The KSU women’s basketball team has an RPI is 145 out of 349 Division I teams. Its ranking jumped 36 places when the Flashes beat Ohio in Athens Saturday.

The Flashes’ record is 8-9, 2-3 in the MAC.

Kent State plays at Western Michigan Wednesday. Western is 13-3; that’s the best record in the MAC.

But Western’s RPI is 156 — 11 spots below Kent State.

How it that possible?

It’s entirely strength of schedule. RPI is based 25 percent on a team’s won-loss record, 50 percent on its opponents records, and 25 percent on its opponents’ opponents record.  Road wins are weighted 1.4; home wins 0.6. To some extent, the system is used in to help determine seedings in the NCAA tournament.

So the best way to improve RPI is to beat a good team on the road, as Kent State did Saturday. Ohio was 12-3 and had an RPI of 62 before the KSU game. It has since dropped to 84.

Western’s strength of schedule is terrible, according to WarrenNolan.com, the RPI service I use. The Broncos rank 337th out of 349 teams. They haven’t beaten a single team with winning record. Only one — 7-9 Detroit Mercy — is close. Others include 2-14 Loyola of Chicago,  3-13 North Dakota State, 0-18 Chicago State, 2-15 Davidson and 2-14 Fort Wayne.

Even in the MAC, where the Broncos are 4-1, their wins have come against the four worst teams in the league — Eastern Michigan (5-12, 0-5), Akron (7-9, 0-5), Miami (7-11, 1-4) and Bowling Green (5-12, 1-4).

The teams Western has lost to are good teams: Ball State (11-6, 3-2 in the MAC, 144 RPI), Michigan (15-4, 32 RPI) and Michigan State (13-5, 41 RPI). The Michigan State loss was by four points in overtime in Kalamazoo in one of the best games a MAC team played in the non-conference.

Kent State’s strength of schedule is 116. Besides Ohio, it’s beaten Florida Gulf Coast (12-6, RPI 112) and Wright State (105, RPI 157). The Flashes have lost to five teams with RPIs in the top 100. Just playing those teams helps Kent’s RPI.

In the MAC, Kent State has played Eastern Michigan and four teams with a combined record of 48-17.

In theory, of course, the tougher schedule will have prepared Kent State for games like Wednesday’s at WMU.

KSU and Western have played a lot of the same teams, with very similar results:

• Bradley (KSU won at Kent, 77-52) (WMU won at home, 83-64).
• Eastern Kentucky (KSU won at Kent, 80-67) (WMU won at a neutral site, 74-50).
• Detroit (KSU lost in Detroit, 73-52) (WMU won in Detroit, 75-65).
• Fort Wayne (KSU won in Kent, 66-55) (WMU won at home, 61-35)
• Ball State (KSU lost in Muncie, 71-47) (WMU lost in Muncie, 61-56).
• Eastern Michigan (KSU won in Ypsilanti, 86-67) (WMU won there, 76-67).

Still, Western has won 12 of its last 13 games. The game is on Western’s home court. Kent State has a tough task ahead of it.

But the Flashes accomplished a task no one else had done this season when they beat Ohio in Athens Saturday. Ohio had been 7-0 at home and, counting the Kent State game, is 33-5 at home over the last three years.

Coach Todd Starkey called the game Kent State’s best defensive effort of the year. KSU held OU five points below its scoring average and forced 22 turnovers, 16 on steals. Ohio had averaged just 13 turnovers a game.

The Flashes got excellent floor games from junior forward Jordan Korinek, who scored 24 points in her third game in a row about 20, and senior guard Larissa Lurken. Lurken was only 3 for 18 from the field but had 12 free throws, six rebounds, five assists, two blocks and two steals. Lurken continues to lead the MAC in scoring at 22.5 point per game.

McKenna Stephens had eight rebounds; she’s averaged 8.1 over her last seven games along with 9.3 points. Alexa Golden had six steals, third best in the MAC this season, and eight points.

Western’s 6-1 forward Breanna Mobley is third in the conference with 10.8 rebounds, 12th in scoring at 14.8 and third in field goal percentage at 57.7. Marley Hill, a 6-2 redshirt junior center, averages 16.5 points, 5.8 rebounds and 1.7 blocks. She’s scored in double figures every game this season.

Kent State has had trouble this season against opponents with big front lines.

WMU sophomore point guard Deja Wimby averages 10.9 points and 5.5 rebounds and has had three double-doubles (two from points and assists, and one from points and rebounds).

The Broncos are tied for first in the conference in scoring defense (59.2 points a game) and last in three-point baskets per game at 4.1. The latter will be quite a change for Kent State, whose last two opponent (Ohio and Northern Illinois) are the top two three-point shooting teams in the MAC.

WarrenNolan.com also predicts scores based on RPI and other factors.

Wednesday’s prediction?

Western Michigan 75, Kent State 59 with WMU having a 90 percent chance of winning. For the season, the site claims 77 percent accuracy.

To follow the game

Online video starts at 7 p.m. on the ESPN3.  (To watch, you’ll need to have a subscription to ESPN through cable.)
Audio starts at 6:45 on Golden Flash iHeart radio and WHLO 640.
Live statistics are available through the Western Michigan website.
In-game updates on Twitter at @KentStatwbb.

Current Kent State statistics, including links to schedule/results and roster.

Western Michigan website, including links to statistics, schedule/results and roster.

MAC statistics, including standings.

NCAA statistics.

