http://www.kentstatesports.com/news/2017/11/18/womens-basketball-golden-flashes-pound-paint-to-tame-lady-lions-81-60.aspx

It was Kent State’s highest scoring output of the season and largest margin of victory.

But coach Todd Starkey says the Flashes (3-1) are far from a finished product.

KSU beat Southeastern Louisiana 81-60 Saturday behind a career-high 31 points by senior forward Jordan Korinek. The Flashes scored 19 more points than they did against Florida Gulf Friday, their second highest output. The 21-point margin is 10 points more than the Flashes’ 55-44 victory at Youngstown State Tuesday. And their 44 percent shooting was their best of the season.

“We played solid at times today,” Starkey said. “We also played sloppy at times. Consistency has been one of the things this team has struggled with early on.

“We always want to compare ourselves to what good basketball looks like and not necessarily just the score.”

In the first quarter, for example, the Flashes scored 22 points and led at the end of the quarter for the first time this season.

“We may have started offensively well, but we also gave up four threes on uncontested shots,” Starkey said. “That’s just not paying attention to the scouting report. We cannot give up open threes to teams and expect to have success throughout the season.

“But I’m pleased with our effort. I’m pleased that we executed the offense. We made adjustments in the second half and played much better defensively.”

On offense, the coach said, the Flashes generally were able to be patient and get the ball to Korinek inside.

Korinek efficiently made 9 of 13 field goals and 13 of 14 foul shots. Southeastern Louisiana played Korinek straight man-to-man, as did Northern Kentucky in Kent’s opener. Korinek scored 29 points then.

“Jordan can score one-on-one on most people,” said sophomore guard Ali Poole, who had 15 points. “That’s the game plan: Put the ball in Jordan’s hands, and ‘Jordan, put the ball in the hole.'”

Korinek, as modest an all-conference player and academic all-American as you’ll ever find, credited her teammates.

“They were really looking to get the ball inside because we had an advantage in height,” she said. “McKenna and our guards were really focused.”

And when she gets the ball one-on-one, Korinek said, it’s “Make a move and score.”

In four years at Kent State, Korinek has scored 1,241 points, 17th best in KSU history.

Poole’s 15 points was a season high. She made six of 12 shots, had five rebounds and two blocked shots. In four games, she’s Kent State’s second leading scorer, averaging 10.5 points in 33 minutes a game. Last season she averaged 4.3 points in 14 minutes.

“I’m trying to be a more dynamic player instead of just three-point shooting,” Poole said. “I just want more options to score. We all have to step up this year after losing Larissa (Lurken, last year’s leading scorer and MAC most valuable player).”

Box score

Notes

• Southeastern Louisiana is 0-5. The three teams Kent State has beaten this year have a combined record of 1-10. Youngstown State was the first to win today, a 73-49 victory over Loyola of Chicago.
• KSU’s 3-1 start is its best since it went 6-0 in 2010-11. Last year KSU started 2-0, lost four in a row, then went on to go 19-13 and win the MAC East.
• Kent State shot 44 percent despite going 2 of 18 on three-pointers. On two-pointers, KSU was 23 of 38. They outscored the Lions 40-10 in the paint and 21-10 on second-chance points, and outrebounded the Lions 46-22. Forward McKenna Stephens had 10 rebounds for the second straight game. She has at least tied for the team lead in rebounds in every game.
• The 46 rebounds was a season high. So were Kent State’s 14 assists, 35 foul shots (and 29 made foul shots) and seven blocked shots.
• Back-up center Merissa Barber-Smith blocked two of those shots, had three offensive rebounds and scored a career-high nine points in 10 minutes of play.
• Korinek came to the postgame press conference with her upper body wrapped in cellophane — treatment for some back pain. “I’m fighting through it,” she said. Korinek often spends some time of the floor during physical post play. One time Saturday she did a complete back somersault after a whistle when she was playing defense.
• Alexa Golden, who missed the second half of Friday’s game against Florida Gulf Coast with an ankle injury, started and played 27 minutes without apparent difficulty. She had seven points, seven rebounds, four assists and three steals.
• Freshman Erin Thames, who saw her first action Friday, played 19 minutes. Starkey is trying to develop her as a back-up to senior Naddiyah Cross, who played at least 33 minutes in KSU’s first three games. Cross had a season-best seven points and four assists Saturday. She’s averaging 4.5 assists against 2.5 turnovers.
• Nine Flashes played at least 10 minutes and freshman Kasey Toles played nine. For the first time this season, no Kent State player went more than 30 minutes. That was partly because KSU had the game under control most of the time and partly because the team is playing five games in eight days.
• Margaux Eibel, a freshman walk-on from San Diego, saw her first college action. She played two minutes and had one rebound. So now everyone on the roster has played this season except freshman post players Amanda Sape and Kennedy Roberts-Rosser.
• The game was part of the Akron Classic, in which Kent and Akron traded opponents on back-to-back days. Next year it moves to Kent State — likely called the Kent State Classic. Akron coach Jodi Kent and Starkey came up with the idea to get good competition at a low travel cost.
• In Saturday’s other game in Akron, Florida Gulf Coast beat the Zips, 82-63. Florida Gulf Coast, ranked No. 4 in this week’s Mid-Major Top 25, beat Kent State 80-62 Friday and is 4-0 on the season. Akron is 1-2.

