Ball State (12-10, 8-3) 72, Eastern Michigan (11-10, 4-6) 62, at Eastern Michigan.
• Akron (18-5, 8-4) 81, Buffalo (13-9, 6-5) 70, at Akron.
• Toledo 13-9, 6-5) 61, Central Michigan (11-11, 6-5) 46, at Central Michigan.

Full Kent State box score here. MAC standings here.

It’s time for Kent State to win a game.

If not now, it’s hard to say when.

The Flashes play Miami at the MACC at 7 p.m. Wednesday.

Miami is the only team in the conference with a worse record than Kent State. The Redhawks are 0-10, KSU 1-9. In almost every statistical category, Miami is worse that Kent State. More on that later.

“Our players need the validation of a victory,” coach Danny O’Banion said at the KSU coach’s luncheon Monday. “It’s hard for the players to feel like they’re playing better without that win.

“They know they’re playing better against good teams, but when they get back to the dorms, the roommates and friends still know they lost.

“We really won’t know until we close one out.”

The Flashes came close to beating Central Michigan and Akron on the road. They led first-place Ohio at halftime Saturday. But they still have lost seven in a row since beating Bowling Green in Kent Jan. 10.

Miami, like Kent State, is 3-18. The Redhawks’ RIP is 342 (out of 349 teams); Kent’s is 323. They’re last in the MAC in scoring at 53.6 points per game. (Kent State is 10th at 55.1.) They’re last in field goal percentage at  34.7%; Kent is fifth at 40.1%. They’re second to last in turnover margin at -5.387, only slightly better than Kent’s -5.57. The only thing they’re significantly better than Kent State in is foul shooting, where Kent is a distant last in the conference at 58.7 percent.

No Miami player averages in double figures scoring. The Redhawks’ leading scorer is 5-10 freshman guard Baleigh Reid, who averages 9.4 points per game. Second is scoring is another freshman, 6-2 guard Kayla Brown, who averages 8.3. Leading rebounder is 6-foot junior Hannah McCue, who averages 8.0.

Kent State should have its best freshman back. O’Banion said 6-2 forward Jordan Korinek was cleared to play Monday after sitting out Saturday with a concussion. The coach described her injury like this:

Korinek was “clocked pretty well”in the afternoon shootaround before last Wednesday’s game with Eastern Michigan. She didn’t tell anyone and during the first half was “not making “Jodan-like decisions.” Korinek admitted to dizziness at halftime and didn’t even sit on the bench in the second half.

Before the Eastern game, Korinek had averaged 13.3 points per game over the previous six games.

Through a Twitter feed, I came across Ohio University coach Bob Boldon’s press conference after the Bobcats’ 58-44 victory over Kent State Saturday. He said some interesting (and nice) things about the Flashes:

“Kent State did a great job of taking us out of our offense. We never got into any kind oif of flow all night…They played harder than us. They played better than us.

“We were just fortunate that k.b. (OU guard Kiyanna Black) made shots. Somethings a really good player steps up and wins games for you. That’s what happened tonight. (Black hit four straight three-point shots in the second half to put the game away.)

“(Kent State) plays hard. They have a big kid (KSU center Cici Shannon) we’ve never been able to guard. We’ve never kept her off the boards. We’ve played them three times since I’ve been here, and she’s kicked our butt all three times. I imagine when we go up there she’ll get 13 or 14 rebounds. (Shannon had 12 rebounds Saturday, her eight straight game of double digit rebounds.)

“They’ve got some guards when can make tough shots. They really sit down and guard. They’re a reflection of their coach. She’s tough young lady.”

Here’s the link to the OU website’s game story. The interview on with it. Boldon says some other interesting things, especially about Black, who he says will come into the gym on off days and shoot 500 shots. The press conference also includes an appearance by Boldon’s son, Zack, who looks to be about 5. Zack’s take on the game: “Good.”

The expected and unexpected in Kent State’s 58-44 loss at Ohio University Saturday:

EXPECTED: Ohio won. The Bobcats are two games ahead of the pack in the MAC. They’re now 18-3, 9-1 in the league. Kent State is the reverse — 3-18, 1-9.