Lurken and the record book

Larissa Lurken has moved into 13th place on Kent State’s all-time scoring list with 1,294 points. She has at least 14 more games this season, counting the first game of the MAC tournament. If she keeps her 22.5-point average, she’d finish her career with 1,631 points. That would be eighth highest in school history.

That 22.5 points per game would be the highest average ever for a single season. Current record is Bonnie Beachy’s 21.5 in 1980-81. Second is Amy Sherry’s 21.4 in 1994-95. If Lurken averaged 22.5 for 31 games, she would have 697 points, second all-time to Beach’s 732 in 1980-81. Kent State played 34 games that season.

Single-season MAC record is 25.4 by Toledo’s Kim Knuth in 1998-99.

About seven games ago, we didn’t notice when Lurken broke the school record for most three-point shots in a career (now 571 and counting). The old record was 510, set by Kathy Carroll from 1991-94. Lurken already held the career school record for three-point baskets made (now 184) and three-pointers attempted in a season (200 in 2014-15).

She’s averaging 2.2 three-point baskets per game. At that rate, she’d end the season with about 73, which would break Melissa DeGrate’s KSU record of 71, set in 2004-05.

Lurken is also very likely to break Kent State’s single-season record for free throws made and attempted. She’s making 7.8 foul shots a game, which would project to 242. The record is 190, set by Dawn Zerman in 1999-2000. Lurken is  attempting an average of 9.7 free throws, which projects to 301. Tracy Lynn currently holds that record at 246 in 1993-94.

Both of those projections also would be MAC records. Current records are 290 attempted and 217 made. Best I can tell, NCAA record for made free throws is 267.

There’s no chance Lurken will set Kent State career marks in free throws, now both held by Lynn (579 made of 782 attempts).

Lurken didn’t shoot a huge number of foul shots before this year — 59 her freshman year, 70 her sophomore year and 126 last year. At her current pace, she’ll shoot more than all three previous seasons combined.

Korinek and the record book

Lurken has gotten most of the headlines this year, but Jordan Korinek is very likely to score her 1,000th point before the end of the season.

Korinek has 903 career points. She’s averaging 14.2 point per game. At that rate, she’d end the season with 1,102 points, which would make her the 21st player in KSU history to score 1,000. 

She’s a junior. If she averaged 15 points a game next year, she’d end up with between 1,500 and 1,600 points. That would be about the same as Lurken or about eighth all-time.

If she averaged 20, it would put her about fourth in KSU history.

That’s far from impossible. Korinek is averaging 20 points in Kent State’s five conference games and is third in the league in conference-only scoring. She’ll be by far KSU’s leading returning scorer next season.

 

 

 

 

It was the biggest win of her college career for senior Larissa Lurken, who had played on teams than went 18-71 in her first three seasons.

It certainly was the biggest win in the short Kent State career of coach Todd Starkey, whose team has won more games in half a season than the anyone has in the last six full seasons.

It was a win — on the road — against one of the best team’s in the Mid-American Conference, two-time defending regular season champion Ohio University.

Final score was 68-65.

Kent State is now 8-9 and 2-3 in the league. Ohio is 12-4, 3-2 in the MAC and still in first place in the MAC East.

OU had been undefeated at home. Kent State, which didn’t win a road game all last season, is 3-4 on the season away from Kent and 2-1 on the road in the conference.

Jordan Korinek had 24 points for the the Flashes. Lurken had 19 despite going 3 of 18 on field goals. But she was 10 of 12 from the foul line, had six rebounds, five assists, two blocks and two steals.

Alexa Golden had six steals to lead a defensive effort that forced 22 Ohio turnovers, nine above the Bobcats’ season average. Kent State had a season-high 16 steals.

The Flashes, who have attacked teams to force fouls all season, made 25 of 34 free throws and drew five fouls on three Ohio starters, including OU’s top two scorers.

“It’s exciting for me to see them turn a corner like that,” Starkey said in his postgame interview on Golden Flash iHeart radio. “Hopefully it gives us another boost of confidence and gives us the understanding that if we do certain things well for 40 minutes of the game, that we can play with anybody.

“Our players did a really job of executing the game plan. We got the ball to the right spots on the floor, and when players had the chance to knock down shots they did.

“They listened all game. (When Ohio) started to run some set plays against our 2-3, we  made some adjustments and they couldn’t go back to it. We got in the right positions.”

On kentstatesports.com, Starkey said: “I couldn’t be more proud, after how disappointed we were after the Northern Illinois game, to come back here and show some incredible heart by our players. It was the best defensive game of the season for us and a heck of a win.”

Korinek’s offense was a key factor for the Flashes. Her 24 points was only the third time this season — and the first time in a victory — that someone besides Lurken has led Kent State in scoring.

“Jordan really did a great job of screening well and slipping to the basket and scoring,” Starkey said. “It was a great game for her.

“We knew they were going to put a lot of pressure on Larissa and try and take her out of the game. To get a win on the road at Ohio with Larissa Lurken going 3 for 18, that’s great.

“We’ve told Larissa from the beginning that there are going to be nights when the shots don’t fall, but if she keeps playing defense and playing hard, things can work out. Today she had five assists. She found people when she got double teams and they got open.”

Golden, the coach said, “had a phenominal defensive game and did great job of knocking down a couple of open threes.”

Golden’s three-pointer with 6:45 left brought Kent State back to a tie after Ohio had taken a six-point lead. It meant, Starkey said, that Kent State was “able to play from ahead instead of trying to chase from behind.”

OU’s Quiera Lampkins, the MAC’s second leading scorer, fouled out with 2:31 to play after scoring 17 points. Jasmin Weatherspoon, the conference’s fourth leading rebounder, had fouled out 30 seconds earlier after getting 11 rebounds and blocking three shots. Point guard Taylor Agler fouled out in the last minute with 13 points.

