Miami made 9 of 17 three-point shots while Kent State made just one of 13 as the Flashes fell to the Redhawks, 65-59, at the M.A.C. Center Saturday.

Miami also outscored the Flashes 16-8 off turnovers.

Kent State dominated scoring in the paint and in rebounding but saw its record drop to 4-10 in the MAC and 11-15 overall. Miami is 8-6 and 16-9.

Jordan Korinek and Megan Carter each had 17 points for the Flashes. McKenna Stephens had nine points, 11 rebounds, three assists and two blocks.

Kent State held Miami’s Lauren Dickerson, the conferences second-leading scorer to 13 point on four of 13 shooting. But four other Redhawks scored in double figures.

Box score

DETAILED STORY WILL FOLLOW, INCLUDING QUOTES FROM COACH TODD STARKEY

 

Miami’s women’s basketball team, Kent State head coach Todd Starkey says, is having the kind of the season the Flashes did last year.

The Redhawks are Saturday’s opponent at the M.A.C. Center. They were 5-13 and ninth in the Mid-American Conference last season and 11-21 overall. With pretty much the same players — and a new coach, they have jumped to an 7-6 conference record and a tie for second in the MAC East. Overall Miami is 15-9.

Last season, Starkey’s first in Kent, the Flashes went from a 6-23 record to 19-13 and first in the East. The starting lineup was identical to the previous season.

Miami’s new coach is Megan Duffy, a former assistant at Michigan, George Washington and St. John’s. She won for non-conference games at Miami than any other first-year coach in the school’s history.

Her top weapon is sophomore guard Lauren Dickerson, a 5-3 point guard who is second in the MAC in scoring at 20.9 points a game (all games). Last season Dickerson was the league’s freshman of the year.

One other player averages in double figures for the Redhawks. She’s 6-foot junior forward Kendall McCoy, who scored 12.5 points and leads the team in rebounding at 6.3 per game.

Kent State’s Jordan Korinek is right behind Dickerson in MAC scoring at 20.6 points per game. Grad student McKenna Stephens and redshirt sophomore Megan Carter average just over 10 points a game.

The Flashes have lost three in a row and four of their last five. They’re 4-9 and 10th in the MAC overall (fourth in the East) and 11-14 on the season.

To follow the game

Action starts at about 4:30 p.m. at the M.A.C. Center. It’s the second game of a double header with the KSU men, who play Akron at 2 p.m. One ticket gets you into both games.

The game is Kent State’s Play4Kay game, an annual event for most women’s teams that raises awareness and funding for women’s cancer research and honors female cancer survivors. You can donate to the fundraising through this link.

Video is through the KSU website. (It’s one of the few KSU games this season not on ESPN3.

Audio starts at about 4:15 p.m. on Golden Flash iHeart Radio and WHLO.

Live statistics will be available through the Kent State website.

Preview from the Kent State website, including links to statistics, roster, schedule/results, record book and more.

Preview from the Miami website, including links.

MAC statistics, including standings.

 

 

All season Kent State has been looking for a consistent second and third scorer.

With five games to play, the Flashes still haven’t found one.

Forwards Jordan Korinek (21 points) and McKenna Stephens (14) led the Flashes Saturday, but no one else scored in double figures in a 78-65 loss to Ohio at the M.A.C. Center.

Kent State fell to 4-9 on the Mid-American Conference and slipped to 10th place in the league. The Flashes are 11-14 overall and have lost three in a row.

Ohio is 7-5 in the MAC and 13-10 overall.

“We have to have better balance in scoring,” coach Todd Starkey said. “Someone has got to step up offensively.”

Korinek has scored in double figures in all except one of KSU’s 25 games this season. But no one else has scored at least 10 points in even half of the team’s games. Six players besides Korinek have done it at least once.

It limits the Flashes in a number of ways.

Korinek is primarily an inside scorer. Other teams try to crowd her in in the paint and force Flashes to shoot from the outside. KSU is last in the MAC in three-point percentage and second to last in three-pointers per game. No Kent player is in the MAC’s top 10 in either three-point baskets per game or three-point percentage.

