First, the nice things:

Jordan Korinek is becoming a major force inside for the women. She’s had 50 points in the last two games, including a career-high 28 Sunday as KSU beat Division II Malone, 73-59.

Chelsi Watson, the junior college transfer who starts at forward opposite Korinek, is bringing some unexpected scoring punch. She had a career-high 18 on 9 of 10 shooting.

Redshirt freshman Tyra James, who has struggled to score since big games in her first two starts, had eight assists in as nice a passing job as we’ve seen from a wing in a while.

Freshman walk-on Paige Salisbury, the Flashes’ fourth-string point guard 10 days ago, played 22 minutes without a turnover.

But it was not a great game by the Flashes, who committed 18 turnovers and whose up-tempo style seemed a step slow. Only 5-of-27 three-point shooting by Malone, who had been shooting 38 percent from distance, kept it from being a dangerously close game.

“We were fortunate their efficiency wasn’t what it usually is,” coach Danny O’Banion said in her postgame radio interview.

Statistically Kent State’s three-point defense has been very good for all but five quarters of the season. The Flashes held Colgate, Wright State and now Malone to barely 20 percent. After Minnesota, one of the nation’s best three-point shooting teams, made six of eight shots in the first quarter, it made only 1 of 11 for the rest of the game. Only IPFW hit three-pointers consistently, making 12 of 24.

Kent State has gone to a kind of extended zone defense this season, with its edges stretching well out in the court. Freshman Alexa Golden and junior Larissa Lurken have been effective at the top of the zone.

Korinek, an all-Stater at Akron’s St. Vincent St. Mary’s High School, now leads the Flashes in scoring at 17.4 points a game. Her 28 Sunday was a career high, on top of a previous career high of 22 against Minnesota.

“She’s playing like a junior despite the fact teams are starting to focus on her,” O’Banion said. “She wants the ball.”

Korinek started 23 games as a freshman last season — “on-the-job training,” O’Banion has called it several times. She was third on the team in scoring (7.2) and rebounding (4.6). This season she also leads the team in rebounding at just over eight a game.

Neither Malone or Minnesota were tall teams, so that will be a test to come.

Watson, who is just 5-10, has the highest vertical leap on the team. She worked hard to score after inside passes, several from James.

James had 37 points in Kent’s first two games but hasn’t been in double figures since. She made up for a lot of it Sunday with her passing. She also had five rebounds and three steals.

Salisbury joined the Flashes in early summer after a career at Brunswick, where she led the team in almost every statistical category. She played extended minutes when starting point guard Naddiyah Cross got in foul trouble.

“Paige has been huge ever since she got to campus,” O’Banion said. “She’s been rock solid in every drill, in every practice.”

Kent led for 98 percent of the game, according to the official statistics, but Malone hung around for the first half. The Flashes won it with a strong third quarter, when they outscored the Pioneers, 21-14.

Notes:

• Kent State had a season-high 18 assists and a season-high 48 points in the paint. The Flashes outrebounded Malone 40-27, though the Pioneers were even with Kent on the boards in the first half.
• Though the Flashes shot 48 percent from the floor, they were only 3 of 14 on three-pointers.
• Lurken didn’t score in the first half but half eight in the third quarter and 12 for the game. She played only 25 minutes, a season low. 
• Cross had five assists, four turnovers and two steals in 23 minutes. She had six points after three straight games in double figures.
• Megan Carter, injured last week against IPFW, didn’t play. She had been the back-up at point. Taylor Parker, who had been No. 3, has apparently been passed by Salisbury. Parker played two minutes in the first half.
• McKenna Stephens, still recovering from a knee injury, didn’t play.

The Flashes are home for two more games this week. On Wednesday, they’ll host Cleveland State (0-4), and on Saturday, they’ll play North Dakota State (2-3). Both games are at 7 p.m. in the MACC. Kent State lost to both teams on the road last season in games where the Flashes held the lead midway through the second half.

Full Malone-KSU box score.

Kentstatesports.com story, which includes video highlights and interview with O’Banion.

Jordan Korinek scored a career high for the second game in a row as Kent State defeated Malone Sunday, 73-59.

Korinek, who had 22 against Minnesota Tuesday, made 12 of 18 shots and had eight rebounds.