UNEXPECTED: Kent State led 25-23 at halftime. I don’t think anyone saw that coming. It was a combination of bad shooting by Ohio and good defense by Kent State. OU made only 26 percent of its first-half field goal attempts, including only 4 of 18 three-pointers. The Bobcats lead the MAC in three-point field goal percentage (36).

EXPECTED: Ohio’s Kiyanna Black would make her share of three-pointers. She leads the MAC and is ninth in the nation with an average of 3.1 per game. She made six, including four in a row between 6:49 and 4:56 of the second half. Those baskets took a 43-37 game to 55-37.

UNEXPECTED: Kent’s Larissa Lurken fell back into her slump, making only 2 of 10 shots (2 of 9 three-pointers).

EXPECTED: Cici Shannon had double digit rebounds again — her eighth game in a row. She had 12 rebounds, 10 points, three blocks and two assists.

UNEXPECTED: Redshirt junior Melanee Stubbs has settled in as one of KSU’s best scorers. She led the team with 12 points on six of seven shooting. (“Few people can guard her pull-up jumper,” coach Danny O’Banion said in her post-game radio interview.

EXPECTED: Freshman forward Jordan Korinek, who had averaged 13 points a game for six games before she was injured in Wednesday, didn’t play. O’Banion said she was optimistic Korinek would play against Miami Wednesday. Redshirt freshman McKenna Stephens started in her place.

UNEXPECTED: She didn’t start, but senior Mikell Chinn played 31 minutes at point guard. She didn’t take a shot (not unusual for her) but had five assists, two steals and five rebounds (from 5-foot-6). Starter Nadia Cross played only six minutes.

EXPECTED: Kent State made 25 turnovers, leading to 23 OU points. As has become distressingly consistent this season, the points off turnovers were greater than Kent State’s margin of defense. OU made 13 turnovers, but Kent State just nine points from them. The turnovers meant that OU got eight more shots than Kent State.

UNEXPECTED: Senior forward Montia Johnson saw her first action since before the conference season. She played only two minutes, but O’Banion said she expected her to make a significant contribution for the rest of the season. Johnson can be wildly inconsistent, but she was the Flashes’ leading scorer a year ago and can be a very good offensive rebounder. She suffered a concussion on the last play of Kent State’s last preseason game.

EXPECTED: It’s nice to say Kent State made 45 percent of its shots, the third time KSU’s been over 45 percent against first-division teams. (It also shot well against Central Michigan and Akron.) Ohio leads the conference in field goal percentage defense.

Sadly, it’s also expected that Kent State wasn’t effective in three-point shooting — just 2 of 10.

UNEXPECTED: Though Kent State is a taller team, Ohio outscored the Flashes in the paint 12-4 and outscored them 9-4 on second-chance points. Kent State out rebounded Ohio 34-28. Kent State scored most of its points on midrange jump shots.

When the Flashes host Miami  Wednesday, they’ll play the only team in the MAC with a worse record. The Redhawks are 0-10 in the conference, 3-18 overall. Their scheduled game against Eastern Michigan Saturday was postponed so Eastern players could attend the funeral of junior forward Shannise Heady, who died in an auto accident last month.

Saturday’s MAC results:

• Northern Illinois (10-10, 6-4) 62, Akron (17-5, 7-4) 56, at Northern Illinois.
•  Buffalo (13-8, 6-4 MAC) 66, Bowling Green (9-13, 2-9) 45, at Buffalo.
• Ball State (11-10, 7-3) 69, Toledo (12-9, 5-5) 61, at Toledo.
• Western Michigan (15-7, 8-3) 69, Central Michigan (11-10, 6-4) 64, at Western Michigan.

Full KSU box score here. MAC standings here.

Ohio University, Kent State’s Saturday night opponent, is having the kind of season the Flashes dreamed of.

Last year the Bobcats tied Kent State and Miami for dthe worst record in the MAC at 4-14. They split with the Flashes and had an overall record of 9-21. Kent State’s record was 7-23.