It makes it hard when the Flashes fall behind.

“We don’t have the offensive firepower to really catch people,” Starkey said. “We have to start the game with the lead and play great defense to keep that lead. That’s when we’ve been most successful.”

Ohio led 21-13 after the first quarter Saturday. The game stayed between four and nine points until the middle of the fourth quarter, when OU went on an 8-0 run. Kent State had rallied to come within 60-56.

“We were trading baskets with them,” Starkey said. “When we were good offensively, they were good offensively. When we were good defensively, they were, too.”

Ohio spent much of the game trying to isolate its quick guards against Kent State defenders and scored on drives to pass for three-point shots. OU’s Cierra Hooks, perhaps the MAC’s leading candidate for freshman of the year, scored 16. Guard Amani Burke scored 20 off the bench. Guard Katie Barker made four of eight three-point baskets.

“All four of those threes were miscommunication on defense and not paying attention to the scouting report,” Starkey said. “We didn’t make her drive one time, and that’s what we talked about.”

In all, Ohio made nine three-point shots. Kent State made four of its 10 three-point attempts. That was substantially better than the five for 40 KSU had done in its previous two games, but, Starkey said, “We’re not that type of team.”

Box score 

Notes

• Ohio is second in the MAC in turnover margin, but the Flashes played them evenly Saturday. Each team had 20; Ohio scored 16 off them and Kent State 15.
• But the Bobcats played much better than their averaging in rebounding, beating KSU on the board 34-33. They had been last in the conference in rebounding margin; Kent State was second. Korinek had 11 rebounds for the Flashes, giving her her third double-double of the season.
• Alexa Golden had five steals and Stephens three blocked shots, both one off career highs. Megan Carter had five assists.
• Kent State made 22 of 57 shots for 38.6 percent, about its average. But the Flashes were 5 of 12 (29 percent) in the fourth quarter when OU pulled away. Ohio was 25 for 55 for 45.5 percent.
• Larissa Lurken, the MAC’s player of the year last season when Kent State won the East Division, watched the game from the stands behind the Kent bench. She had the weekend off from a nursing job in Minneapolis.

The Flashes have a midweek bye and play Miami at home on Saturday. Miami is 7-6 in the MAC and 15-9 overall. The Redhawks lost at home Saturday to East leader Buffalo, 64-49.

The view from Ohio

Ohio coach Bob Bolden, quoted on the OU team webite.

“We played a gross second quarter offensively, and we rebounded from that. We showed the right balance of patience and aggressiveness. They finished it. Down the stretch they hit their free throws when they needed to make free throws, they handled pressure well. I was proud of them for that.”

Other MAC scores

• Central Michigan (12-0, 20-3) 85, Toledo (6-7, 15-10) 47 at Central.
• Northern Illinois (5-8, 13-11) 73, Bowling Green (2-11, 10-14) 68 at Northern.
• Buffalo (10-2, 19-4) 64, Miami (7-6, 15-9) 49 at Miami.
• Ball State (9-5, 20-4) 81, Western Michigan (7-6, 14-11) 71 at Western.

Akron (1-11, 7-16) plays at Eastern Michigan (5-6, 9-13) on Sunday.

MAC standings

 

 

Ohio went on an 8-0 run after Kent State had closed Saturday’s game to four points and beat the Flashes, 78-65, at the M.A.C. Center.

KSU led only in the first minutes of the game, but the scoring margin was mostly between four and nine points until Ohio’s streak with about five minutes to go.

The defeat drops Kent’s record to 4-9 in the Mid-American Conference and 11-14 overall. The Flashes have lost three games in a row and four of their last five. Ohio is 7-5 in the conference and 13-10 overall.

Jordan Korinek led Kent State with 21 points and 11 rebounds. McKenna Stephens had 14 and four assists. Alexa Golden had five steals.

Four Ohio players scored in double figures, led by Amani Burke with 20 points off the bench.

Box score 

DETAILED STORY WITH QUOTES FROM COACH TODD STARKEY WILL FOLLOW

Kent State is starting to run low on chances for conference wins.