The Flashes will fly to Las Vegas Wednesday and play No. 14 Stanford at 8:30 p.m. (Kent time) on Thanksgiving . Stanford is a perennial women’s basketball power and made last season’s Final Four. It’s the first game of the three-day Play4Kay  Showcase, which features six teams that won conference titles last season.

What about playing a powerhouse like Stanford?

“I’m excited about it,” Poole said. “It’s a nice opportunity, and we’re kind of in the position, ‘What do we have to lose?'”

Game story from the Kent State website.

Jordan Korinek scored a career best 31 points and Kent State played its best four-quarter game of the season as the Flashes beat Southeastern Louisiana Saturday, 81-60.

Korinek made 9 of 13 shots and 13 of 14 free throws. She had a season-best seven rebounds.

Kent State’s point total, margin of victory and field-goal percentage were its best of the season.

Ali Poole had 15 points for KSU. McKenna Stephens had 10 rebounds, leading the team for the fourth straight game.

The Flashes are 3-1 in the season. Southeastern Louisiana is 0-5. The game was the second for Kent in the two-day Akron Classic.

COMPLETE STORY WILL FOLLOW and will include player and coach interviews

Box score

Kent State knew how Florida Gulf Coast was going to play. The Flashes had video of FGCU’s first two wins. They had played them last Thanksgiving (and won their biggest non-conference game).

But it didn’t make any difference in the first half Friday night.

The Eagles, ranked No. 4 in this week’s Mid-Major Poll, spread the floor, made three-point shots from everywhere and drove hard to the basket.

Kent State couldn’t stop them.

Florida Gulf Coast ran to a 55-29 first-half lead in the game at the Akron Classic and went on to hand the Flashes their first loss of the 2017-18 season. The final score  was 80-62. FGCU is now 3-0 on the season; Kent State is 2-1.

“Defensively we just running around out there, not connected all,” Kent State coach Todd Starkey said. “Everything that we had practiced the last two days just went right out the window. I was disappointed in our effort. We just gave up on plays.

“And Florida Gulf Coast is really good. There aren’t a lot of teams in the country that can make you play quicker for your mistakes.”

Florida Gulf Coast made 9 of 18 three-point shots in the first half and 10 of 25 overall (62 percent). The Eagles forced 12 Kent State turnovers and turned them into 12 points.

Kent State played much better in the second half, actually outscoring FGCU 33-25 and holding the Eagles to 33 percent shooting. But the Flashes never got closer than 15 points.

“We took them out of their rhythm,” Starkey said. “We did a much better job defensively. We didn’t give up second-chance points. We took charges on straight-line drives we were just reaching and missing on in the first half.