And now here is Ohio with the best record in the MAC — 17-3 record, 8-1 in the conference. Their RPI is the highest of any MAC team — 48th in the country.

How did the Bobcats do it?

Start with a coach who has turned around programs before.

Bob Boldon, who is in his second year in Athens, was an assistant to Akron’s Jodi Kest as she built a traditionally weak team into one of the MAC’s best.

His first head coaching job was at the University of Arkansas at Monticello, a Dividion school that was 1-15 the year before he arrived. His teams finished third in the Gulf South both years he was there.

Before he went to Ohio, he was head coach at Youngstown State, a team that was 0-30 the year before he arrived. Three years later, Boldon’s team was 23-10 and won a first-round WNIT game. He was Horizon League Coach of the Year.

Boldon had more to work with than Kent State’s Danny O’Banion had in her first years here. Junior guard Kiyanna Black was All-MAC Honorable Mention last season and a preseason All-NMAC second team this season. Sophomore guard Quiera Lampkins, who was recruited by previous coach Semeka Randall, was on the MAC All-Freshman team a year ago. Current starters Mariah Byard, Kat Yelle and Lexie Baldwin also were recruited by Randall. Yelle missed most of last year with an injury.

(Melanee Stubbs, KSU’s fifth leading scorer, is the only player on the KSU roster recruited by O’Banion’s predecessor, Bob Lindsay.)

Boldon has added Michigan State transfer Mariah Harris and freshman Kelly Karlis, n all-state high school forward in Illinois.

The Bobcats run a fast-moving offensive that emphasizes three-point shooting. They lead the MAC in three-point baskets per game (9.3) and three-point field-goal percentage (34.1). Black, who averages 15.6 points per game, leads the MAC and is sixth in the nation with 3.1 three-pointers per game.

KSU is last in the MAC in three-point field-goal defensive percentage.

Ohio also leads the MAC in turnover margin (+5.4), bad news for Kent State, which commits more turnovers than any MAC team. Thirteen turnovers in the first half led to 19 points for Eastern Michigan in KSU’s 70-53 loss Wednesday. The Flashes made only five turnovers in the second half and played EMU even.

OU also is the best defensive team in the make in terms of defensive field goal percentage (34.1). Kent State freshman forward Jordan Korinek, who had averaged 13 points a game for the previous six games, didn’t play the second half against Eastern with an undisclosed injury. O’Banion said she traveled with the team to Ohio, but it’s not clear whether she’ll play Saturday.

Kent State’s record is 3-17, 1-8 in the MAC — the reverse of OU’s.

The game starts at 7, with audio on Golden Flash iHeart Radio starting at 6:50. You can get video and live statistics through the OU website.

There’s really only one statistic you need to know about Kent State’s 70-53 loss to Eastern Michigan Wednesday:

KSU first half turnovers: 13. EMU points off those turnovers: 19.

There are other story lines: Eastern shot three pointers much better than it usually does. Jordan Korinek got hurt in the first half. Kent State made a couple of decent runs in the second half.

But it was the thing most likely to beat Kent State that did. The Eagles lead the MAC in forcing turnovers and are second in turnover margin. Kent State is second to last in both.

And Kent State must have lost 10 games this season by losing the turnover battle.

Wednesday KSU scored just seven points off of Eastern’s eight turnovers.

“It was very frustrating to watch because we did not do what we practiced,” coach Danny O’Banion said in her post-game radio interview.

The second half, as she said, was a different game. KSU made only eight turnovers, which led to only four Eastern Michigan points.

And the Eagles’ shooting, which at 46 percent was 9 percentage points above their average in the first half, was just 26 percent in the second.

But by halftime, Eastern was 15 points ahead. Kent State cut it to nine with three quick baskets in the second half, then cut it to seven with nine minutes to go. But the Eagles pulled away, greatly helped by making 13 of 15 foul shots.

