This is decidedly not the Kent State basketball team that has gone 21-96 over the last four years.

Tuesday the Flashes outplayed one of the best teams on their schedule for 36 minutes before losing to Wright State 73-68. The Raiders have won 25 games in each of the last two seasons and are picked to finish second in the Horizon League this year.

Kent is 1-1, having beaten Colgate 76-71 Sunday. Wright State also is 1-1. It lost to Miami of Florida, a team that’s received votes in the national polls, 80-67 on Friday.

“For us to be in a position to beat  a team with a potential all-American candidate…,” coach Danny O’Banion said after the game. “We’re very excited for this young group this early in the season.”

The Flashes led Wright State 64-57 with 3:37 to go. Then the Raiders, behind guard Kim Demmings, ran off 12 straight points. The first 10 came in a 80 seconds.

At the beginning of Wright State’s run, Kent didn’t play badly. The Raiders just played better.

The Flashes  rattled two open three-point shots off the rim and missed a layup. The Raiders turned two of the misses into fast-break baskets and added points off  of two turnovers as KSU got flustered.

Demmings, the Horizon League preseason player of the year,  scored six of those 10 points, then added five foul shots in the last minute to clinch the victory. Demmings finished with 26 points and now has 2,030 in her career. She also had a career-high 12 rebounds.

Demmings is a fifth-year senior. Symone Denham, who scored 14 points, is a senior. Antania Hayes and Riche van der Keijl, who each scored 11, are juniors.

Kent has no seniors. Starting guard Larissa Lurken is only junior with Division I experience. Two sophomores, a redshirt freshman and a junior college transfer join her in the starting lineup.

At times Tuesday, Kent State was playing four freshmen and a junior college transfer, all in their second college game.

Redshirt freshman Tyra James had her second excellent game in a row. She had 20 points, seven rebounds and three steals. She missed all last year with a knee injury suffered just before the season started.

“She’s basically what we thought she could be when we recruited her,” O’Banion said. “Players like her — a tall wing with a big wingspan — do very well the the Mid-American Conference.”

James leads Kent State with 37 points in two games

Five-foot-ten junior college transfer Chelsi Watson had a surprising 11 points and eight rebounds, going against Wright State’s van der Keijl, who is 6-5.

“Chelsi is a blue-collar player, high energy, with a lot of athleticism,” O’Banion said.

True freshman guards Megan Carter and Taylor Parker played a lot of minutes — a lot more than Kent State planned.

Starting point guard Naddiyah Cross fouled out in the third quarter trying to stop a four-foot shot by  van der Keijl, who is about a foot taller.

“I told her it was 50 percent on me and 50 percent on her,” O’Banion said. “She probably shouldn’t have been playing, but I thought things were going well with her on the court. But she knows better than to challenge a player that big with four fouls.”

Cross played only 17 minutes and scored eight points.

Carter, on the other hand, played 22 minutes and ran the team through most of the fourth quarter. She had nine points. Carter certainly isn’t afraid to shoot — she took 15 shots, second on the team to James’s 23.

The 5-7 guard, who averaged almost 19 points a game at Michigan’s North Farmington High School, was one of KSU’s top recruits.

“Megan is going to be special player here — a special player sooner rather than later,” O’Banion said. “She had a tough one Sunday against Colgate (zero points and two turnovers in 11 minutes).

“She responded very nicely today. She’s a very creative offensive player. It’s fun to see Megan do what what we recruited her for. I’m happy she got a chance to show our fans and to prove to herself that she can be effective.”

Carter and Parker both are clearly still learning college basketball. They combined for seven turnovers. But you could see both growing in confidence.

None of Kent State’s three experienced players — Cross, Lurken and forward Jordan Korinek — scored in double figures. Lurken, who scored 23 points in KSU’s opener, made just a three-pointer and three foul shots. Wright State hounded her; she got off just four shots. She did lead Kent State with three assists and had two steals.

“She’ll be just fine,” O’Banion said. “With Megan, there’s another scorer teams have to worry about. Larissa will be open more.”

Korinek had eight points and eight rebounds. She has 16 rebounds through two games.