“We talked at halftime that no matter what the score, we did not want to practice bad habits in the second half. We practiced a lot of them in the first half.”

Things started to go bad for the Flashes in the first 90 seconds when leading scorer Jordan Korinek picked up two fouls, both on offense. KSU’s basic game plan is to get the ball to Korinek on most plays, even if she doesn’t shoot. That was especially true against Florida Gulf Coast, which is not a tall team.

When Korinek got back in the game in the second quarter, she scored 12 points on six of nine shooting. But she picked up her third foul in the last minute of the half when she stumbled over a FGSU guard who had stopped suddenly 20 feet from the basket. Overall, Korinek played only 20 minutes. She scored 19 points and had five rebounds, her most of the season.

“We have to be ready to react to that,” Starkey said. “Otherwise everybody’s going to try to get her in foul trouble right out of the gate.”

The Flashes play a second game in Akron at noon Saturday against Southeastern Louisiana, which lost to Akron 66-54 Friday. Southeastern is 0-4 on the season. The Zips (1-1) will play Florida Gulf Coast Saturday afternoon.

Notes

• Junior guard Alexa Golden hobbled off the court with an ankle injury after she was fouled at the end of the first half. She didn’t play in the second half, and Starkey didn’t know her status for Saturday’s game. Golden started every game she was healthy last season and led the Flashes with 17 points in their win over Youngstown State Tuesday.
• Kent State’s 62 points were its most of the season, but Florida Gulf Coast’s 80 was by far the most the Flashes have allowed. FGCU’s 55 first-half points were more than either Northern Kentucky or Youngstown State scored against KSU in a game.
• The 18-point margin was the closest any team has come to Florida Gulf Coast this season. The Eagles beat Illinois by 24 and Florida International by 36. They were 26-9 last season and beat Oklahoma in the first round of the NCAA tournament.
• Kent State’s 41.7 percent shooting was its best of the season. The Flashes outrebounded the Eagles 37-31. They had 23 turnovers to Florida Gulf Coast’s 13.
• Ali Poole was the only Kent State player besides Korinek to score in double figures with 11 points. She made four of eight shpts and had four rebounds. McKenna Stephens had 10 rebounds to lead KSU in that category for the third game in a row. She also had seven points.
• Redshirt junior Tyra James started the second half in place of Golden and had eight points, her high for the season, and four rebounds in 20 minutes.
• Freshman Erin Thames saw the first action of her career and had four points — all on free throws — and three rebounds in six minutes. Fellow freshmen Monique Smith (one point and four rebounds in 25 minutes) and Kasey Toles (one rebound in five minutes) also saw action.
• Officials called 45 fouls, including a technical against Starkey in the first half when he complained loudly about a foul call and two technicals against Florida Gulf Coast players for very mild trash talking. The officials gave James an extra foul shot after a timeout. (She had already shot two before it was called.) They canceled the point after consulting with the scorer’s table. Three Florida Gulf players fouled out.
• Nasrin Ulel led three FGCU players in double figures with 19 points.
• Florida Gulf Coast coach Karl Smesko is a 1993 Kent State graduate. Wikipedia says he walked on to the KSU men’s team as a senior but left the team to take care of a family member. He has a 468-109 career record and has been Atlantic Sun coach of the year seven times.

Box score

Game story from the Kent State website.

Game story from the Florida Gulf Coast website.

Preview of the tournament from Southeastern Louisiana’s website, including links to its roster, statistics and schedule/results, along with the box score from its loss to Akron Friday.

Florida Gulf Coast, the nation’s No. 4 mid-major team made 9 of 18 thre- point shots and 10 of 35 overall in the first half to build a 26-point lead over Kent State and went on to an 80-62 victory over the Flashes Friday.

KSU actually outscored the Eagles in the second half but never got closer than 15 points.

Jordan Korinek, Kent’s leading scorer, picked up two fouls in the game’s first 90 seconds and played just 20 minutes. She still scored 19 points. Ali Poole had 11 points, and McKenna Stephens had 10 rebounds.