The Flashes are 4-8 in the MAC (11-13 overall). They’re tied for ninth in the conference. They have only one game left against a team was a worse record (Akron in two weeks).

Saturday they host a team that’s not too far above them in the standings — Ohio, which comes to Kent with a 6-5 conference record (12-10 overall). But OU has played a tougher schedule —31st hardest in the country, according to WarrenNolan.com, the RPI rating site I follow most closely. Kent’s schedule is rated 110th.

OU is coming off a couple of hard games, including a 74-72 defeat at the hands of league-leading Central Michigan on Wednesday. Last Saturday the Bobcats beat the No. 3 team in the conference, Ball State, 80-76. Both games were in Athens.

Ohio runs a four-guard offense and pays for it in rebounding, where the Bobcats are last in the conference at minus-7.7. But they make up for it in ball hawking, ranking second in the MAC in turnover margin (plus-5.45) and turnovers forced per game (21.8).

The turnover numbers are almost identical to those at Buffalo, which routed the Flashes 80-42 in Buffalo on Wednesday. But for one of the few times this season, the Flashes handled their opponent’s pressure, committing only 14 turnovers, tied for their second lowest of the season and the fewest against Buffalo all season.

But Kent State didn’t do much else well, shooting only 21 percent from the floor and being outrebounded 51-39. The rebounding struggles were unusual for the KSU this season as the Flashes are second in the conference in rebounding margin (plus-4.6).

But Buffalo has a strong, physical front line. Ohio does not. Ohio’s defense also isn’t statistically as strong as Buffalo’s, ranking 10th in field goal defense at 42.5 percent.

So if the Flashes can even get back to average in shooting, rebound as well as they have against similar teams and control their turnovers the way they did in Buffalo, they’ll have a shot Saturday.

Ohio’s leading scorer, freshman Cierra Hooks, comes off the bench and averages 14.3 points and 3.5 steals a game.  Second leading scorer is sophomore guard Amani Burke at 12.6 and third is junior guard Dominique Doseck at 10.5. Doseck is Ohio’s top three–point shooter.

Kent State needs to get some scoring from its guards. Senior forward Jordan Korinek leads the Flashes and is second in the MAC at 22.5 points per game. But against Buffalo, Kent State’s guards combined for four baskets.

To follow the game

Action starts at 2 p.m. at the M.A.C. Center.

Video is on ESPN3. You can follow it online if your subscribe to ESPN on cable or on satellite.

Audio starts at about 1:45 p.m. on Golden Flash iHeart Radio and WHLO 640.

Live statistics will be available through the Kent State website.

Preview from the Kent State website, including links to statistics, roster, schedule/results, record book and more.

Preview from the Ohio website, including links.

MAC statistics, including standings.

 

 

 

 

The statistic we worried about most in Kent State’s game at MAC East leader Buffalo actually wasn’t bad at all.

KSU committed just 14 turnovers against the Bulls, who force an average of 23 per game. That’s eighth in the country.

But the Flashes lost the game in about every other way possible in an 80-42 rout. It was Kent State’s worst defeat of the season.

The Flashes made just 21 percent of their shots, their lowest percentage in at least five years. That time includes some of the team’s worst records in the last three decades.

KSU’s record drops to 4-8 in the conference. The eight defeats are three more than the Flashes lost in the MAC all last season in their run to an unexpected East Division title. Kent State is tied for ninth in the overall MAC standings, a game and a half away from eighth and the final spot to host a home game in the league tournament.

“We knew this was a good Buffalo team and it was going to be a tall task,” Starkey said in his postgame radio interview on Golden Flash iHeart Radio. “But I don’t care what anyone says; they’re not 38 points better than we are.

“There’s two parts to this: We have to compete at a higher level, and I have to coach better. The things we’re doing every day in practice simply aren’t translating into games.

“At some point, we’re going to break loose from our inconsistent play. So when we get back to the M.A.C. Center tomorrow, we’re going to have another spirited practice and get ready for Ohio on Saturday.”

Starkey couldn’t explain the poor shooting, almost 18 percentage points below KSU’s average. But he said it affected everything else in the game.