“That’s where we won the game,” Starkey said. “Getting to the foul line, getting them into some foul trouble and trying to throw them off their game offensively.”

Notes

• It was just the second time in six years that Kent had beaten a MAC team with a winning record. The last time the Flashes beat a first-place team was a 44-43 win over Bowling Green at Kent State in 2011. The last time they beat a first-place team on the road? A long, long time. Even in KSU’s best years in the 1990s and early 2000s, the Flashes were usually in first place when they won a big game on the road.
• McKenna Stephens led Kent State in rebounding for the fifth time in the last seven games. She had 8 rebounds, 8 points, 3 steals and an assists. Overall, rebounding was even at 35. Kent State had three more offensive rebounds and outscored OU 10-2 on second-chance points.
• The Flashes outscored Ohio 17-12 off turnovers. They had 15 turnovers to the Bobcats’ 22, the third straight game they’ve forced more than 20 and had fewer turnovers than their opponents. That’s a major change; KSU had been near the bottom of the MAC in turnover margin before those games. Going into the game, Ohio had led the league in turnover margin at +7.5.
• The score was tied nine times and the lead changed hands 10 times.
• It was the first close game Flashes had won this season. Their previous closest win was 10 points at Wright State. They had lost two overtime games and by one point to Northern Illinois on Wednesday.
• KSU shot 36.5 percent from the field (19 for 52) for the game but 50 percent (11 for 22) in the second half. OU was at 42 percent (21 for 49) and also 50 percent in the second half. On three-point shots, the Flashes were 5 for 11 and Ohio 8 for 19.
• All five Kent State starters played at least 30 minutes, with Lurken playing 39, Korinek a season-high 37 and Golden 36. Backup point guard Megan Carter was the only other KSU player with more than 10 minutes. She had 14.

Kent State travels to Western Michigan Wednesday to play another one of the MAC’s better teams. The Broncos are 13-4, 4-1 in the league and beat Eastern Michigan (5-12, 0-5) 76-67 at Eastern Saturday.

QUOTES FROM OHIO from the story on the school’s website:

Coach Bob Boldon: “I can’t remember the last time our defense was good. Since the New Year, our defense has just been garbage. Consistency needs to be hammered in and my hope is that our players will get there at some point before the end of the season. We have been shooting a little better, but we still are not at where we need to be. We have plenty to work on this week. I think we can really come together and put a run together with this team. ”

Point guard Taylor Agler: “We didn’t come in focused today. We are starting to take our opponents lightly and that hurt us today. We didn’t follow the game plan; there were a lot of things that we didn’t do right.”

Forward Jasmine Weatherspoon: “We really need to fix our defense. We have to limit turnovers and we foul too much. We are letting our opponents cut across our faces, and our switches have been too slow.”

Box score

Game story from KSU website.

You can find a video of the last play and the KSU celebration on Twitter, searching for @KentStateWbb. I couldn’t make link work here.

Other MAC scores

• Northern Illinois (12-4, 5-0 in the MAC) 77, Toledo (12-4, 3-2) 73 at Toledo. That’s a big win for NIU on the road.
• Ball State (11-6, 4-1) 80, Akron (7-9, 0-5) 70 at Ball State.
• Central Michigan (13-4, 5-0) 76, Bowling Green (5-12, 1-4) 65 in overtime at BG.
• Buffalo (12-4, 2-3) 68, Miami (7-11, 1-4) 51 at Miami.

MAC standings

 

 

 

Ohio University hasn’t been exactly the team that dominated regular season play in the MAC for the last two years, but the Bobcats are still plenty good.

Kent State travels to Athens Saturday to play OU, which is 12-3 and 3-1 in the MAC. Ohio is 7-0 at home; Kent State (7-9. 1-3 MAC) is 2-4 in road games this season.

OU has won the MAC regular season championship two years in a row, though it couldn’t  beat Buffalo in three tries last season, including the MAC tournament.

The Bobcats are eighth is the most recent Mid-Major Top 25. (Buffalo is 12th, Central Michigan 19th and Toledo 24th.) Their RPI is best in the MAC at 62 (of 349 teams). Buffalo is 63, Central Michigan 91, Toledo 95 and Northern Illinois 99. Kent State is 188.

The Bobcats’ offense is built around three-point shooting. They still make more three-point shots (8.3 a game) than anyone in the conference, but their shooting percentage for three-pointers is just 29.1 percent, almost 11 points lower than a year ago. A good part of that is the graduation of Kiyanna Black, one of the great three-point shooters in MAC history.

Ohio’s strength this season has been defense. The Bobcats are third in the conference in points allowed (60.1 per game) and first in field goal defense (35.4).

Kent State’s numbers are far worse. The Flashes are 11th in the league in overall defense (73.3) and last in field goal defense (43.1 percent).

KSU gave up a ton of points Tuesday in a 98-97 loss to Northern Illinois. So did OU when it lost at Northern 88-80 a week ago.

Ohio is led by 5-9 senior guard Quiera Lampkins, a preseason all-MAC East selection who is second in the conference (to Kent State’s Larissa Lurken) in scoring with a 19.8 average. Lampkins was a high school teammate of KSU reserve forward Zenobia Bess at Gahanna Lincoln.

The Bobcats also are getting a strong year from 6-2 senior forward Jasmine Weatherspoon, who is tied for fourth in the conference in rebounding at 8.5 points a game and is tied for first in blocks at 1.9 per game.