Notes:

• For the second game in a row, Kent State has a plus-five turnover margin (22-17). The Flashes have had a margin of at least negative five for the last four years. KSU had 13 steals Tuesday.
• Wright State won the game on the fast break, where it had 27 points. Colgate scored 19 on the break against Kent in the opener.
• Both teams made 35 percent of their shots. KSU actually had 10 more shots than the Raiders. The game was lost at the foul line, where Wright State was 20 of 29 while Kent State was 11 of 16.
• Wright State made just 5 of 22 three-point shots. Colgate made 5 of 24. Last year KSU was second to last in the MAC in three-point defense. It’s been playing a zone defense heavily.
• Alexa Golden, Kent’s other top freshman recruit, didn’t score in 18 minutes. (She had 11 against Colgate.) She did have two assists and two steals and has five steals in two games.
• James played 35 minutes for the second game in a row. Lurken played 31, Korinek 29, Watson 26, Carter 22, Golden 18 and Cross 17. Junior college transfer Keziah Lewis played nine minutes (with two steals), Parker eight minutes (four points) and 6-4 freshman Merissa Barber-Smith five (two points, two rebounds and a block).
• Sophomore forward McKenna Stephens, who played 15 minutes a game last season, missed her second straight game with a knee injury. She was moving much better on the sideline than she was Sunday.
• Led by van der Keijl’s 15, Wright State outrebounded Kent 52-45. Colgate outrebounded the Flashes 52-41.
• The 300-plus students from Davey Elementary School at the “Kid’s Day” game made lots of noise. Kent’s players have been doing volunteer work at least once a week at the school  this fall, and it’s clear they’ve formed a bond. A line waiting to get autographs stretched the full length of the court after the game.
• There were about 80 other fans at the start of the game. By the end, there were probably 120.

The Flashes play again Thursday — their third game in five days. They travel to Indiana-Purdue at Fort Wayne. a team that was 9-21 and ninth in the Summit League a year ago.

“We’ve got some vinegar in our tanks to take on the road,” O’Banion promised.

Full box score

Video highlights, including interview with coach Danny O’Banion, along with Kent State sports website story.

Kent State lost a seven-point lead to Wright State in the last five minutes and fell to the Raiders 73-68 in. morning game at the MAC Center. . 

To that point, the Flashes had clearly outplayed Wright State, which was 25-9 last year and is picked to finish second in the Horizon League. 

But over those last five minutes, Kent State missed some shots, gave up some fast breaks, and Wright State’s Kim Demmings , the Horizon’ preseason player of the year, took over as a scorer and ball handler. Demmings scored 10 of her 26 points at the end. 

Redshirt freshman Tyra James led Kent with 20 points, along with seven rebounds and three steals. Junior college transfer Chelsi Watson had 11 points and true freshman Megan Carter 9. Carter played extended minutes as KSU starting point guard Naddiyah Cross fouled out at the end of the third quarter. 

Game 2 will be a lot harder.

Coming off a heady 76-71`opening victory against Colgate, Kent State’s women will host Wright State at 11 a.m. Tuesday.

The unusual morning start is “Kid’s Day,” in which more than 300 students from Kent’s Davey Elementary School will be in attendance. The Kent State team has done volunteer work at the school this fall, helping teach lessons, working one-on-one with activities and participating in gym classes. (Here’s a link to a video and Kent State website story on their work.)

The students will be noisy, and Kent State will need the help against Wright State. The Raiders were 25-9 last season and second in the Horizon League.

Colgate, on the other hand, was 9-22 and seventh in the Patriot League. Kent State was 5-25 last season.

Wright State features one of the best players the Flashes will see this season in 5-8 guard Kim Demmings, a fifth-year senior who was Horizon League player of the year in 2013-14. She was hurt in last season’s first game and never got back on the court. Two years ago she averaged 22.4 points a game, sixth in Division I. She can score on the drive and shoot from anywhere.

Demmings scored 27 points, including the 2,000th of her career, in Wright State’s opening 80-67 loss to Miami of Florida, which had received votes in preseason national polls. Wright State led by as many as 11 points in the first quarter but in the end gave up 22 points off 19 turnovers. Only seven Raiders played, and reserves scored just two points.

5-9 senior guard Symone Denham is the only starter returning from last season. Demimings scored six points a game last season and had 17 against Miami.

6-5 junior center Richelle van der Keijl, a native of the Netherlands, had 10 points and 12 rebounds. In league games last season, she ranked first in field goal percentage (.595) and third in blocks per game (1.5).