Chelsi Watson, Kent’s other starting forward, also had a career-high 18 on 9 of 10 shooting.

Other than Watson and Korinek, though, it was a relatively pedestrian game for the Flashes against the Division II Pioneers (2-3).

Kent State had 18 turnovers. It made 28 of 33 field goal attempts, mostly because of Korinek and Watson. The Flashes were 3 for 14 on three-pointers.

Malone, which had made 38 percent of its three-pointers going into the game, was 5 of 27.

Kent State is now 2-3 on the season.

The Flashes take on Division II Malone University in a Thanksgiving Saturday game.

It’s the first home Thanksgiving weekend game is a number of years. KSU is often playing at a tournament over the weekend, but coach Danny O’Banion skipped the tournaments this year to schedule more home games. Eight of Kent’s non-conference games are at the MAC Center.

Malone is 2-2. One of its wins was against Kent State
-Tuscarawas. Before you think it’s weird for a school to place both Kent’s main campus and a regional, consider that Eastern Michigan — a Division I team in KSU’s league — played both KSU teams last year. (Malone beat Tuscarawas 80-44, by the way.)

Malone is led by 5-7 junior guard Rachel Goodard, who averages 14.8 points a game. 5-10 guard Audrey Myers leads the team in rebounding with 4.5 a game. The Pioneers’ tallest player is 6-1; only two other players are 6-foot.

Kent State is 1-3 and coming off a good Tuesday performance against Minnesota of the Big Ten. The Flashes led that game by eight with two minutes to go in the third quarter and were within four with two minutes left in the game. (If you haven’t seen them, there were interesting new quotes from that game in yesterday’s blog post.)

Kent State continues to have four players average in double figures. Sophomore forward Jordan Korinek scores 14.8 points a game, including a total of 38 in her last two. Junior guard Larissa Lurken averages 13.8, redshirt freshman guard Tyra James 12.8 and sophomore point guard Naddiyah Cross 11.0. (Full KSU stats.)

Korinek leads the team in rebounding and is ninth in the MAC at 8.0 per game. Cross is fourth in the MAC with 4.5 assists per game,and  freshman Alexa Golden is third in the league with 2.8 steals a game,

Lurken and James both average more than 33 minutes a game, which is in the top seven in the league.

As a team, KSU is fifth in the MAC in scoring with a 71.2 average but last in scoring defense at 78.8.

The Flashes are seventh in field goal percentage (.384), 11th in field goal defense (.443), ninth in free-throw percentage (.670), last in rebounding margin (-7.5), fourth in turnover margin (+2) and second in steals (11.5). (Full MAC statistics.)

Buffalo (4-0) is the only undefeated team left in the MAC. Central Michigan is 4-1, Ohio-3-1 and Eastern Michigan 2-1). Ohio may have the biggest MAC win of the preseason, 63-56 over Indiana (3-1) on Friday at a tournament at Vanderbilt. (ESPN’s expanded MAC standings)

The Kent State-Malone game starts at 2, with audio on WHLO 640 AM and Golden Flash iHeart Radio  at 6:15. Video and live statistics can be seen at the KSU website.

Kent State is home Wednesday against Cleveland State and again on Saturday against North Dakota State.

The first thing I look for in a story I watched is coach and player quotes. Here’s a couple of stories on the Monnesota game with new stuff.

This is from the Minnesota Daily, the student paper.

“The whole game we were confident that we were going to win. We just needed to turn it up a little bit,” Gophers junior guard Joanna Hedstrom said. “We read their defense as far as they were coming out on us because we hit some threes in the first half, and so we really focused on driving and getting to the basket.”

The Gophers made only seven of 19 three-point attempts, their lowest percentage of the season, but took advantage of a spread-out Kent State defense in the fourth quarter to win.

“We had to find ways to score other than the three-point line. When they started taking threes away, we got kind of frustrated and didn’t know what to do and kind of got into a slump,” Wagner said. “Once we started driving and getting the ball inside and finding people inside, then the game started to pick up for us again.”

Hedstrom contributed five rebounds and a career-high 11 points in 31 minutes off the bench for the Gophers.

“[Hedstrom] was absolutely outstanding, a solid force off of the bench,” Stollings said. “She played three different positions and had some really timely rebounds for us and very good defensive stops — things that don’t show up on a stat sheet.”