Box score

Full story will go up soon.

After two wins on the road, Kent State plays at a nearby neutral site Friday.

But this one will be much, much harder.

The Flashes take on Florida Gulf Coast at 5 p.m. Friday at the University of Akron’s James A. Rhodes Arena. It’s the first game in the Akron Classic, in which Kent and Akron swap opponents over two days. Akron (0-1) plays Southeastern Louisiana (0-2) after Friday’s KSU-Florida Gulf Coast game. KSU plays Southeastern Louisiana at noon Saturday, followed by Akron vs. FGCU.

Florida Gulf Coast is a really good team. The Eagles are ranked fourth in this week’s Mid-Major Poll. They return four starters from a team that went 26-9 last season. They have won at least 25 games every season since 2010-11, won six of the last seven Atlantic Sun Conference championships, and made 10 straight post-season tournaments (four NCAA, six WNIT).

FGCU beat Illinois by 85-61 in its opener. It beat Florida International University 88-52 Wednesday, outscoring the team 58-19 in the second half

The Eagles will be gunning for Kent State, which beat them 77-64 last year in the Gulf Coast Showcase, a Thanksgiving tournament played near the FGCU campus. It was the biggest non-conference win of Kent State’s 19-13 season.

“We’re going to have to play much better than we have in the first two games to have an opportunity to be in the game,” KSU coach Todd Starkey said on Kent State’s FlashTalk radio/Facebook Live broadcast Thursday. “This is a team that,  if they continue to develop, could make the Sweet 16 in the NCAA tournament in March.

“They’re a forminable offensive team. If we don’t defend the three-point line, they could beat us by 30.”

FGCU has made 40 percent of its three-point shots this season, and the Eagles shoot a lot of them. They were 17 of 42 against Florida International and 13 of 32 against Illinois. Last season they averaged 30 three-point shots a game and shot 30 percent.

“They’re going to spread you out,” Starkey said. “They’re going to shoot threes in transition, drive the basket and kick for threes. They’ll make it difficult to guard all over the court.”

Against Kent State last year they shot 43 three-pointers, a number Starkey marveled about after the game. But the Eagles made only 12 (28 percent) and only two in the first half.

“They had a cold shooting night,” Starkey said. “We caught them after they played two difficult opponents. They didn’t play their best, and we played well. 

“We’re not sneaking up on them this year. They’re the ones that are coming in, saying, ‘Hey, they beat us last year.’ They’re going to be so ready to play us.”

Kent State has defended the three-point shot well so far this season, and Youngstown State, at least, is a team that builds its offense around the distance shot. (Northern Kentucky has a second-year coach and so many new players that it’s hard to draw any conclusion about it.)

The Flashes held those teams to 12 of 51 three-point shots (24 percent) in beating NKU 59-54 and Youngstown State 55-44. But both those teams are 0-2 so far this season.

Kent State so far has won on defense.

“That’s the way it’s going to be for a while,” Starkey said after the YSU game.

The Flashes are still trying to figure out their offense without Larissa Lurken, who as a senior averaged a school-record 23.6 points a game last season.

“A lot of the success other players had last season was because Larissa drew a lot of attention,” Starkey said Thursday. “Now they’re learning how to play without that diversion.”

There have been signs of the Flashes’ finding their way. Junior guard Alexa Golden had a career-high 17 points against Youngstown State and drove to the basket in ways that at times reminded you of Lurken. Forward McKenna Stephens has made eight of her 13 shots and three of six three-pointers in two games. Sophomore guard Ali Poole has played aggressive offense and actually has taken more shots than any other Kent State player.

And senior forward Jordan Korinek scored 29 points when Northern Kentucky tried to guard her straight up and showed a willingness to act as a decoy when Youngstown State built its game plan around stopping her. She scored 10 at YSU.

To follow the game

The game starts at 5 p.m. If you plan to go, here are directions from the Akron website.

There is no television coverage.

Audio starts at about 4:45 p.m. on Golden Flash Radio.

Live statistics will be available through the Akron website.

