Flashes home Wednesday against EMU, a team they beat by 19 last month

When Kent State played Eastern Michigan a month ago, the Flashes were coming off of a 71-47 loss to Ball State, a game coach Todd Starkey called his team’s worst conference game.

Kent State routed EMU 86-67 and has played some of the best basketball in the conference since. The Flashes have won six of nine games and are tied for second place in the MAC East and fifth in the conference overall with a 6-5 league record. Overall they are 12-11.

As they prepare to play Eastern at home Wednesday, Kent State is coming off another tough loss — a 77-62 defeat at Buffalo. KSU was badly outplayed in the first half, and a rally in the fourth quarter never got within 10 points.

The game starts at 7 p.m. at the M.A.C. Center.

Eastern is 1-9 in the MAC and has beaten only 2-9 Bowling Green. The Eagles lost to Central Michigan 104-63 on Saturday, the most lopsided game in MAC play this season. Eastern dressed only eight players for the game; I assume most of that was because of injury and illness, but the story on the team website doesn’t say.

The Eagles’ four leaders all did play Saturday. Junior guard Sasha Dailey (17 points per game) scored 25 points on 25 shots from the field. Senior Phyllis Webb (14 points, 8.6 rebounds) had the 13 points and 11 rebounds, the 11th double-double of her career. She needs 19 points to become Eastern’s 21st player to score 1,000 points. She needs one rebound to reach 700 for her career. Guards Micah Robinson and Sheyna Deans average about 10 points a game.

Here’s a quick look at where Kent State fits in conference-only statistics:

Team

Scoring: Fourth of 12 teams at 74.1 points a game. NIU is first at 84.2.

Scoring defense: Ninth at 75.7. Toledo is first at 62.1.

Field goal percentage: Sixth at 39.8 percent. First is CMU at 45.8.

Field goal defense: Last at 43.9. Ohio is first at 35.6.

Three-point percentage: Seventh at 31.0. CMU is fist at 38.3.

Three-pointers per game: Ninth at 4.8. Ohio leads at 9.3.

Three-point defense: Last at 39.5. Toledo is first at 25.0.

Foul shooting: Third at 76.2 percent. CMU leads at 81.8.

Rebounding margin: Fifth at +1.7. CMU is first at +5.2.

Turnover margin: Seventh at +0.45. Ball State leads at +2.36.

Individual

Scoring: Larissa Lurken is first at 25.4 points per game. Jordan Korinek is fifth at 19.0. McKenna Stephens is 28th at 10.2.

Rebounding: Korinek is 12th at 7.2, Stephens 17th at 6.3.  First is Breanna Mobley of Western Michigan at 11.1.

Field goal percentage: Korinek is sixth at 52.4, Stephens ninth at 51.1. Fist is Kaayla McIntyre of Told at 64.2.

Assists: Lurken is tied for 14th at 3.4 per game. Stephanie Reid of Buffalo is first at 8.0.

Free throw percentage: Lurken is fourth at 87.3. Korinek is eighth at 83.1. Cassie Green of CMU averages 91.7.

Steals: Alexa Golden is tied for fifth at 2.3 per game. Lurken is tied for 12th at 1.8. Deja Wimby of WMU is best at 2.9.

Three-point shooting percentage: Lurken is 14th at 35.7. Mikayla Voigt of NIU is first at 48.6.

Three-pointers per game: Lurken is tied for eighth at 2.3. Moriah  Monaco of Ball State is first at 3.7.

Blocked shorts: Lurken is tied for fifth at 1.4. Korinek is tied for 14th at 0.8. Tinara Moore of CMU leads at 2.1.

Assist-turnover ratio: Naddiyah Cross is 12th at 1.2. Reid of Buffalo is first at 4.0.

Minutes per game: Lurken is first at 37.4.

If you weren’t counting, Lurken is in the top 15 in the conference in six of eight categories, in the top 10 in four, in the top five in three. (I’m not counting minutes, which aren’t an achievement statistic to me.)

If you can’t go to the game

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

Game preview on the KSU website.

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

Game preview from the Eastern Michigan website.

MAC statistics and standings, with links both to overall and conference-only stats.