“We threw the ball away a little bit loosely tonight. We’re a lot better than that,” Stollings said. “I just thought we lacked aggressiveness at times, but again, those are things that we’ll continue to work on and improve upon.”

Here’s the full story:

http://mndaily.com/sports/womens-basketball/2015/11/24/gophers-beat-kent-state

This is from the Record-Courier story that wasn’t posted until Thursday for some reason. It has fresh quotes from O’Banion. All I had was the post game radio interview. (I’m traveling and wasn’t at the game. There must have been a true posgame press conference because of the double header. There usually isn’t. The Stater and I are usually the only reporters at the games.)

“At the end of the day we need to do a better job of taking away what they want to do down the stretch, which is give the ball to their best player,” said KSU coach Danielle O’Banion. “In the third quarter (against Minnesota) we were winning the 50-50 plays. There were some sequences where I thought we were tougher than they were. Down the stretch we’re still trying to find our courage in those situations, but what we talked about in the locker room was we can realistically play with anyone on our schedule. The question becomes when are we going to decide to beat them? We’re always going to be in the mix, but now it’s time for us to grow up and make those (key plays dow nthe stretch.)”

A Korinek layup tied the contest at 70 with just under four minutes to play.
“It’s really fun to see Jordan grow daily, because it’s literally happening daily,” said O’Banion. “You can hear Jordan’s voice more and more in practice, you can hear it more and more in games. She’s demanding the basketball, and she’s being productive when she gets it. She’s a special player. She has a chance to be one of the greats here at Kent State.”

Kent State trailed 24-7 out of the gate and 29-16 after one quarter, then held a Minnesota team that had eclipsed 90 points in each of its first two games this season to 25 total points in the second and third quarters.

“We had to show resolve early in this game. That’s a sign of tremendous growth for this group, and I’m excited about that,” said O’Banion. “Digging out of that hole in the first quarter was big for this group. Also being in position to have to force a very good offensive team to be a very good offensive team (in the fourth quarter) shows an improvement in our defensive intensity and focus over last week. Now we just need to be able to finish the job.”

Here’s the whole story.

http://www.recordpub.com/sports/2015/11/24/kent-state-women-s-basketball-team-plays-minnesota-tough-before-falling-85-73

The Flashes lost to Minnesota 85-73 but defied all sorts of odds in an exciting  and ultimately positive game.

Let’s play percentages (all are my opinion):

Chance Kent State would beat the Gophers, one of the better teams in the Big Ten: less than 5 percent.

Chance Minnesota, which won its first two games by an average of 35.5 points, would go ahead by 17 points in the first quarter: 55 percent.

Chance Kent State would then come back within a point at halftime: less than 2 percent.

Chance Kent State would then take an eight-point lead late in the third quarter: less than 5 percent.

Chance Minnesota’s preseason all-American, Rachel Banham, would have a great fourth quarter and make the difference: 60 percent.

Chance Kent State would shoot 3 for 27 on three-pointers: less than 10 percent.

Chance Kent State would force 20 turnovers against a Big Ten team with three experienced guards (while committing just 14): less than 15 percent.

All that happened — except, sadly, the victory — in what was, at times, one of the best games Kent State has played in years.

Minnesota, which was leading the nation in three-pointers per game, made six of eight in the first quarter as it took a 29-16 lead. The Gophers out rebounded Kent State 15-6. It looked like a rout.

Then the Flashes outplayed Minnesota just as badly in the second quarter. They held Minnesota to just six baskets and one three-pointer. They outrebounded the Gophers 13-6. They had eight second-chance points (Minnesota had two.) They forced seven turnovers and had four steals.

Kent outscored Minnesota 25-13 in the quarter, and the halftime score was 42-41.

“We showed great resolve when it was tough in the first half,” coach Danny O’Banion said in her postgame radio interview. “They figured out how to do what we knew we needed to do on defense.”

The Flashes took the lead on the first possession of the second half and led 56-48 with 1:46 to go in the period. They continued to play great defense — Minnesota made just 3 of 11 shots in the first eight minutes and had four more turnovers. At that point Kent State had allowed the Gophers just three foul shots for the entire game.

And then Minnesota ran off six straight points to finish the quarter and the first four points of the fourth quarter.