“Some players get so down on missed shots that it affects what’s going on last the other end of the court,” Starkey said.

Kent’s Jordan Korinek, the MAC’s second leading scorer, hit her conference average of 22 points. But no other KSU player scored more than five.

Korinek picked up two early fouls and sat out much of the first quarter. But when KSU fell behind 25-9 after the quarter, Starkey put her back in and she scored 10 points in the second quarter. But she was an uncharacteristic six for 15 from the field (she averages about 50 percent) and missed four free throws (she had made 31 of her last 33).

Buffalo had four players in double figures, led by center Cassie Oursler’s 19 points and 14 rebounds — in just 18 minutes. Point guard Stephanie Reid had nine assists, including her career 600th, in 25 minutes.

Every person on Buffalo’s roster played at least eight minutes.

Kent State also played everyone on its bench.

“I did not come to Kent State to play this type of basketball,” Starkey said. “We’re going to get it fixed. That’s for sure.”

Box score

Notes

• Buffalo outrebounded KSU, which had led the MAC in rebounding margin, 51-39. Alexa Golden had 10 rebounds for KSU, the third double-digit rebounding game for the 5-9 junior guard this season.
• The Bulls outscored the Flashes in the paint 40-20 and 12-0 on fast-break points. They had 21 assists on 30 baskets. Kent State had five assists.
• Buffalo leads the MAC in steals, but Kent State had nine on Wednesday to the Bulls’ five. Buffalo outscored KSU off turnovers 13-10.

Kent State is home Saturday to play Ohio at 2 p.m. The Bobcats are third in the MAC East at 6-5 (12-10 overall) and lost to first-place Central Michigan (10-0, 19-3) by just 74-72 in Athens Wednesday.

Other MAC scores

• Miami (7-5, 15-8) 67, Toledo (6-6, 15-9) 58 at Miami.
• Northern Illinois (4-8, 12-11) 84, Akron (1-11, 7-16) 61 at Akron.
• Western Michigan (7-5, 14-10) 81, Bowling Green (2-10, 10-13) 67 at BG.
• Ball State (8-4, 19-4) 91, Eastern Michigan (5-6, 9-13) 85 at Ball State.

MAC standings

 

 

 

 

 

MORE TO COME

 

Buffalo held Kent State to 21 percent shooting — lowest in at least five years — in an 80-42 rout of the Flashes in Buffalo Wednesday.

It was KSU’s worst loss of the season and second largest margin of defeat in Todd Starkey’s two years as coach in Kent. The worst was a 42-point loss to Baylor, ranked No. 5 in the country at the time last year.

The Bulls ran to a 25-9 first-quarter lead. KSU played them fairly evenly in the second and third quarters but then were blown out 24-10 in the fourth quarter.

Jordan Korinek, the MAC’s second-leading scorer, had 22 points for Kent State. But no other KSU player had more than five.

Kent State made one of 17 three-point shots after making four of 23 Saturday against Northern Illinois.

Buffalo leads the MAC East and is second in the MAC overall with an 10-2 conference record (19-4 overall). Kent State is 4-8 in conference play and 11-13 for the season.

Box score

DETAILED STORY TO FOLLOW, INCLUDING POSTGAME QUOTES FROM TODD STARKEY

Kent State travels Wednesday to Buffalo, the MAC East leader and clearly one of the top three teams in the the conferences.

The Bulls are 8-2 in the league, losing only to undefeated Central Michigan, and, a little inexplicably, to Northern Illinois, the last-place team in the West. Overall Buffalo is 17-4, the best start in program history.

Kent State is 4-7 in the MAC and 11-12 overall. The Flashes have been wildly inconsistent all season. The last four games are a good example. KSU beat 15-8 Toledo at Toledo on Jan. 24, then lost to 7-15 Akron at Akron, beat Bowling Green Jan. 31 by the largest margin of the season, then lost to Northern Illinois at home on Saturday.

Buffalo does a lot of things well, but the one that most threatens Kent State most is force turnovers. The Bulls are eighth in the nation in turnovers caused and have forced at least 20 in 12 of their last 13 games.