In its opener, Kent State got a career-high 23 points from junior guard Larissa Lurken. Redshirt freshman Tyra James scored 17 in her first college game, sophomore forward Jordan Korinek had 12 points and eight rebounds, and sophomore point guard Naddiyah Cross had five steals and seven assists and eight points.

Kent State broke open a tied halftime game with a press that produced 15 straight points to start the third quarter.

The 76 points the Flashes scored were the most by the team in four years.

Lurken, Korinek and Cross are the only three players who ever had played Division I basketball before. Counting James, five freshmen and two junior college transfers saw action. Sophomore forward McKenna Stephens, who played 15 minutes a game last year, was out with a knee injury and almost certainly won’t play against Wright State.

The game against the Raiders is part of a clear scheduling plan by coach Danny O’Banion. Kent State plays four teams that like Wright State won at least 19  games and made a postseason tournament. The other six non-conference games are against teams that didn’t have close to a winning record. Seven of the non-conference games are at home.

The Flashes play their third game in five days Thursday at Indiana Purdue at Fort Wayne, which was 7-21 last season.

The first seven minutes of Kent State’s third quarter Sunday may have been the high point of coach Danny O’Banion’s four years in Kent.  The Flashes broke a 31-31 halftime tie with with 15 straight points as they went on to win their season opener over Colgate, 76-71.

At the half, the teams looked evenly matched, as they did last year when Kent won 62-61 on a shot at the buzzer.

Then six seconds into the second half, the Flashes fed forward Jordan Korinek low. She drove to the basket and was fouled by Colgate center Josie Stockhill. It was the third foul on Stockill, Colgate’s best player, and she went to the bench for the rest of the KSU rally. Korinek made both shots, and the Flashes were off

On the next play, Colgate missed a jumper, got an offensive rebound and went for a layup. Redshirt freshman Tyra James blocked it and started a fast break that ended with a basket by point guard Naddiyah Cross. Then Larissa Lurken hit a three-point shot after a turnover. Thirteen seconds later, Cross stole the ball and scored, and just like that, it was 40-31.

Sixteen seconds later, Cross again stole the ball at the sideline, drove to the basket and fed James with a behind-the-back pass for a layup.

In the run, Kent State’s press forced five turnovers.

O’Banion actually thought the key to the run came at the end of the first half, when Kent kept Colgate from getting off a good shot with the score tied. So at halftime, she said, “We decided to give the press a go while their courage was up.”

“They came out and really asserted themselves defensively and got the baskets off it it,” the coach said in her postgame radio interview.

O’Banion has talked about her team being able to play up tempo with 14 players and personnel who can run the floor. The Flashes certainly look faster than any Kent team in years.

What the coach calls her “big three” came through Sunday. Lurken, the junior who’s Kent’s most experienced player, had 23 points on 7 of 13 shooting (4 of 7 three-pointers). She was second on the team in rebounding with six and scored on the end of two fast breaks.

James, who missed all last season with a knee injury, played a smooth floor game and shot from every distance as she scored 17. She drove hard to the basket, shot jumpers and made a three-pointer. She brought the ball up court several times against a Colgate press. Interviewed after the game, James said her knee “feels good” and the victory “feels amazing.”

As she did in Kent State’s exhibition victory over Hiram, Korinek got two first half fouls and scored only two points. But in the second half, she scored three straight baskets on post plays as Kent State built a 19-point lead. Korinek had eight rebounds, all in the first half, and 12 points.

Freshman Alexa Golden had 10 points in 22 minutes in her first college game. She made two three pointers and had three steals.

The Flashes saw their 19-point fourth quarter lead drop to five against a Colgate press in the last six minutes. (“We’re going to be working on that in practice,” O’Banion said.) But Cross hit two free throws and Lurken made a free throw and a layup in the last minute to preserve the victory.