Preview from the KSU website, including links to its roster, statistics, schedule/results and much more.

Preview from the Florida Gulf Coast website, including links.

Preview of the two-day tournament from the Akron website.

Notes

Florida Gulf Coast coach Karl Smesko is a 1993 Kent State graduate. Wikipedia says he walked on to the KSU men’s team as a senior but left the team to take care of a family member. He graduated summa cum laude in communications. His first job was at Walsh Universty the year after he graduated from Kent State. He has a 467-109 career record as a coach and has been Atlantic Sun coach of the year seven times. He is one of four active Division I coaches who have won more than 80 percent of their games. The others: Baylor’s Kim Mulkey, Stanford’s Tara VanDerveer and Connecticut’s Gino Auriemma.

After this weekend’s games, the Flashes will go back to class for two days, then fly to Las Vegas for the Play4Kay Showcase. They’ll play Stanford, a Final Four team a year ago, at 8:30 p.m. (Kent time) on Thanksgiving, then play Gonzaga or Belmont Friday and DePaul, Ohio State, Memphis or Florida Gulf Coast (again) on Sunday. Stanford and Ohio State are in the current top 25 rankings. Belmont, Gonzaga and Florida Gulf Coast are in the top 10 of the mid-major poll. Every team except Memphis won at least 19 games last season; six were conference champions, counting Kent State’s MAC East title. Former KSU head coach Danny O’Banion is associate head coach at Memphis.

The two tournaments mean Kent State will play five games in eight days. “Our team would rather play than practice anyway,” Starkey said with a laugh Thursday. The stretch certainly will test the Flashes’ depth. That’s especially true at point guard, where senior Naddiyah Cross has played 71 of 80 minutes so far this season. She had only one turnover in 39 minutes against Youngstown State.

What the Youngstown State locker room had to say after KSU’s 55-44 victory over the Penguins Tuesday.

YSU head coach John Barnes

“We needed to take care of the ball. We had 15 turnovers (at halftime). Instead of being up by two, we could have been up 12 if you cut that in half.”

“That third quarter got away from us a little bit, and we didn’t have any firepower to catch up. I mean we really didn’t. We just couldn’t make shots. If you can’t make shots, it’s hard to win.”

YSU point guard Indiya Benjamin, who led the Penguins with 12 points and scored the 1,000th point of her career

“We were playing good defense, but we kind of relaxed a little bit (in the third quarter) and  gave up some baskets. You can’t do that. We have to come out after halftime and keep it going the entire time. You can’t relax and have a letdown.”

***

From McKenna Stephens, the Kent State graduate student forward who returned for a redshirt season after getting her public health degree in May.

“I’m having a blast. This team is really close. I was worried about what the freshman would think of me popping back, but they’ve taken it really well. I’m really close with a couple of them.”

From KSU head coach Todd Starkey, on a homecoming of sorts to YSU’s Begley Center

“My dad was a professor at Youngstown State for 30 years. I grew up shooting baskets in this gym. This is the first time I’ve ever coached here, and it feels a little strange.”

Starkey’s hometown is nearby Canfield, where he played high school basketball.

Alexa Golden in action vs. Youngstown State. Her 17 points were a career high. She also had seven rebounds and four steals. Photo by Carter Adams, KentWired (website of Kent State student media.)

After Jordan Korinek scored a career-high 29 points in Kent State’s opening game victory over Northern Kentucky Saturday, KSU coach knew Youngstown would build its game plan to stop her.

So Starkey and the Flashes built their game plan around that expectation, and it was McKenna Stephens and Alexa Golden who led them to a 55-44 victory Tuesday night.

Korinek, who has scored 1,194 points in her KSU career, got off just six shots and scored 10 points.

But Golden, a junior guard known as a defensive specialist, had the best offensive game of her career with 17 points. Stephens had 16. Both had seven rebounds. On Saturday, Stephens — Kent State’s third leading scorer a year ago — took only four shots. Golden didn’t take any in KSU’s 59-54 victory.