Kent State is second to last in the conference in turnover margin in conference games at minus-3.45 a game. Buffalo is plus-6.0.

The Bulls start three seniors and have two more than play major minutes off the bench. Their best player, though, is a junior transfer from Massachusetts, 5-9 junior guard Cierra Dillard. She averages 15.7 points, 4.8 assists and 3.1 steals per game. Point guard Stephanie Reid is one of the best in the MAC, averaging 7.2 assists and 11.1 points per game. 6-3 senior Cassie Oursler and 6-1 sophomore Summer Hemphill are among the best post combinations in the conference.

Kent State has gotten a lot of scoring from 6-3 senior forward Jordan Korinek (22.5 points per game in league games, second in the MAC) but has struggled to find consistent scoring elsewhere. Megan Carter (11.6 per game) and McKenna Stephens (10.5) also average in double figures. Carter has scored as many as 27, but also scored two against Bowling Green a week ago. Stephens has scored as many as 17 in the conference and as few as six. KSU’s fourth leading scorer, Ali Poole, has ranged from two to 17 points in the MAC.

To follow the game

Action starts at 7 p.m..

Video is on ESPN3. You can follow it online if your subscribe to ESPN on cable or on satellite.

Audio starts at about 6:45 p.m. on Golden Flash iHeart Radio and WHLO 640.

Live statistics will be available through the Buffalo website.

Kent State website, including links to statistics, roster, schedule/results, record book and more.

Preview from the Buffalo website, including links.

Conference-game only MAC statistics, including standings.

 

 

Kent State took 23 three-point shots against Northern Illinois Saturday.

The Flashes made four.

Such statistics do not often make for a winning game, and the Flashes lost to Northern Illinois 72-62 at the M.A.C. Center.

The loss drops Kent State to 4-7 in the conference and 11-12 over all. Four of KSU’s losses have to teams with a worse MAC records than the Flashes. The Flashes are ninth in the league, a game and a half behind Eastern Michigan and two games behind Miami, Toledo and Western Michigan. That’s significant because a team has to finish at least eighth to get a home-court game in the first round of the MAC Tournament, and the home court is usually a significant advantage.

Saturday Northern Illinois jumped to a 19-15 first quarter lead. Kent State struggled on offense most of the afternoon and NIU successfully ran on KSU after missed baskets, outscoring the Flashes 19-4 on fast-break points.

“We talked about their transition for two-and-a-half days,” coach Todd Starkey said. “It was the focus of what we did in practice. I don’t know the answer (of why NIU was able to score so easily).”

On offense, Kent State struggled with NIU’s zone defense and especially struggled when Jordan Korinek, KSU’s leading scorer, spent extended minutes on the bench with foul trouble.

“They know they can’t guard us man-to-man because of Jordan,” Starkey said. “So they sagged on us, and we settled for contested threes and didn’t make them.”

Taking shots like that, Starkey said, “is just hoping.”

“Then we didn’t get offensive rebounds on those misses, and we didn’t defend in transition.”

Kent State tied the game 39-39 in the middle of the third quarter. But Alexa Golden was called for a foul on defending a layup — one of those “block/charge” calls that are among the most difficult decisions for officials. NIU’s Gabby Nikitinaite made both free throws, and the Huskies scored the next 10 points.

“Definitely a turning point,” said Starkey, who doesn’t complain about officiating to the press but complained vociferously to the referees at the time.

Kent State rallied again to pull within four points halfway through the fourth quarter, but NIU again pulled away.

Starkey said things went better for the offense when the Flashes attacked.

“It’s no secret the game usually goes to the aggressor,” he said. “Instead of settling for threes, we started getting downhill, driving the basketball and getting open looks. It’s what we ask them to do at halftime — break down the defense and start to get open.”

Sophomore guard Megan Carter led the Flashes in scoring with 19 points.

“With Jordan on the bench, you have to step up,” she said. “Coach was in my ear the whole game, ‘Be aggressive, be aggressive, be aggressive.'”