Notes:

• KSU made 7 of 17 three-pointers. That’s four more than the team’s average last year, and, best of all, three of the baskets came by players other than Lurken. She had 34 more three-pointers than the rest of the team combined last season.
• The Flashes forced 25 turnovers and committed 20. Last year their turnover margin for the season was the opposite — minus five. Kent scored 23 points off turnovers, Colgate 17. That’s the scoring margin right there. In last year’s game, Kent State made five more turnovers than Colgate. Kent State had 12 steals.
• The difference also came at the foul line, where KSU outscored Colgate 19-4. Opponents last season almost always shot more free throws than Kent State. Never did Kent have anywhere near 15 more points off free throws. Only twice did the Flashes make more than 19 foul shots. The 31 foul shots Kent had Sunday were more than any game last season. Kent’s speed and aggressive attacking of the basket took them to the line.
• The 76 points were the most Kent has ever scored under O’Banion.
• Cross had five steals and seven assists (though she had five turnovers).
• Colgate outrebounded KSU 52-41. Kent often played a small lineup. When Korinek was in four trouble, James was the tallest player on the floor at 5-11. Freshman Merissa Barber-Smith, the Flashes’ biggest player at 6-4, played three minutes and had one rebound and an assist.
• Kent State made 37 percent of its shots, Colgate 41 percent.
• The starting lineup was the same as it was in KSU’s exhibition — Lurken, Korinek, James, Cross and Chelsi Watson, a 5-10 junior college transfer. Watson had two points and five rebounds. She went out with an apparent shoulder injury in the first half (Korinek had to shoot free throws for her) but returned later in the game. Watson controlled the opening tip against the 6-3 Stockill. The Colgate center, who set a school record for blocked shots in a season last year, had six blocks Sunday.
• Lurken, Korinek and James all played about 35 minutes. Golden played 22, Watson 16, freshman guard Megan Carter 11 and junior college transfer Keziah Lewis 10. Freshman guard Taylor Parker played briefly. Sophomore forward McKenna Stephens, who played significant minutes last season, was on the bench with a knee injury.
• Last season Kent State’s record was 5-25; Colgate was 9-22.
• All three officials were women. That’s the first time I’ve seen that in 27 years of following women’s basketball.

Kent plays again at 11 a.m. Tuesday in the MACC against Wright State. The morning time is for “kids’ day,” with 300-plus students from Kent’s Davey Elementary School attending. The women’s team did a lot of community service at Davey over the last year.

Wright State was 25-9 last season and second in the Horizon League. The Raiders lost their opener Friday to Miami of Florida, 80-67.

Full box score.

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

There are reasons to be optimistic about as Kent State’s home opener Sunday against Colgate.

• The Flashes beat the Raiders on the road last year.
• Colgate isn’t a particular good team. It was 9-22 and seventh in the Patriot League a year ago. It lost three starters, including its best player.
• Kent State, 5-25 last season, returns two of its top three scorers and looks to have found another scorer in redshirt freshman Tyra James, who was impressive in the Flashes’ 73-45 exhibition win over Hiram.

But there are 10 question marks on the Kent State roster — the seven freshmen and two junior college transfers on the team, plus a junior who didn’t play at all last year as a walk-on.

Last year Kent State led most of the game against Colgate but needed a last-second pull-up jumper by Melanie Stubbs to win, 62-61. Stubbs had 12 points, Krista White 10 and Larissa Lurken 16 on 6 of 9 shooting. Lurken had been struggling going into the game; it actually was one of only two games last season last season she didn’t start. (She missed the other because of illness.)

Point guard Naddiyah Cross and forward Jordan Korinek both started that game as freshmen. Neither played well. Cross didn’t score and had three assists and two turnovers. Korinek had seven turnovers and five points.

Colgate forced 23 KSU turnovers and scored 21 points off of them. Kent State 20 points off 18 Colgate turnovers. That could be where the game is decided Sunday.

The Raiders were led in that game by 6-3 senior forward Josie Stockhill, who had 18 points. She’s Colgate’s top returning scorer, averaging 10.3 points a game last year and setting a school record with 68 blocked shots. Senior guard Randyll Butler, who made 44 percent of her shots last year, hit seven of nine shots against Kent and led the team in rebounding with nine. In that game, Colgate leading scorer Carole Harris, a second-team all-conference player, was hurt in the first half and scored just four points in 11 minutes. Colgate made only 2 of 13 three-point shots.

The Raiders beat Division III King’s College of Pennsylvania 81-37 in its exhibition game last week. It had 69 rebounds, 18 steals and forced 30 turnovers. It also shot only 38 percent and committed 21 turnovers of its own.

Lurken is Kent State’s leading returning scorer, averaging 11.1 last season. She had 24 in the exhibition against Hiram, 19 in the first half. Korinek was the team’s third leading scorer at 7.2 points a game. She was in foul trouble all game against Hiram and scored just two points.