It was tied 70-70 with four minutes to go. Minnesota led 76-72 with 1:49 left.

But as Kent State had to foul to get the ball back, Banham made nine free throws.

Banham, a fifth-year senior who is the leading active career scorer in Division I, had 17 of her 24 points in the fourth quarter. She also had four rebounds, two assists, a steal and a blocked shot in the quarter. She is now 31 points away from becoming Minnesota’s all-time leading scorer.

Notes:

• Kent State is 1-3. Minnesota is 3-0.
• Kent State made just 3 of 27 three-point shots (0 of 9 in the fourth quarter.) It had been shooting about 34 percent and shot about 31 percent last season. 27 is also far more three-pointers than Kent usually takes.
• Junior Larissa Lurken, KSU’s best shooter, was 1 of 10 on three-pointers. Redshirt freshman Tyra James, who had been Kent’s leading scorer, was 0 for 6. Point guard Naddiyah Cross was 2 for 7. “There were a lot of good looks that rimmed out,” O’Banion said. Lurken did seem to be forced to shoot from longer range than usual.
• Kent State has had a turnover margin of at least minus-five for the last four seasons. So far this season, it’s better than plus-two per game. It’s been more than plus-five in three of its four games. The Flashes had 12 steals; they were second in the MAC going into the game.
• Freshman Alexa Golden had four steals, seven rebounds and seven points in 23 minutes. She leads the team in steals with 11 through four games, playing less than 20 minutes a game. “Alexa did what she came here to do — play great defense,” O’Banion said.
• Sophomore forward Jordan Korinek had a career-high 22 points on 7 of 13 field goals and 8 of 9 foul shots. Lurken and Cross each had 13 points and junior college transfer Chelsi Watson 10. Those four also all scored in double figures against IPFW last week.
• James had a rough second game in a row. She was 3 of 14 for six points. She did have six rebounds and two steals.
• Kent State made 18 of 21 free throws.
• The Flashes had 15 offensive rebounds and 21 second-chance points. Korinek and Watson each had four offense rebounds and seven overall.
• Freshman Megan Carter, one of Kent State’s top recruits, didn’t play. She was injured in the first half of the IPFW games, and it’s still  unclear how serious it is. It didn’t sound good after last week’s game.
• Freshman Taylor Parker, who had been the No. 3 point guard (behind Cross and Carter), didn’t play. It wasn’t clear why. Walk-on freshman Paige Salisbury played point when Cross wasn’t in. She had an assist, a steal, a rebound and no turnovers in 13 minutes.
• Sophomore forward McKenna Stephens, who’s still recovering from knee problems, didn’t play.

The Flashes host Division II Malone at 2 p.m. Saturday and play home games next Wednesday against Cleveland State and next Saturday against North Dakota State.

Full box score.

Link to video highlights, including O’Banion comments, along with the KSU website story on the game.

Flashes lost to the Big Ten’s Minnesota, 85-73, in game of big swings.

Kent State trailed by 17 in the first quarter, rallied to within one at halftime and took an eight-point lead in the third quarter.  

Then Minnesota made a 10-0 run and pulled away in the last minute and a half of the game with free throws by their preseason all-American, Rachel Banham. 
KSU sophomore forward Jordan Korinek had a career-high 22 points, allong with 7 rebounds, to lead the Flashes. Larissa Lurken and Naddiyah Cross had 13, and Chelsi Watson had 10. 

Kent was 3 for 27 on three-pointers. 

It also forced 20 turnovers, leading to 21 points, while committing just 14 turnovers. The Flashes had 21 second-chance points on 15 offensive rebounds. 

KSU is now 1-3; Minnesota is 3-0.  

More detailed story will follow. 

The Flashes Tuesday host Minnesota, only the fifth Big Ten team ever to play in Kent and the first since 2003.

It will be a tough task. The Gophers are 2-0 and have outscored two mid-major opponents by an average of 35.5 points a game. They were 23-10 and sixth in the Big Ten last season.

They bring a preseason all-American in guard Rachel Banham, who is 44 points away from becoming Minnesota’s all-time leading scorer. She is Division I’s leading active scorer with 2,231 points and was on ESPN’s second-team preseason all-American team. She was the Big Ten’s preseason player of the year by both league coaches and media.