But after Weatherspoon, Ohio struggles at rebounding. OU is a distant last in the MAC in rebounding margin at -6.8 and in a sort-of esoteric statistic called rebounding percentage — which is the percent of possible offensive and defensive rebounding a team gets. The Bobcats are last in both categories.

Kent State is sixth in rebounding margin in the conference (+2.8) and fifth in defensive rebounding percentage, and sixth in offensive percentage. The Flashes have done pretty well this season when they could dominate another team in the post. A key matchup Saturday will be Kent’s 6-2 forward Jordan Korinek, who’s scored 47 points in her last two games, against Weatherspoon.

KSU’s McKenna Stephens also has had a very good stretch of games. She’s scored in double figures five of her last seven games, made 52 percent of her shots and averaged 6.7 rebounds over that time. The Flashes have been looking for a third consistent scorer all season; they have have found her.

Lurken, of course, continues to dominate the statistical line for Kent State. Besides leading the league in scoring at 22.8, she’s in the 15 in the league in rebounding (11th at 6.8 per game), defensive rebounding (sixth at 5.2), free throw percentage (ninth at 80.1), steals (14th at 1.7 per game), three-point percentage (10th at 37.8), three-pointers per game (seventh at 2.3), blocked shots (seventh at 1.1) and minutes played (fourth at 35.8). She leads the nation in free throws made and taken.

To follow the OU game

Online video starts at 1 p.m. on the ESPN3.  (To watch, you’ll need to have a subscription to ESPN through cable.)
Audio at about 12:45 on Golden Flash iHeart radio.
Live statistics are available through the Ohio website.
In-game updates on Twitter at @KentStatwbb.

Current Kent State statistics, including links to schedule/results and roster.

MAC statistics, including standings.

NCAA statistics.

 

 

There really was no defense in Kent State’s 98-97 loss to Northern Illinois Wednesday at the M.A.C. Center.

But defense was pretty much all KSU coach Todd Starkey wanted to talk about after the game.

“We knew they (NIU) wanted this kind of game,” he said. “They try to outscore people. We played their game.

“What’s disappointing is that we’re trying to develop a program that can defend at a high level. I told them at halftime: Let’s play with the passion and intensity you have to have if you’re going to win these conference games.

“This is not a team you want to trade baskets with, and for 40 minutes we tried to do that. And it didn’t work in our favor. By one point, I get that. But…”

Not many other teams have been able to defend Northern Illinois (11-4, 4-0 in the MAC) this season. The Huskies average 90.6 points a game — second highest in the country.

And they showed how many different ways they could score.

Northern Illinois shot 70 percent in the first half.

“I don’t think think I’ve ever seen a team shoot the ball that well in a half,” Starkey said. “There were layups, but most of them were jump shots, and threes.”

Still, Kent State led Northern 54-53 at halftime. The Flashes themselves shot 45 percent in the first half. They had 16 more shots than NIU thanks to forcing 11 turnovers (that produced 19 points) and getting 13 offensive rebounds.

Then Kent State outscored Northern 24-15 in the third quarter when NIU shot just 29 percent. Kent State shot 55 percent in the quarter.

But, Starkey said, “a 10-point lead is nothing to them. They proved it.”

NIU came back to shoot 56 percent in the fourth quarter. Kent was 3 of 11 for 27 percent.

Northern outscored KSU 13-2 over two minutes early in the fourth quarter to take an 83-82 and went ahead to stay 90-87 on a three-point shot by Cassidy Glenn with three minutes to go. The game went between a one- and three-point NIU lead for the last three minutes, with KSU scoring on a layup by Naddiyah Cross with 5 seconds to play.

Kent State got the ball back on a turnover in the corner of the NIU forecourt with 2 seconds to play but couldn’t get a shot off. The Flashes were out of timeouts and couldn’t advance the ball to their front court or run a set play.

KSU is now 7-9 and 1-3 in the MAC. The three games the Flashes have lost to have been to teams that have just one loss among them, and that loss was to one another.

Seven wins is more than KSU won all last year and equals the most wins for the Flashes in the last six years.

But, Starkey asks, “In what world of athletics is 7-9 a success?

“We’re better. I get that. But it’s not better to the standard we want for this program. It doesn’t do me any good to be where we are and get excited about we’re playing better. Yes, we’re getting better results than we had in the past. But I’m not comparing ourselves to the past. I’m comparing us to where we want to go.”

Larissa Lurken had 31 points for KSU, along with 6 rebounds, a career-high 6 assists, 2 blocks and 3 steals. Jordan Korinek had a season-high 26 points and 6 rebounds. McKenna Stephens had 16 points and 7 rebounds.

“The offense wasn’t the issue,” Starkey said. “We got the ball in spots where we wanted to score it. We got good looks, we got the ball inside, we played inside-out, we knocked down shots.”