Maybe the biggest long-term worry from the game is the health of freshman forward Jordan Korinek, who had averaged 13.3 points a game over the last six games. Korinek played 19 minutes in the first half, though she scored only two points and had two rebounds. But she wasn’t on the bench at all in the second half. In her interview, O’Banion said only that Korinek was “being evaluated.” It sounds a little like a possible concussion, which is never good. There was no obvious injury in the action.

Notes:

• Eastern Michigan had averaged only 4.7 three-point baskets a game. It made seven in the first half, two in the second half. It was clearly a main part of its game plan.
• KSU leading scorer Larissa Lurken continued to emerge from a slump with 16 points on 6 of 10 shooting, her best percentage since Christmas. She also had seven rebounds.
• Cici Shannon had 15 rebounds. She’s averaged 13 over the last seven games. She also had nine points but was 4 of 10, missing a lot of close-in shots in a crowd. Shannon blocked four shots after not blocking any for the last two games.
• Melanee Stubbs had 14 points on 6 of 9 shooting.
• Eastern Michigan had 18 offensive rebounds and 18 second-chance points.
• Between the rebounds and the turnovers, the Eagles had 14 more shots than Kent State.

The Flashes, now 3-17 and 1-8 in the MAC, travel to MAC-leading Ohio University Saturday. OU, which had the same league record as Kent State last year, is 17-3, 8-1 in the MAC. It had a bye Wednesday. Eastern Michigan is 11-9, 4-5 in the MAC.

• Akron (17-4, 7-3 MAC) 69, Western Michigan (14,7, 7-3) 66, at Akron.
• Buffalo (12-8, 5-4) 68, Toledo (18-8, 5-4) 61, at Buffalo.
• Northern Illinois (9-10, 5-4) 60, Miami (3-18, 0-10) 49, at Northern Illinois.
• Central Michigan (11-9, 5-3) 57, Bowling Green (9-12, 2-8) 54, at Bowling Green.

KSU box score here. MAC standings here.

Other MAC scores Wednesday:

Six reasons the Flashes should win against Eastern Michigan Wednesday (and three reasons they may not):

1. Kent State is coming off of its best two games of the season. The lost both, but they played Central Michigan and Akron tough and close. CMU is second in the MAC West, Akron second in the MAC East.

2. The Flashes are home. Both those losses came on the road. Even though KSU hasn’t won many games over the last four years,  the Flashes are like most teams — the tend to play better in front of a home crowd.

3. Eastern Michigan is not a particularly good team. It is in last place in the MAC West with a 10-9 record, and three of those wins have come against non-Division I opponents. (One victory — not an exhibition — came against Kent State-Tuscarawas. Really.)

4. The Eagles are still reeling from tragedy. One of their starters — forward Shannise Heady– was killed in an auto accident 10 days ago. She was their fourth leading scorer and third leading rebounder. Fans of Kent State football — who with their team mourned starting center Jason Bitsko — will tell you dthat it’s not an easy thing to recover from, emotionally or athletically.

5. EMU doesn’t shoot particularly well — 38 percent or eighth in the MAC — or defend particularly well — 38 percent or sixth in the MAC. They’re only making 27 percent of their three-point shots, 10th in the league, and only 4.5 three-pointers a game — 10th in the conference. KSU has had trouble both shooting and defending.

6. Kent State is starting to find some consistency on offense. Center Cici Shannon has rebounded in double figures for six straight games. Forward Jordan Korinek has averaged 12 points a game in that time. After a dreadful slump, leading scorer  Larissa Lurken has scored in double figures in the last three games.

But. . .

Here’s what KSU has to worry about most:

1. They haven’t proven that they CAN win. Two good losses are still losses. The Flashes are still 3-16, 1-7 in the MAC.

2. Eastern Michigan is the MAC leader in forcing turnovers and second in turnover margin. Kent State is second to last in both. KSU has probably had 10 games this season in which its opponents’ points off turnovers were greater than the margin of victory.

3. Eastern Michigan sees Kent State as a chance to win as much as the Flashes see the Eagles as a possible victory. The game will be hard fought.

The game is at 7 p.m. in MACC. Audio starts at 6:50 on Golden Flash iHeart Radio. You can get video and live statistics through the KSU website.