The game is at 2 p.m. in the Memorial Athletic and Convocation Center. Audio broadcast starts at 1:45 on WHLO 640 and Golden Flashes iHeart Radio. You can get video and live statistics through the Kent State website.

The Flashes play again against Wright State (25-9 last season) at 11 a.m. Tuesday in a game where they’ve invited a host of middle-school students. On Thursday, they travel to Indiana-Purdue (9-21) at Fort Wayne.

Last year Kent State went 2-9 in non-conference games. Eight of those games were on the road, including two at a neutral site in a tournament. The Flashes were 1-2 at home, 1-6 on the road, and 0-2 in the tournament.

This year coach Danny O’Banion set out to give her young team a home court advantage. Seven of Kent’s 10 non-conference games — and six of its first seven — are at the Memorial Athletic and Convocation Center.

“For a team of 10 freshmen and sophomores, it’s the only way we can be successful,” O’Banion said at this week’s coaches’ luncheon.

It’s an interesting group of opponents. Real Time RPI rates the schedule as fourth hardest in the MAC (though I wouldn’t put a lot of stock in that before the season starts). Toughest schedules are Central Michigan, Miami and Eastern Michigan.

Kent plays four teams that won at least 19 games and made postseason tournaments last year. Toughest looks to be Minnesota, which was 23-10 and sixth in the Big Ten last season. KSU plays the Gophers in Kent the Tuesday before Thanksgiving as part of a doubleheader with the men’s team. Minnesota is the first Big Ten team I can remember coming to Kent in my 28 or so years of following women’s basketball.

The other three winning teams are all Ohio schools from the Horizon League — Wright State, Cleveland State and Youngstown State.

None of the other six teams had close to a winning record last season. Best was North Dakota Street, which was 11-18 and sixth in the Summit League. KSU lost its opener in North Dakota last year by six points.

Total record last season for this year’s non-conference opponents was 141-164. Real Time RPI ranks Kent State’s schedule as 139th in the country out of 349 teams.

Last year’s opponents had a record of 168-155 against Division I teams. Real Time RPI had KSU’s strength of schedule at 158th.

Here’s a look at the non-conference opponents:

Nov. 15: Colgate (9-22, 7-11 and seventh in Patriot League last season.. Two starters, nine lettermen returning. Kent State beat the Raiders 62-61 last year on the road on a last-second shot. Picked seventh in Patriot League this year.

Nov. 17: Wright State (25-9, 12-4  and second in Horizon League in 2014-15. Lost in first round of WNIT). One starter, five letter winners returning. Picked second in Horizon this season.

Nov. 19: At Indiana-Purdue at Fort Wayne (9-21, 3-13  and ninth in Summit League). Two starters, seven letter winners returning. Picked ninth in Summit.

Nov. 24: Minnesota (23-10, 11-7 and sixth in Big Ten. Lost in first round of NCAA tournament). Four starters, eight letter winner returning. Picked about sixth in Big Ten again.

Nov. 28: Malone (8-18, 6-16  in Division III Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference contest). Three starters, six letter winners returning.

Dec. 2: Cleveland State (19-13, 10-6 and third in Horizon League. Lost in first round of WNIT). Three starters, seven letter winners returning. Picked sixth in Horizon this season. CSU beat Kent State 69-67 in Cleveland last year.

Dec. 5: North Dakota State (11-18, 7-9 and sixth in Summit League). Three starters, seven lettermen returning. Picked sixth in  league this season. North Dakota State beat Kent State 74-68 in Bismarck in last season’s opener.

Dec. 8: At Bradley (6-24, 5-13 and eighth in Missouri Valley Conference). Four starters, nine letter winners returning. Picked ninth in league this season.

Dec. 12: At Youngstown State (21-11, 9-7 and fourth in Horizon League. Lost in first round of WNIT). Three starters, eight letter winners returning. Picked fourth in Horizon. YSU beat Kent State 68-49 in Kent last season.

Dec. 22: Brown (10-18, 4-10 and seventh in Ivy League. Four starters, eight letter winners returning. Picked seventh in Ivy League.

(Returning starters is sort of a messy statistic. I considered someone a starter if they had started more than 10 games last season or started a previous year and missed last year because of injury.)