Banham has amazing shooting statistics. She has a career .857 free-throw percentage, best in Minnesota history. Her career three-point perentage is .396, second in school history. She has scored 19.5 points per game in her five years at Minnesota (she was injured in her 10th game last season and got a medical redshirt).

In her first two games this season, she has scored 52 points. She had 30 against Maine, including six three-pointers and 10 of 15 field goals.

Minnesota had a school-record 16 three-pointers against Wofford and 13 against Maine. That 14.5 average is first in the nation.

The Gophers’ point guard, Shayne Mullaney, is fourth in school history in assists. 6-3 center Jessie Edwards had a 15 points and 16 rebounds against Maine, and 5-9 guard Mikayla Bailey had 26 points and 13 rebounds against Wofford.

Kent State, which is 1-2, held Colgate and Wright State to just over 20 percent three-point shooting but gave up 12 of 24 when it lost 86-68 at IPFW Thursday.

Redshirt freshman Tyra James leads Kent State in scoring at 15 per game. Junior guard Larissa Lurken averages 14, sophomore forward Jordan Korinek 12.3 and sophomore point guard Naddiyah Cross averages 10.3. It’s just three games, but it has been many, many years since KSU had four players average in double figures. Lurken is the only player to average above 10 in the last four years (11.1 last season).

KSU coach Danny O’Banion was an assistant at Minnesota from 2002-2007,

The Flashes will make a return visit to Minnesota next season during Lurken’s senior year. She is from outside Minneapolis-St. Paul.

The last time Kent State played a Big Ten team at home was Dec. 6, 2003, when the Flashes lost to Michigan State, 55-48. They beat Indiana here in 2001 and lost to Purdue in 1989.

In 1980 — the sixth year of the women’s program here, Kent State beat Purdue and lost to Ohio State in Kent. In 1981, the Flashes beat Michigan State.

Last season KSU lost to the Big Ten’s Northwestern in Evanston.

It lost to Minnesota 70-67 at a neutral site in 2006.

It’s hard for a mid-major to get a “name” school like Minnesota to come to its home court. I spent some time in the KSU record book to see when that’s happened. I included regional teams like Xavier, Pittsburgh and Cincinnati. (We also could debate whether Temple, Wichita State, Rice, TCU, Old Dominion and DePaul are truly name schools.) Here’s what I found (I don’t guarantee I got everyone):

2012: Cincinnati.
2011: Temple (won 71-62).
2009: Rhode Island (won 64-46), Wichita State.
2008: New Mexico State (won 84-82).
2006: Washington (won 81-78).
2005: Auburn (won 68-64 in overtime).
2003: Rice (won 61-55) , Rhode Island (won 69-64), Michigan State.
2002: Arizona State.
2001: Indiana (won 77-66).
2000: Pittsburgh, Boston College (won 72-68).
1999: Kansas State (won, 63-55). No. 23 Virginia (won 85-74 — January 200 game)
1995: Nebraska
1993: Arkansas (won 86-81).
1992: Pittsburgh, TCU (won 106-90).
1989: Purdue.
1988: West Virginia, Old Dominion.
1987: Pittsburgh.
1986: DePaul, Cincinnati.
1985: Pittsburgh.
1984: West Virginia, Xavier (won 62-58).
1982: West Virginia, Pittsburgh.
1981: Michigan State (won 74-69), Cincinnati.
March 1981 (previous season): Ohio State.

The Minnesota game is the first of a double header with the men’s team, which plays St. Francis (Pa.) at about 8 p.m.

The women’s game starts at 6:30, with audio on WHLO 640 and Golden Flash iHeart Radio  at 6:15. Video and live statistics can be seen at the KSU website.

(This post is corrected to include the 2003 Michigan State game and the 2006 Minnesota game.)

I started to write my “keys to the season” last weekend — before Kent State’s first game.

Then I decided to wait until I saw this team in action.

I’m glad I did. It’s a very different team with a very different style of play. It certainly will be a different kind of season.

So after three games and a 1-2 record, what can we figure out?

KSU played pretty well in its first two games — a close win and a close loss, and looked consistent. Then came the 86-68 loss at IPFW, in which KSU looked very different and not very good. So this column is quite tentative, and we’ll revisit it after the non-conference season.