Golden said she “knew she had let my team down by not being aggressive enough'” in the opener, and she wasn’t going to let that happen again.

Starkey said the team got extra motivation from a newspaper story in which YSU coaches said they thought if they stop Korinek, they were probably going to win.

“McKenna and Lex were like, ‘Hey, we were part of a championship team. We can play, too,” he said. “And they played with great intensity and focus.”

In the second half, Starkey said, the Flashes would start a play on one side of the court and reverse it to Golden.

“She attacked after the defense had shifted, and it was a lot easier to drive,” he said. “She was able to score and get to the free-throw line,” where she made eight of 10 shots.

In the first half, Starkey said, the Flashes moved Korinek away from the basket and got the ball to Stephens. “And when she started knocking shots down, it opened things up,” he said.

“We pulled Jordan out,” Stephens said. “and I think their defense was confused on what to do since they couldn’t just stop her.”

It took until the second quarter for the Flashes to figure things out.

They were down 11-2 after the first 10 minutes.

“We’ve had a bad offensive quarter in both our scrimmages and both our games so far,” Starkey said. “We’ve got to get that figured out. We can’t get in a hole and hope we’re going to be able to work our way out every night.

“But I am really proud of how our players did not blink when they were down. They just kept on forging ahead. We got defensive stop after defensive stop, and things started break open for us a little bit offensively.”

It was Kent State’s defense that pulled them out of Tuesday’s hole. The 44 points YSU scored were the fewest Kent State had allowed in a game since 2011. Youngstown made just 30 percent of its shots and 20 percent of three-pointers, and YSU is a team that builds its offense around long-range shooting.

“Our defense was phenomenal in the second, third and fourth quarter,” Starkey said. “We did a great job of handling their three-point shooting. They still shot 25, but I don’t think they got more than three or four open looks.”

Kent State is 2-0 on the young season. Youngstown State is 0-2.

Box score

Notes

• The Flashes made 39 percent of their shots for the second game in a row. They were 3 of 13 on three-pointers. Stephens made two of her for three-point shots.
• Kent State outrebounded YSU 37-31. The Flashes scored 18 points off of 19 Youngstown turnovers. The Penguins scored 10 points off of 18 KSU turnovers.
• Golden had four steals for Kent State.
• The Flashes won a multitude of games at the foul line last season as Larissa Lurken set an NCAA record for foul shots made in a season. They won Tuesday’s game on free throws, outscoring Youngstown State 16-5. Golden was eight of 10, Korinek four of four and Naddiyah Cross four of six. The Flashes hit 11 of 12 foul shots in the fourth quarter.
• Starting lineup was Korinek, Stephens, Golden, Cross and Ali Poole, the same as in the opener.
• Freshman Monique Smith had four points and three rebounds in 10 minutes. 6-4 junior center Merissa Barber-Smith had four rebounds and a blocked shot in 12 minutes. Tyra James had four rebounds and two assists in 11.
• Last year Kent State averaged 71 points a game and give up 70.6. In two games this season, the Flashes have averaged 57 and given up 48.
• Youngstown State was led by guard Indiya Benjamin with 12 points. Her last basket gave her an even 1,000 in her career.

Game story from the Kent State website.

Game story from Kentwired, website of KSU student media.

Game story from the Youngstown State website.

Kent State heads to Akron this weekend for two games — but not against the Zips. It’s the “Akron Classic,” in which the Flashes will play Florida Gulf Coast at 5 p.m. Friday and Southeastern Louisiana at noon Saturday. Akron plays the same teams on the opposite days. Next year Akron and Kent will play a similar tournament in Kent.

When the KSU women beat Youngstown State 75-60 in Kent last year, it was a bit of revenge for a 30-point pounding by the Penguins a year ago and a 19-point defeat the year before that.

But the YSU team the Flashes will play Tuesday in Youngstown Tuesday should be much better.