Some notes from coach Danny O’Banion’s talk as this week’s coaches’ luncheon:

She hadn’t said much in her postgame radio interview after Kent State’s 73-45 exhibition victory over Hiram Sunday. Her impression: “Nobody got hurt, everyone played, and we scored more points than Hiram. We got some good teaching video. I’m happy.”

She said she liked the way redshirt freshman Tyra James came out aggressively in her first game after missing a year with a knee injury. James scored six of Kent State’s first eight points and had 13 in about 23 minutes of action. “She needs to maintain that firepower,” O’Banion said.

Forward Jordan Korinek, who got into foul trouble and had only two points, may have struggled because Hiram was a small, not very aggressive team. Korinek had worked a lot in the off-season on being more physical, and that may have given her problems, the coach said. Korinek’s reaction after the game showed you the kind of person she is, O’Banion said: “She apologized to her teammates.” Korinek, an all-state player at Akron St. Vincent-St. Mary, was Kent State’s third leading scorer and rebounder as a freshman last season.

Junior Larissa Lurken, the most experienced player on the team, scored 24 points and shot the ball well. But O’Banion was more impressed with her leadership. “A lot of the time she had more players under 19 years old on the court with her than over 19.” KSU has seven freshmen and three sophomores on the roster.

Because of that youth, the team hasn’t named captains yet. O’Banion said the team looks a lot to Lurken and sophomore point guard Naddiyah Cross for leadership. Lurken was a tri-captain as a sophomore last season.

Kent State plays Colgate at 2 p.m. Sunday in the MACC in its regular season opener. O’Banion pulled the box score of the exhibition off the teams website after a few hours Sunday. The game film the teams exchanged was from last season. “No point in telling people more than we have to this early in the season,” the coach said.

Coach Danny O’Banion today announced what may be the only member of her 2116-17 recruiting class.

She’s Alexandra “Ali” Poole, a 5-foot 10 all-conference and all-district guard from Carrollton High School.

Poole was player of the year in the Northeastern Buckeye Conference last season and has scored 920 points in her career. At that pace, she’ll be one of Kent’s highest scoring incoming freshmen — even higher than current Flashes Jordan Korinek, both of whom were 1,000-point scorers in high school. Larissa Lurken, Kent’s current leading scorer, had 1,735 in high school. Poole will have to have quite a senior year (more than 30 points a game) to pass that.

Poole averaged 15 points, 5 rebounds, 3 steals and 2.5 assists a game last season. She was first-team all-league and all-district both her sophomore and junior years. She was all-state honorable mention in Division II both seasons. Her team was 16-6 last season.

In her announcement, O’Banion emphasized Poole’s Northeast Ohio roots and Kent State’s commitment to recruit in the area. Korinek is from Akron and sophomore forward McKenna Stephens from Uniontown. Five other current Flashes are from elsewhere in the state.

Kent State currently has 14 scholarship players on its roster and has no seniors. NCAA rules allow 15 scholarships. One of KSU’s current scholarships belongs to a former walk-on who never played last season, and it is unclear whether the scholarship is a one-year deal. (All scholarships are technically year to year.)

Not on the Flashes’ list today was Kamryn Troike, a 6-4 all-state player from Fostoria St. Wendelin who announced last May she had accepted an oral offer from Kent State. Troike was on no other team’s list that I could find today. A reporter from her hometown paper, which had written a detailed story about her commitment last summer, said she had made no new announcement. NCAA rules don’t allow Kent State coaches to comment on specific recruits outside of announcing formal signings.

It’s always hard to tell from an exhibition game, but there was some good conclusions to draw from Kent State’s 73-45 exhibition victory over Hiram College Sunday.

First, the hedge. Hiram is a below-average Division III team. The Terriers were 7-19 last year and aren’t predicted to be much better this year. They don’t have a player over 6 feet tall.

Still…

Larissa Lurken, the veteran of the team as a junior, was in midseason form. She scored 24 points, 19 in the first half. She made her usual three-pointers, but made five of seven two-point shots, including two layups on fast breaks. I don’t remember her scoring on a fast break at all last season.

The Flashes are playing more up-tempo. They scored 16 fast-break points and scored 18 points in a row to end the first half. The team seems faster and quicker than last year’s group, which was 5-25.

Redshirt freshman Tyra James is as good as advertised. Out all last year with a knee injury, James scored six of Kent’s first eight points and had 13 overall. She’s very smooth with the basketball; she had a gorgeous reverse layup in the second half. At her best, she looked like an all-conference player. The 5-11 wing had six rebounds, though she also had four turnovers.