Notes:

• 97 points is the most Kent State has scored since 2004, when the Flashes beat Ball State 99-64. The 195 points between the two teams were the most I could find since a 101-95 overtime loss to Western Michigan in 1994.
• KSU and NIU had another high scoring game last season, when the Flashes won 95-85. Lurken had 37 points in that game.
• Kent State forced 21 turnovers, tying their season high, and scored 26 points off of them,  a season high. Northern Illinois is not a turnover-prone team. The Huskies actually led the MAC in fewest per game (13.1) going into Wednesday game. Kent State tied a season low with 13 turnovers for the second game in a row.
• In a one-point game, all sorts of things make the difference. But KSU lost two points at the end of the first half when officials ruled an offensive cutback by Stephens came just after the buzzer. The basket was originally ruled good but overturned after the referees looked at video.
• There was a delay of more than 10 minutes in the fourth quarter as officials checked the score, then 86-85 Kent State. They compared the official scorebook to the media box and went through the play-by-play. The score stood. Starkey was asked if the delay made a difference. “It was the same for both teams,” he said.
• The teams missed a total of four foul shots. Northern Illinois, the MAC leader in foul shooting percentage, was 17 of 19. Kent State, which leads the MAC in most foul shots made and taken, was 21 of 23.
• Korinek took 22 shots, a season high. KSU has made a major effort to run the ball through her in the post as much as possible the last two games. Korinek also stayed out of foul trouble two games in a row. She had 47 points in those two games.
• Lurken’s 31 points were the third time this season she’s scored more than 30. She continues to lead the MAC in scoring.
• Cross’s 11 points were two off her season high. She had five assists to two turnovers and three steals.
• Northern Illinois, which has six players averaging in double figures, had five scoring more than 10 Wednesday. Freshman Janae Poisson had a career-high 27 off the bench on 9 of 17 shooting, including 4 of 8 three-pointers and 5 of 5 foul shots. Point guard Ally Lehman, who has had two triple-doubles this season, wasn’t far from a third. She had 15 points, 9 rebounds and 8 assists. She’s second in the conference in both assists an rebounds.
• From NIU coach Lisa Carlsen via the Northern website: “We shot the ball really well, especially in the first half, but we made just enough plays  tonight. We don’t ever get in a situation where we panic if we’re down by 10 like we were at the start of the fourth quarter. At the start of the period, we made some big shots. We got enough rebounds and enough stops, and we hit our free throws down the stretch to get a big road win.”
• KSU outscored Northern in every way but three-point baskets. There NIU, which leads the MAC in three-pointers per game, made 9 of 20. Kent State made 4 of 15.
• Attendance was listed at 240, which is the lowest I can remember. It was a lousy night outside, and there are no students on campus. But the game was a lot more watchable than the men’s game Tuesday.

Kent State travels to defending MAC champion Ohio (12-3, 3-1 MAC) Saturday. The Bobcats beat Akron (7-8, 0-4) at Akron Wednesday, 85-69.

Box score

Game story from KSU website. Interview with Starkey and video highlights here.

Game story from NIU website.

Other MAC scores

• Central Michigan (12-4, 4-0) 101, Ball State (10-6, 3-1) 92 at Ball State.
• Western Michigan (12-3, 3-1) 75, Bowling Green (5-11, 1-3) 58 at Western.
• Toledo (12-3, 3-1) 73, Buffalo (11-4, 1-3) 64 at Buffalo.
• Miami (7-10, 1-3) 72, Eastern Michigan (5-11, 0-4) 60 at Miami.

MAC standings and some team statistics.

 

 

 

 

 

Northern Illinois freshman guard Paulina Castro was diagnosed with lymphoma, a form of blood cancer, over Christmas break.

You’ll see that several of her teammates and coaches have shaved their heads in her support when NIU plays at Kent State at 7 p.m. Wednesday.

Here’s a nice story on Castro and her team.

Kent State knows about lymphoma. Former women’s basketball coach Danny O’Banion was diagnosed with the disease shortly before the 2014-15 season and underwent chemotherapy during and after the season. O’Banion, now associate head coach at Memphis, tweeted earlier this year that she remains cancer free.

Kent State senior guard Larissa Lurken was named MAC East player of the week Tuesday.

It’s the second time this season she’s earned the award; she also won it once last season. She’s the only KSU player in the last six seasons to get it.

Lurken had 28 points and 10 rebounds in the Flashes’ 86-67 victory at Eastern Michigan Saturday. On Wednesday, she had 18 points and five steals in KSU’s 71-47 loss at Ball State. Lurken leads the MAC in scoring at 22.2 points per game, about eight points more than she averaged last season.

She and her teammates face Northern Illinois (10-4, 3-0 MAC) at 7 p.m. Wednesday in the MAC Center. Last season Lurken scored 37 points in Kent State’s 95-85 win over Northern Illinois in Kent.

Lurken and coach Todd Starkey were interviewed on Facebook Live by the athletic department’s Dave Carducci Tuesday. Some highlights:

“Larissa’s best attribute as an offensive player is the shot fake,” Starkey said. “She can really shoot the basketball. And so the better shooter you are, the better shot fake you use. She’s gotten really good at making the fake, getting defense out of position, getting to the second level, drawing a secondary defender, then getting them into foul trouble.”

“I actually wasn’t used to driving before this season,” Lurken said. “One of the biggest thing I think of now is getting them into foul trouble, especially if they don’t play a lot of people, and really getting into their bench.”

Lurken has made 48 more free throws than anyone else in the MAC so far this season. Her 22 free throws in 25 attempts against Western Kentucky are both MAC records. She has made 111 of 139 free throw attempts (79.9 percent). Her attempts are the most in the country. Her made foul shots are second by three to Kelsey Plum of Washington, the nation’s leading scorer.

Starkey has pushed Lurken all season to be a more vocal leader on the team.

“Her voice gotten better and better,” the coach said. “She’s done a really good job in figuring out when’s the right time to say something and what’s the right thing to say at the moment.

“Her teammates have a great deal of respect for her. A lot of times if you have a player scoring a lot, they’re looked at as kind of selfish.

“Our team wants her to shoot the ball more. They get a great deal of confidence from that. Sometimes they spend a little bit too much time watching her instead of moving around her. That’s something we’re working on.”