When Kent State played the Penguins last year, Youngstown State was without three of its top players. Nikki Arbanas, the team’s top perimeter defender and top returning 3-point shooter, tore her ACL on the first day of fall 2016 practice. Sarah Cash, the team’s top interior defender and a preseason first-team all-Horizon League pick, was out with a knee injury and didn’t play for the rest of the season. Fifth-year Kelsea Newman had torn her ACL in YSU’s first game. The three had combined for more than 1,000 points the previous season.

Youngstown State, which had been to postseason tournaments three of the four previous years, went on to finish 9-21.

Arbanas and Cash are back. So are Alison Smolinski, Indiya Benjamin and and Mary Dunn, all of whom averaged more than 10 points a game last season, and transfer Josie Fisher, who averaged 10 points a game as a freshman at Fort Wayne.

And YSU has an excellent coach in John Barnes, whom Kent State had chased before it hired Todd Starkey in 2016.

Youngstown State lost its opener Friday to Pittsburgh of the Big East, 66-58. YSU took a 10-point lead in the first quarter, but Pittsburgh scored 16 points off of 20 Youngstown turnovers and outshot and outrebounded the Penguins. YSU, which relies heavily on three-point shooting, was 6 of 28 from that distance.

Kent State forced 21 turnovers in its opening 59-54 victory at Northern Kentucky Saturday, and held NKU to 7 of 26 three-point shooting.

But Starkey and senior forward Jordan Korinek said they were disappointed in the game, in which Kent State came out slow and trailed 34-25 at halftime.

But the Flashes played well in the second half, especially the final 15 minutes. In that time, they outscored Northern Kentucky 25-11, scored eight points off seven turnovers and held the Norse to 3 of 26 shooting. They consistently got the ball to Korinek, who scored a career-high 29 points.

At Youngstown State, Korinek will face Dunn, a 6-3 sophomore forward  who was Horizon League freshman of the year last season. She averaged 11.3 points a game then and had four points and had four rebounds in 17 minutes against Pittsburgh. Cash came off the bench and had 12 points and four rebounds. How well they can contain Korinek will be a key to Tuesday’s game.

Getting scoring elsewhere also will be important for Kent State. Ali Poole had 12 points Saturday but was just 4 of 16 shooting. No one else but point guard Naddiyah Cross, who has never been a scorer, took more than four shots. McKenna Stephens, last year’s third-leading scorer, took only three shots. Tyra James, third-leading scorer two years ago, took only four. Starter Alexa Golden didn’t take a shot at all in her 22 minutes.

But the biggest factor will be which Kent State team shows up: the sluggish one that was outhustled and outplayed by Northern Kentucky Saturday or the team that held NKU to 20 points in the second half.

To follow the game

The game starts at 5:15 p.m. and is the first of a doubleheader with the YSU men’s team, which plays Franciscan. If you plan to go, here are directions from the YSU website.

The game is on ESPN3. You can watch it online if you subscribe to ESPN on cable or satellite TV.

Audio starts at about 5 p.m on Golden Flash iHeart Radio.

Live statistics will be available through the Youngstown State website.

Preview from the YSU website, including links to its roster and schedule.

Preview from the Kent State website, including links.

Kent State next plays two neutral court games at Akron’s James A. Rhodes Arena on Friday against Florida Gulf Coast (26-9 last season) and Saturday against Southeastern Louisiana (5-24 in 2016-17).

As quoted on the university’s student news media website after Kent State’s 59-54 victory Saturday.

Head coach Camryn Whitaker:

“You’ve got to give a lot of credit to Kent State. They went to their first team all-conference player [Jordan Korinek] in the second half and we really didn’t have an answer for her.”

“We are very inexperienced. I refuse to use that as an excuse because we have good players that know how to win, and we will continue to improve.”

Redshirt sophomore guard Molly Glick, who led the Norse in scoring with 13:

“We didn’t shoot very well in this game. We’ve got to get in the gym, get some extra shots up and take care of the ball.”

Down 10 points halfway through the third quarter, the Kent State women’s basketball team held Northern Kentucky to 3 of 26 shooting for the rest of the game and won its season opener, 59-54.