The starting line-up was Lurken, James, sophomores Jordan Korinek and Naddiyah Cross, and junior college transfer Chelsi Watson. Watson is a 5-10 forward who has the best vertical leap on the team. She had eight rebounds and actually jumped center on the opening tipoff. (She didn’t control it.)

The team showed it can play without Korinek, who got two quick offensive fouls (one on an illegal pick). She scored just two points in 12 minutes. But they’ll need her in the regular season. She was the team’s third-leading scorer and rebounder last season and is Kent State’s best post player.

Cross, the point guard, had seven assists, eight points and just two turnovers. She had clear control of the offense. Cross was aggressive at driving to the basket and made the only three-point basket besides Lurken. We didn’t see that kind of offense at the point last season.

Surprise of the game was 6-4 freshman Merissa Barber-Smith, who had nine points, 10 rebounds and a block in just 13 minutes.

Freshman guard Alexa Golden and Megan Carter, both all-state high school players, looked like freshmen. They did some good things, but both were one of six shooting and looked unsure on offense. Golden did look like the good defense player she’s supposed to be; Carter had some nice moves on jump shots in the second half. Carter was the first player off the bench and played back-up point guard. Freshman Taylor Parker also played a lot at point in the second half and had six points and two steals. She is very fast.

The Flashes had 17 turnovers — too many against a Division III team. The starters had 11 of those, so we can’t blame it on the freshmen. The team had just five turnovers in the second half, when the freshmen played the most.

Thirteen of Kent’s 15 players got in the game; 11 scored. Eleven played more than 11 minutes. Freshman Savannah Neace and junior college transfer Keziah Lewis didn’t play. Sophomore McKenna Stephens, a significant contributor last year, played only eight minutes and didn’t score. She didn’t look completely healthy.

Kent State played a great deal of zone defense. In her postgame interview, coach Danny O’Banion said that wasn’t necessarily a sign of the season. “It will depend on the opponent,” she said. “This is a very coachable group” that can play a lot of ways. O’Banion was noncommittal on the team’s overall performance, saying it was just nice to play someone besides themselves.

The Flashes shot 50 percent in the first half and 43 percent for the game. They were 5 of 22 on three-pointers. Lurken was four for eight. Kent, much bigger and stronger than Hiram, outrebounded the Terriers 50-37. The Flashes had 16 offensive rebounds and 18 second-chance points.

Hiram shot 27 percent from the field and on three-pointers. KSU forced 20 turnovers.

Kent State’s first four-quarter game was uneventful. The first timeout came just after six minutes; it would have been four minutes last season. It also felt different to have players shooting two foul shots after they hit the bonus. There’s no one-and-one anymore in women’s basketball.

The Flashes open the regular season Colgate at 2 p.m. next Sunday at the MACC. Colgate was 9-22 last season. Kent beat them on the road on a last-second shot.

The Flashes open their 2015-16 season at 2 p.m. Sunday with an exhibition game against Hiram College in the MACC.

For the last five years or so, exhibitions have been against Ohio Division III schools like Hiram. Last year the Flashes beat Ohio Christian, 100-45. Two years ago they lost to Walsh College in one of the lower moments of team history.

Hiram was 7-19 last year, 3-13 in the North Coast Athletic Conference. It was picked eighth in the conference this year. Top player is 6-foot forward Mercedes Jones, who was NCAC Newcomer of the Year last year, averaging 10 points a game.

Coach Danny O’Banion wouldn’t name her starting line-up last preseason press day this week but did say junior guard Larissa Lurken, and sophomore forward Jordan Korinek and sophomore guard Naddiyah Cross would start. No surprises there; all started at least 15 games last year. I’d be astonished if redshirt freshman Tyra James didn’t start; she’s supposed to be one of Kent’s best players this season. The fifth starter could be 6-4 freshman forward Merissa Barber-Smith, 6-foot sophomore forward McKenna Stephens or 5-9 freshman guard Alexa Golden.

The line-up doesn’t make much difference. The Flashes have nine new players and will be looking at different combinations. Expect everyone to play. Probably everyone will score.

Kent State was 5-25 last season. It opens its regular season a week from Sunday against Colgate.

Admission to the exhibition is free.