Click on the photo for the full interview.

 

Updated with comments from coach Todd Starkey  on Facebook Live Tuesday

Kent State is the surprise team of the MAC East. The Flashes have already won more games than they did all last season.

But Northern Illinois, KSU’s Wednesday opponent at the M.A.C. Center, is the astonishing team of the MAC West.

Northern was 13-17 a year ago and and last in the Western Division. The Huskies were picked fifth in the division this season.

And they come to Kent State with a 10-4 record, 3-0 in the MAC, as the second-highest scoring team in Division I.

The Huskies average 90.6 points per game. They’ve scored more than 100 points three times. They’ve scored more than 90 five times. They’ve scored less than 80 once. They’re coming off an 88-80 victory over defending MAC champion Ohio.

Like Kent State, Northern has done it with pretty much the same players they had a year ago. The Huskies returned four starters and 95 percent of their scoring.

All five of their starters — and one reserve — average in double figures. Three of them average more than 17 points a game.

Their leader is 5-10 senior guard Ally Lehman, who has had two triple-doubles this season and is in the top 10 in the MAC in 10 different categories. She’s eighth in the conference in scoring (16.9), second in rebounding (10.9) and second in assists (7.3). She scored 48 points and had 21 rebounds in NIU’s double overtime win over Milwaukee early this season.

Lehman isn’t even Northern’s leading scorer. That player is sophomore wing Courtney Woods, who scores 17.6 points a game and leads the MAC in three-point baskets per game with 3.1. And Woods isn’t NIU’s most accurate three-point shooter. That person is senior forward Cassidy Glenn, who makes 46.4 of her three-point shots. Glenn also averages 17.6 per game.

As a team, NIU leads the MAC in three-point field goal percentage (38.1) and is second in three-pointers per game (7.4). They lead the league is overall field goal percentage (44.6) and free-throw percentage (90.9).

Northern’s scoring is a huge jump from last season, when the Huskies averaged 67 points a game. Their up-tempo game came with coach Lisa Carlsen, a former Division II coach of the year at Lewis University who came to NIU last season.

The Huskies don’t play a lot of defense. They give up the most points in the conference — 80.7 — and are second to last in field goal percentage defense (41.3). Kent State is last in field goal defense (42.2) and second to last in scoring defense (71.7 points per game).

KSU actually played the one team in the country that scores more points than Northern in No. 3 Baylor and held the Bears 10 points below their 94-point average. They used a 2-2-1 zone press in that game — not so much to steal the ball but to slow Baylor down. I’d suspect they’ll do the same thing against Northern.

“Northern Illinois a very different team than in the past,” Kent State coach Todd Starkey said on Facebook Live Tuesday. “They’ve completely shifted the culture. It’s going to be really important for us to make sure that we try to make them uncomfortable. This is a team that if they get in a rhythm and able to shoot the ball in areas where they’re comfortable, they’re very dangerous. We’re really gong to have to defend the transition and the three-point line.

“They’re probably the hottest team in the MAC right now. They just had a big upset win over Ohio and probably are playing with a lot of confidence.”

 

Kent State (7-8, 1-2 MAC) is coming off of its second best offensive performance in six years. The Flashes scored 86 points in their win at Eastern Michigan Saturday.

The most points KSU has scored this decade came against Northern Illinois last season in a 95-85 victory in Kent when Larissa Lurken scored 37 points.

Lurken has scored more than 30 twice this season and leads the MAC in scoring at 22.2 points pregame, which is eighth in the country. She had 28 and 10 rebounds at Eastern Saturday and was one of three Kent State players to have double-doubles. Jordan Korinek had season highs in scoring (21) and rebounding (13). McKenna Stephens had 15 points and 11 rebounds.

KSU and Northern Illinois have two common opponents so far this season, both victories for each team. Kent State beat Bradley by 25 at home and Eastern Michigan by 19 on the road. NIU beat Bradley by 30 at Bradley and Eastern by 12 at home.

Northern’s RPI is 104, third best in the MAC; KSU’s is 176, its best in six years. KSU has played a tougher schedule (160 of 349 teams) than Northern (230). RPIs are from WarrenNolan.com. (Link is to all MAC RPIs; click on the team to see individual schedule strengths.)

If you can’t go to the Northern Illinois game

• Video starts at 7 p.m. Wednesday
• Audio at about 6:45 on Golden Flash iHeart radio and 640 AM WHLO.
• Live statistics though the KSU website.
• In-game updates on Twitter at @KentStatwbb.

Kent State statistics, with links to roster and schedule/results.

MAC statistics and standings.

 

 

 

 

GRAPHIC FROM KSU TWITTER FEED

This was the kind of basketball we hoped Kent State would play once the Mid-American Conference season started.

After double-digit losses to two of the league’s better teams, the Flashes Saturday beat Eastern Michigan 86-67 for their first MAC win under coach Todd Starkey.

“We felt like the last two games we had gotten away from the kind of team we were becoming,” Starkey said in his postgame radio interview on Golden Flash iHeart Radio. “We did a good job of being that team in this one.”

The win accomplished a lot of things:

• It beat a team — on the road — that KSU had to beat in order to have a shot at a .500 season, something the Flashes haven’t had in six years. Eastern was one of three teams in the conference with a worse record that Kent State.
• It saw three Kent State players have double-doubles — at least 10 points and 10 rebounds — for the first time I can remember in more than 25 years of following KSU women’s basketball. Larissa Lurken had 28 points and 10 rebounds, Jordan Korinek had 21 and 13 and McKenna Stephens had 15 and 11.
• It was the most points Kent State has scored this season and the second most it has scored in any game since 2009. Only a 95-85 victory over Northern Illinois last season was better. The Flashes also had season highs in three-point baskets (9), rebounds (51) and assists (20). They equaled their season low in turnovers (13).
• It broke an 11-game losing streak to Eastern Michigan, something especially important to Lurken. “Finally,” she said in here radio interview. “It was tough coming in here, knowing this was where the last two seasons ended” (in MAC Tournament first-round games).”