Other than that defense and a career-high 29 points by senior forward Jordan Korinek, it was not an impressive performance for the Flashes, who return four starters from the team that went 19-13 and won the MAC East last season. Northern Kentucky was 9-22 last year but has an overwhelmingly new roster that includes seven freshmen.

Kent State, a team taller than NKU, was outrebounded 21-7 in the first half and outhustled through much of the game.

“We had a look on our face the whole first half like, ‘What’s going on here? We should be in this game,” Starkey said in his postgame radio interview on Golden Flash iHeart Radio. “Well, when another team outworks you, you don’t deserve to be in the game.

“When we started to match their intensity, better things happened.”

Starkey said he’s made it quite clear to the team he’s not happy with the way they played. He called his talk with them at halftime, when NKU led 34-25, “spirited.”

Northern Kentucky had a 44-34 lead at the 4:47 media timeout in the third quarter. Kent State held the Norse to one point for the next 10 minutes and had a 49-45 lead with five minutes to go in the game.

“Our offensive execution was better,” Starkey said. “Our defense was better. I wouldn’t call any of it good.

“Last year we obviously relied on Larissa Lurken late in the shot clock, and now we have to figure out who our go-to player is going to be late in the shot clock. Until we get some of those issues solved, the biggest thing is just the effort.

“We’ve got to get that fixed because we have a really difficult schedule coming up.”

The Flashes play at Youngstown State Tuesday against a team rebuilt after an injury-damaged season last season. On Friday the play Florida Gulf Coast, a team that was 26-9 and an NCAA qualifier last year.

In the second half Saturday, Kent State turned around major ball handling and rebound problems.

Rebounding in the second half was almost even (25-24 NKU), and the Flashes got important rebounds late in the game. Kent State had 12 turnovers in the first half, only two in the second.

Offensively, Korinek was the story of the game. She made 8 of 15 shots (2 of 2 on three-pointers) and 11 of 13 free throws. Korinek also had two blocks and four rebounds in 36 minutes.

“We have to play through Jordan,” Starkey said. “We did that early. They made some adjustments, and we got away from going inside.”

In the second half, the coach said, “We started to run some more aggressive action to Jordan and got very specific about where we wanted to get the basketball. And she was able to score and get to the foul line.”

Sophomore guard Ali Poole had 12 (4 of 15 shooting, 2 of 8 three-pointers), along with two steals and four rebounds in 38 minutes. McKenna Stephens led the Flashes with eight rebounds, six in the second half. Senior guard Naddiyah Cross had six assists and four steals.

“I’m pleased with the win,” Starkey said. “I’m happy with finding a way to win an ugly game.”

“We’ve got a lot to work on,” Korinek said. “I’m happy we got the W. You kind of move forward and learn from it.”

Notes

Starting lineup with Korinek, Stephens, Cross, Poole and junior guard Alexa Golden. All but Poole started last season.

Freshmen Monique Smith and Kasey Toles saw their first first college action. Smith was 2 for 2 shooting with a rebound and a steal (and four fouls) in 12 minutes. Toles had one rebound in six minutes.

Guard Tyra James, playing her missing last season with a knee injury,  played 16 minutes and had four points and five turnovers. When Cross wasn’t in the game, she and Poole led the offense.

The Flashes made 35 percent of their shots (17 of 48) and 5 of 13 three-pointers (39 percent), They outscored Northern Kentucky 22-18 in the paint and 18-16 off turnovers. KSU had five second-chance points, NKU 13.

Northern Kentucky was led by redshirt sophomore Molly Glick, who had 15 points (but six turnovers). 5-10 freshman Kailey Coffey had 12 rebounds. Freshman Grayson Rose, who played for Garfield High School in Garrettsville, not far from Kent, had three points and five rebounds.

The Norse shot 31 percent for the game, 18 percent in the second half, and were 5 of 26 (27 percent on three-pointers).

The Flashes play at 5:15 p.m. Tuesday at Youngstown State, the first of a double header for YSU teams. The Penguins lost at Pittsburgh, 66-58, Friday.

Box score