Kent State is in its fourth season under head coach Danny O’Banion. So far her teams have gone 3-27, 7-23 and 5-25. I’d argue last year’s team was better than the 2113-14 one, but it had a tougher schedule, the MAC was better, and it played too many road games.

Over the last three seasons, the Flashes have scored fewer than 55 points a game. They have been close to last in the MAC in three-point baskets per game. They’ve close to last in the MAC in turnovers and turnover margin.

And after saying all that, I think the key to this year may be defense.

I think the Flashes will score — they’re averaging 70.7 points a game against a below-average team (Colgate), a good team (Wright State) and a team that may be better than we thought (IPFW). That scoring average  would have been second highest in the league last year. The team has quickness and plays fast. It has three players who could average in double figures. I don’t know about 70, but I can see them averaging in the 60s. How far into the 60s will go a long way in determining the season.

But the concern is the points they’ve given up — 76.7 points a game. In the first two games, they gave them up on the fast break. In the third, they were beaten in the half court. As I said, it’s going to take awhile to figure out this team. With 10 new players from last year, it’s going to take awhile for the team to figure out itself.

But here are my five keys to a .500 season, which would make me quite happy.

1. Hold teams under 64 points a game, the average in the MAC last season. Kent gave up almost 66 last season with a team that played a much slower game. I see three challenges:

• Keeping the other team’s fast break under control. Kent State was outscored 46-22 in fast-break points in its first two games. The Flashes outscored IPFW 12-4 on the break, but the Mastodons didn’t push the ball at all.

• Holding the other teams’ shooting percentage to below 40. Kent State came close last year at 41, which was 10th in the conference. Average in the MAC was about 39 percent. Colgate and Wright State shot 35 percent; IPFW shot 50. Again we’re left with the question about which team we saw last week is going to be the team we’ll see for most of the season.

• Controlling the other teams’ three-point shooting. Last year’s opponents made almost 35 percent of their three-pointers, which put Kent second to last in the MAC. Again Kent’s first week leaves us a puzzle: the Flashes held Colgate and Wright State to a total of 9 for 46 from three-point distance (20 percent). IPFW was 12 of 24. But no matter how you look at it, that’s a lot of three-point shots against the Flashes. It’s pretty clear opponents are going to shoot the three until Kent proves consistently it can stop them.

2. Score 64 points a game.  KSU has to come close to breaking even in scoring to break even in wins and losses. Scoring a more means winning a little more — the MAC was so balanced in the middle of the league last year that statistically every additional point per game equaled one more victory. To reach 64 points (nine per game more than last season), the Flashes need to:

• Get at least 36 points a game from its “big three” — junior guard Larissa Lurken, redshirt freshman wing Tyra James and sophomore forward Jordan Korinek. By recent standards, that’s a lot to ask; Lurken is the only player in the last four years to average in double digits (11.1 last season). But so far, Lurken and James are averaging 14 and Korinek 12.3.

• Get 28 points from everyone else. At least eight have to come from point guard. Neither sophomore starter Naddiyah Cross nor Mikell Chinn, last year’s starter, scored much last season. Teams barely guarded Chinn. Cross has been much more aggressive this season, scoring a career high 16 at IPFW and averaging just over 10. So now we’re down to needing 20 points from Kent’s second forward and the bench. Junior college transfer Chelsi Watson, the starter at forward, has had 2, 11 and 8 in her three games. An athletic 5-10, she can has shown she can score inside and from offensive rebounds. Sophomore forward McKenna Stephens, who has missed the first three games with a knee injury, averaged about 5 a game last season. That leaves unproven players to provide the last 10. O’Banion is counting on Megan Carter, a freshman who was a big scorer in high school. But Carter went to the floor hard in the IPFW game; it’s unclear how badly she was hurt. Freshman Alexa Golden averaged 16 in high school and scored 11 in the opener. But she has just three since. Keziah Lewis was a big scorer in junior college but has just six points through three games (in about 9 minutes a game).

