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.