Kent State is now 7-8 on the season, 1-2 in MAC play. Eastern Michigan is 5-10 and 0-3.

Except for some struggles early in the third quarter, Kent State played well in about every facet of the game. It made almost  50 percent of its shots (and did make exactly 50 percent of its three-point shots). The Flashes outrebounded EMU 51-30 and had 17 offensive rebounds and 19-second chance points. They gave up only eight points off turnovers despite Eastern’s attempts to pressure them in the second half.

Korinek had her best game of the season. She avoided the foul trouble she’s struggled with, especially in the last four games. Her 21 points equaled her season best.  Her 13 rebounds were a season high and second best in her career. She blocked two shots for the first time this season.

“When we’ve played our best basketball this season, it hasn’t been when we were running plays for Larissa,” Starkey said. “It’s been when we were able to run an inside-out game through Jordan.”

“That was our game plan,” Lurken said. “I hope we do it every game.”

Lurken herself had another good game in a great season. It was the 10th time this season she’s scored more than 20 points and the fifth time she’s scored more than 25. She continues to average more points (22.2) than anyone else in the MAC and more than any Kent State player ever has for a full season. Her 10 rebounds were the fourth time this season she’s been in double digits. She also had three assists and a block Saturday. At 5-9, she’s tied for sixth in the MAC at 1.0 blocks per game.

Stephens too had one of her best games of the season. She had been struggling with an ankle injury and didn’t play well in the first minutes of Saaturday’s game. Starkey pulled her out.

“I’m not quite sure what happened on the bench, but she came back like she was possessed,” the coach said. It was her second double-double of the season, and her 11 rebounds was a career high.

Point guard Naddiyah Cross and Megan Carter each had assists. Carter, playing not too far from her home in suburban Detroit, also had seven points, including a running three-pointer at the buzzer at the end  of the first quarter.

“This is a huge shot in the arm for us,” Starkey said in one of his most enthusiastic expressions of the season. “We need the momentum going into our next games.”

KSU returns home Wednesday to play 10-4 Northern Illinois, which is the second highest scoring team in the country. Northern won its biggest game in many years when it beat defending MAC champion Ohio in Dekalb, 88-80, on Saturday.

Notes:

• Lurken’s six three-pointers and three-point percentage (75) were her best of the season. Her career best is eight and 77 percent, both against Northern Illinois last season.
• Eastern had four players in double figures, led by Sasha Dailey and Phyllis Webb with 18.
• The margin of victory was the most for Kent State in MAC play since it beat Western Michigan 69-39 in February 2009.

Box score

Other MAC scores

Toledo (12-3, 2-1) 64, Miami (6-9, 0-3) 50 at Toledo.

Central Michigan (11-4, 3-0) 88, Buffalo (11-3, 1-2) 71 at Central.

Bowling Green (5-10, 1-2) 62, Akron (7-7, 0-3) 58 at Akron.

Northern Illinois (10-4, 3-0) 88, Ohio (11-3, 2-1) 80 at Northern Illinois.

Ball State (10-5, 3-0) 61, Western Michigan (11-3, 2-1) 56 at Ball State (9-5, 2-0).

MAC standings

If I had had to pick one of KSU’s first four conference games it really had to win, it would be this Saturday’s contest at Eastern Michigan.

EMU is one of three MAC teams with worse records than Kent State. If the Flashes are going to approach a .500 record in the conference, they’re almost certainly have to beat Eastern twice.

This one is on the road, where KSU has gone 1-19 over the last 15 months. The Flashes posted a solid win.at Wright State in December but have lost three in a row away from home since (though two of them were to the Big Ten’s Iowa and Minnesota).

Eastern is 5-9 and, like Kent State, winless in the MAC. It lost its opening by 12 at Northern Illinois and lost at home against 11-3 Toledo Wednesday, 66-49.

KSU is 6-8 and lost by 13 to Central Michigan at home and at Ball State Wednesday, 71-47.

Eastern had been a solid first-division team in the MAC for the last three seasons but lost coach Tory Verdi to Rhode Island in the off-season. Leading scorer Cha Sweeney, a second team all-conference player, graduated early and transferred to Georgia Tech. Second-leading scorer Janay Morton transferred to Nebraska.

New coach Fred Castro, a former assistant at Washington, has brought along two players who had very little impact last season to lead his team this year. Point guard Micah Robinson started one game last season, played 7.5 minutes per game  and averaged just 0.4 points.

This season she’s playing 37.1 minutes a game, most in the MAC, and is averaging 12.3 points per game.

Sasha Dailey, a 5-8 guard, didn’t start a game last season and averaged 5.8 points per game. This season she’s fourth in the conference at 18.6 points per game. 5-9 guard Phyllis Webb is averaging 12 points a game, slightly more than last season, and is fourth in the conference in rebounding at 7.1 per game. Webb had 30 points and 14 rebounds against NIU.

Eastern had built its reputation for the last few seasons on steals and pressure defense and is still getting 27 percent of its points off turnovers. But the Eagles are in the middle of the pack in the conference in turnovers margin and in most other statistics.