Find three-point shooters besides Lurken. Kent State was dead last in the conference with 3.2 threes a game last season. Average in the conference was about six. That’s nine points right there, which would take Kent over our 64 a game goal. Lurken was sixth in the MAC last season with 2.1 three-pointers a game. But you can do the math; that meant the entire rest of the team averaged one three-point basket a game. Lurken has six (still two a game) this season, but four came in the opener. James, Cross and Golden all have two each so far. Lurken is averaging about five three-points shots per game (down from almost seven). The rest of the team is averaging eight shots — lots more than last season. But the Flashes are still being outscored 75-39 from distance. That’s a lot of points to make up.

3. Break even on turnovers. That sounds like a huge challenge; Kent State has had a margin of at least a negative five for the last four years and been close to last in the MAC every year. But the Flashes had a plus-five margin in each of its first two games. Then they were negative eight against IPFW. And they’ve been outscored 67-43 off turnovers. That won’t win games.

4. Make two-third of their foul shots. The Flashes up-tempo offense has generated almost 24 free throws a game, 15 more than last year and highest in the MAC so far. But they’ve made only 63 percent of them. That’s just 1 percentage point higher than last year, when KSU was last in the conference by a wide margin. They lost at least five games last season because of missed free throws.

5. Come close to breaking even in rebounding. So far the Flashes are minus six per game. They were routed on the board by Colgate and Wright State but even with IPFW.

There’s a pretty obvious pattern here. If Kent State approaches the conference averages statistically, they’ll approach .500.

Is it possible? I think Kent State has more talent, especially with James on the court. Korinek, Cross and Lurken should be better.

I’m pretty sure they’ll win 10, which would be twice as many as last year. I think the personnel is better; the schedule is better (mostly because of eight home games compared to three). Fifteen wins? They just need to be average, but it’s been five long years since KSU was there.

Could they be a contender in the MAC? Only if everything came together perfectly. It did for Ohio last season, which went from 9-21 in 2013-14 to 27-5. Nobody predicted that last year. Don’t predict it for Kent this year. Just be thrilled if it happens.

Kent State had looked surprisingly good in its first two games.

The women looked surprisingly less good at Indiana Purdue at Fort Wayne Thursday, losing 86-68.

Kent is now 1-2 on the season

IPFW was 9-21 last season and had just two starters returning. They were 2-0 but had played Division III and NAIA schools.

But the Mastodons handled Kent State as easily as they had handled the smaller schools. They jumped to a 13-2 lead in the first five minutes, and Kent State never got closer than nine after the middle of the second quarter. The lead got as big as 24.

IPFW attacked Kent State’s zone defense far better than either Colgate or Wright State. The Mastodons shot over it (12 of 24 three-pointers) and inside it (20 assists, many on inside passes). The Flashes had kept their first two opponents well under 30 percent on three-pointers and to 35 percent shooting overall. IPFW made 52 percent of its shots.

Kent State made 20 turnovers that led to 25 IPFW points. The Flashes forced just 12 turnovers. They had forced 22 against both Colgate and Wright State and had a plus-five turnover margin in both games. The bulk of the turnovers came from two of Kent State’s most veteran players — junior Larissa Lurken (seven) and sophomore point guard Naddiya Cross (five).

The Flashes also missed four of their first six free throws, which might have kept them close in the first quarter, and were just 15 of 26 for the game.

Kent State, which was playing its third game in five days, seemed a step slower than it did earlier in the week.

“The players who we knew drove left, went left,” coach Danny O’Banion said in her postgame radio interview. “Those who drove right, went right. The people who we knew could shoot the three made the three.”

But the Flashes couldn’t stop them.

“They were better at being them than we were at being us tonight,” O’Banion said.

Sophomore forward Jordan Korinek had her best game of the season, scoring 17 points on seven of nine shooting and getting nine rebounds. She had eight rebounds in each of the first two games but hadn’t had a big impact on offense.

“Jordan played like a leader of this team, like an upperclassman instead of a sophomore,” O’Banion said. “She insisted of having touches.”

Cross had a career-high 16 points and scored repeatedly off of drives in the second half.

Redshirt freshman Tyra James, who averaged 18.5  through the first two games, had just eight points on 3 of 11 shooting. Lurken had 13 points, five rebounds and three steals.