Carter started her second straight game (and second of her career) as did freshman guard Erin Thames.

Thames had 13 points — more than she had scored in her previous 10 games combined. She made three three-point baskets.

“The game is starting to come more natural for me,” she said. “I’ve been getting up more shots in my off-time, outside of practice, and it’s just starting to come to me now.”

Starting, she said, is “great.”

Box score

Note

• Korinek finished with 14 points and nine rebounds in 27 minutes. She and NIU’s Courtney Woods have been contending for top scorer in the MAC. Woods beat her Saturday with 21 points, nine in the first quarter.
• KSU made 41 percent of its shots, slightly better than its season average. Northern made 47 percent, about three points above its average.
• NIU had lost seven games in a row, five of them by fewer than five points. “They’re a good offensive team,” Starkey said. “They were going to beat someone.”
• The Flashes outrebounded Northern 34-30, the 16th time in 22 games they’ve done that this season. But NIU outrebounded KSU 19-15 in the first half when the Huskies built their lead.
• Both teams made 10 free throws, and Kent State had 18 fouls to NIIU’s 13. When KSU doesn’t outscore teams from the foul line, the Flashes struggle. Korinek, who was second in the country in made free throws going into game, made two of two Saturday.
• The win gives NIU a sweep of Kent State for the second year in a row. The Huskies beat KSU 81-79 in Dekalb on Jan. 3.
• Attendance was 546, highest of the season. It was a “She Will” game, one of a series of women’s games in all sports this season designed to promote awareness of gender equity in sports.

Kent State travels to Buffalo, the leaders in the MAC East, on Wednesday. The Bulls have the second-best conference record (to Central Michigan) at 8-2 and are 17-4 overall. They beat Toledo, 84-73, at Toledo on Saturday.

The view from Northern Illinois

Coach Lisa Carlsen, quoted on the NIU team website:

“Our energy was noticeable, and I never felt we had any panic. There were times the last couple of games you doubt what you’re doing or you worry about making a mistake, and I never saw that from us today.”

On NIU’s lineup, where Nikinaite and Riley Blackwell started for the first time:

“Whether they were starters that weren’t starting or whether they were starters inserted, you didn’t see any drop in intensity. That’s a credit to them, understanding they have to come together and continue to stay at it.”

Other MAC scores

• Ohio (6-4, 12-9) 80, Ball State (7-4, 18-4) 76 at Ohio.
• Miami (6-5, 14-8) 66, Bowling Green (2-9, 10-12) 62 at Bowling Green.
• Western Michigan (6-5, 13-10) 76, Akron (1-10, 7-15) 60 at Western.
• Buffalo (8-2, 17-4) 84, Toledo (6-5, 15-8) 73 at Toledo.
• Central Michigan (10-0, 18-3) 95, Eastern Michigan (5-5, 9-12) 72 at Eastern.

MAC standings

 

 

 

Kent State’s women’s basketball team fell behind Northern Illinois 19-13 after the first quarter, and despite a couple of second-half runs, never could catch up to Huskies.

Final score was 72-62. The loss drops the Flashes to 4-7 in the MAC and 11-12 overall. NIU is 3-8 and 11-11, The Huskies are the third team behind the Flashes in the standings that KSU has lost to. That fact is starting to put Kent State’s chance for a home game in the MAC Tournament in serious question.

Northern scored heavily on transition baskets in the first half, outscoring the Flashes 11-2 on fast-break baskets in the first 10 minutes and 19-4 for the game.

Kent State tied the game midway in the third quarter and got within four points in the middle of the fourth quarter. But NIU always bounced back with runs of its own.

Megan Carter led Kent State with 19 points. Jordan Korinek had 14 but struggled with foul trouble and played just 27 minutes. Freshman guard Erin Thames, starting her second straight game, scored 13 points — more than she had in all her previous games combined.

Courtney Woods, the MAC’s leading scorer, led Northern with 21 points, nine of them in the first quarter and 14 in the first half.

Box score

DETAILED STORY, INCLUDING QUOTES FROM CARTER, THAMES AND COACH TODD STARKEY, WILL FOLLOW.