The game is even more important to Kent State because the Flashes are coming off four straight losses — all to winning teams — and a horrendous second half at Ball State in which they scored just 14 points and shot 12 percent.

The team is at the point when it needs to prove to itself that it can still play as well as it did during a four-game winning streak in late November and early December.

Key for the Flashes will be getting their shooting on track. Larissa Lurken still leads the conference in scoring at 21.8 point per game, but teams are keying on her. She scored 18 points at Ball State, but it took her 19 shots.

Jordan Korinek is KSU’s second leading scorer but has been in foul trouble three of the last four games. She scored 12 points at Ball State but picked up her second foul early in the second quarter and scored only three points after the first 10 minutes.

Nobody else on the Flashes averages more than 7 points a game.

Kent State has struggled with turnovers all season, and another key to Saturday’s game will be whether the Flashes can handle Eastern’s speed and pressure.

To follow the Eastern Michigan game

Video starts at noon Saturday on the ESPN3. To watch, you’ll need to have a subscription to ESPN through cable.)
Audio at about 11:45 a.m. on Golden Flash iHeart radio.
Live statistics are available through the Eastern Michigan website.
In-game updates on Twitter at @KentStatwbb.

To follow the Ball State game

Video starts at 7 p.m. on the ESPN3. (Link is to index of Wednesday games; link to BSU-KSU game hasn’t been posted yet (To watch, you’ll need to have a subscription to ESPN through cable.)
Audio at about 6:45 on Golden Flash iHeart radio.
Live statistics are available through the Ball State website.
In-game updates on Twitter at @KentStatwbb.

.

 

 

It’s not completely clear to me whether it was Ball State’s defense or Kent State’s offense.

But it was certainly lack of points that beat the Flashes on the road Wednesday, 71-47.

Kent State now is 6-8 on the season and 0-2 in the MAC. Ball State is 9-5 and 2-0.

The Flashes made only four field goals in the second half out of 33 shots — 12 percent. For they game they hit a season-low 25.4 percent.

Larissa Lurken had 18 points for Kent State, but she was 6 of 19 shooting. The rest of her game was excellent at 5 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 blocks and a season-high 5 steals. Jordan Korinek had 12 points but spent most of the night in foul trouble and played just 21 minutes. Ali Poole had 9 points off the bench.

Starters McKenna Stephens and Alexa Golden — both of whom had scored in double figures two of the last three games — had zero points. Point guard Naddiyah Cross had 1. Stephens had 4 shots, Golden 2 and Cross 3.

“We have to have others step up,” coach Todd Starkey said in his postgame interview on Golden Flash iHeart Radio. “Everybody in the league knows that Larissa is a scorer.”

Korinek had 9 points in the first quarter but picked up her second foul three minutes into the second quarter.

“Our whole team dynamic changes when Jordan gets in foul trouble,” Starkey said, echoing a comment we heard last year from former coach Danny O’Bannion. Starkey’s offense moves Korinek around more instead of planting her in the post, but it hasn’t seem to have helped a great deal. She’s still had at least four fouls in five games, including fouling out of two.

Kent State took a 9-4 lead Wednesday but fell behind by 29-21 after the first quarter when Ball State’s Moriah Monaco hit four of five three-point shots.

The Flashes cut the lead to three points at halftime by holding BSU to seven points on 4 of 22 shooting in the second quarter. But in the middle of the third quarter, Ball State went on a 20-2 run to put the game away.

After Kent State’s shooting, the other big statistic of the game of Ball State’s 51-43 rebounding advantage and 22 offensive rebounds. The Cardinals had 19 second-chance points.

KSU had 19 offensive rebounds but only six second-chance points. 

“We can’t beat a team if we can’t block out on rebounds,” Starkey said, “and we have to score when we get extra chances.”

Ball State is one of the biggest teams in the MAC, with two 6-5 players, and has an average +5.5 rebounding margin. But the Cardinals average just 12 offensive rebounds a game, 11th in the conference.

Ball State is second in the league in field goal defense, so the Cardinals did indeed contribute to Kent State’s scoring 20 below its average. But the Cardinals themselves shot 14 percentage points below their 44.8 percent average Tuesday.

Notes:

• Golden had a season-best four steals. Overall KSU had 11 steals. Kent State had 20 turnovers, Ball State 16. The Cardinals led in scoring off turnovers, 19-13.
• Stephens led the Flashes with six rebounds. 
• Merissa Barber-Smith scored her first basket of the season on an offensive rebound. The tallest player on Kent State’s team at 6-4, she had four rebounds and a block in 11 minutes.
• Monaco led Ball State with 24 points. 6-5 Renee Bennett had 13 points, 9 rebounds and 2 blocks.
• Ball State was picked to tie for second in the MAC West. Kent State beat the Cardinals 59-50 in Kent last year in perhaps the Flashes’ best game of the season.
• KSU hasn’t won at Ball State since 1997.

Kent State plays its second straight road game Saturday at Eastern Michigan. The Eagles (5-9, 0-2 in the MAC) lost at home to Toledo (10-3, 1-1) Wednesday.

Box score

Other Wednesday MAC scores

• Ohio (11-2, 2-0) 83, Buffalo (11-2, 1-1) 55 at Ohio.
• Central Michigan (10-4, 2-0) 89, Akron (7-6, 0-2) 62 at Central.
• Northern Illinois (7-4, 2-0) 89, Bowling Green (4-10, 0-2) 76 at BG.
• Western Michigan (11-2, 2-0) 85, Miami ((6-8, 0-2) 60 at Miami.

MAC standings.