Notes:

• Freshman Megan Carter, one of Kent State’s top recruits and  first players off the bench, was knocked to the floor on a drive to the basket in the second quarter and was taken to the locker  room. She sat behind the bench in the second half. Carter also is Kent’s backup point guard; freshman Taylor Parker took over in that role in the second half.
• IPFW’s bench outscored KSU’s 24-7. Walk-on Paige Salisbury had three of those in her first college action. Lacey Miller, a walk-on last season who earned a scholarship, also saw her first appearance in a college game, though she played only a minute.
• The Mastodons made their first five three-point shots and seven of their first eight shots in the third quarter.
• Freshman Alexa Golden had two steals and has seven in three games. Merissa Barber-Smith, the 6-4 freshman from Wisconsin, blocked two shots in six minutes.
• Kent State made a season-best 49 percent of its shots.
• Kent State outscored IPFW 12-4 on fast breaks and 38-30 in the paint. It was mid-range jump shots and three-pointers that beat the Flashes.

The Flashes are off until Tuesday, when they’ll host Minnesota of the Big Ten. The Gophers are the first Big Ten team to come to Kent in at least 30 years. They’re led by redshirt senior guard Rachel Benham, who is picked as a second-team preseason all-American by ESPN.

The game is at 6:30 and part of a double header with the men’s team, who will play Saint Francis in the second game.

Full box score. 

The women play their first road game of the season Thursday at Indiana Purdue at Fort Wayne.

The game continues coach Danny O’Banion’s strategy of mixing winnable games with games against good mid-majors. IPFW was 9-21 last season, ninth in the Summit League, and is picked ninth again this year.

The Flashes are 1-1, beating Colgate (9-22 last season) and losing to Wright State (25-9) at home this week. The only thing about the IPFW game outside the coach’s strategy is the fact that it  is a road game. She scheduled only three non-conference games away from Kent to try to help a team that has 10 freshmen and sophomores, along with two junior college transfers.

IPFW is 2-0 but hasn’t played a Division I team. It beat Division III Trine University 82-62 and  Grace College, an NAIA school, 91-39.

The Mastodons return two starters from last year’s team. Best is 6-1 sophomore forward Keana Gary, who averaged 8.9 points in 21 minutes a game last season.

5-7 freshman guard Josie Fisher, an all-Indiana player her senior year in high school, leads them IPFW with 41 points in two games, both off the bench. All but one of her baskets have been two-pointers. 5-4 junior college transfer has 33 points. Sophomore Keshyra McCarver, an all-Ohio player in high school who started four games last year, is the Mastodons’ leading rebounder at 7 per game.

Kent State is led by redshirt freshman Tyra James, who is averaging 18.5 points in two games. Junior Larissa Lurken is averaging 14.5 and sophomore Jordan Korinek 10. Korinek leads the team in rebounding with an 8.0 average.

Kent is averaging 72 points a game, 17 higher than last season’s team, and is giving up 72, six points higher than last year.

Though the Flashes have played well in their first two games, three question marks have appeared:

A fourth-quarter fade: The team has been outscored by a total of 34-11 in the last five minutes of their two games. Whether that’s a young team that hasn’t learned how to hold a lead or a lack of conditioning isn’t clear yet. James is averaging 35 minutes a game, Lurken and Korinek over 30. Sophomore point guard Naddiya Cross played 36 in the opener, though she got into foul trouble and played only 17 against Wright State.

Fast-break points: KSU has been outscored 46-22 on the break, according to the box scores. I’ve never seen a good definition, but two I could find online say it means scoring within eight seconds of getting the ball, or scoring while you have more players across half court than the opponents. (To make it more complicated, free throws off a fast break don’t count.)  Any way you look at it, that’s a lot of fast-break points — far more than last year on both sides. Kent rarely had more than four or five in a game; opponents rarely more than 10. The Flashes are pushing the ball much harder this year, but they’re giving up a lot of points in transition.

Rebounding: Kent State has been outrebounded 104-86 in two games. The Flashes have been smaller than both teams they’ve faced, but they’ve been especially hurt at by the other teams’ shooting guards. Colgate’s Randyll Butler had 13 rebounds; Wright State’s Kim Demmings had 11. Both were senior returning starters; Demmings has been called an all-America candidate.

Thursday’s game is at 7 p.m. Audio begins at 6:45 on 640 AM WHLO and Golden Flash iHeart Radio. You can get video and live statistics  through the IPFW website. Video will cost $5.95.