Megan Carter drives through traffic in the fourth quarter. Carter had 17 points to lead the Flashes for the fifth time in six games. (Photo by David Dermer for the KSU athletic department.)

 

Get ready, Kent State coaches told their team. This is what the Mid-American Conference season is going to be like.

The Flashes battled Duquesne, preseason favorite in the Atlantic 10 Conference, to the final minute Wednesday before falling 77-72 at the M.A.C. Center.

“Duquesne is right up there with some of the best teams in our league,” coach Todd Starkey said. “It’s great to be able to play with them, but ultimately we want to win. So we have to learn from this. I think we will. I think our young players will understand just how tough games are in our conference.”

The loss ends a three-game winning streak for Kent, which is now 3-3. Duquesne also is 3-3, with early season losses to No. 11 Texas and 4-1 TCU.

For the last half dozen years, Duquesne has been one to the best mid-major programs in the country. The Dukes were 25-8 last season and return all five starters (though one wasn’t dressed Wednesday).

All-Atlantic 10 guard Chassidy Omogrosso led a second-half charge by the Dukes that gave them the win. Omogrosso scored 20 of her 24 points in the second half in by far her best game of the season. She had averaged six points a game and scored no more than 15 points in a game.

Duquesne used screens to get Omogrosso free for drives to the basket, where she made layups or got to the foul line.

“We didn’t defend the ball screens the right way, and she got loose,” Starkey said. “We were focused so much on the interior and their shooters that she was able to score.”

The Flashes trailed 16-7 after Duquesne hit its first four three-point shots. Then after a time out, KSU turned up its defense. The Dukes made just three-of-15 shots for the rest of the half and turned the ball over 12 times, and Kent State built a 34-29 halftime lede.

Duquesne, however, scored 24 points in the third and fourth quarters.

“They’re good,” Starkey said, “and they made adjustments. A veteran ball club like that is able to do that.”

The Dukes outscored KSU 18-9 in the first seven minutes of the fourth quarter. The Flashes closed it to 74-72 with 25 seconds to play, but Duquesne foul shots clinched the game.

Kent State made only four of 14 shots in the fourth quarter.

“I thought we got tired,” Starkey said. “We really expended a lot of energy to get to that point. We missed some threes short and didn’t finish at the basket.”

Notes

• Megan Carter led four Kent State players in double figures with 17 points but was six of 19 shooting. “They played her really physical,” Starkey said. “Megan had a lot of opportunities at the basket. They could have called some fouls there. They didn’t, She’s got to play through contact and finish those shots.” Carter also had five rebounds and four assists.
• Freshman forward Lindsey Thall had a career-high 15 on five-of-eight shooting (three-of-three three-pointers). She led KSU with six rebounds and blocked a shot.
• Freshman guard Asiah Dingle, back in the lineup after missing a game with an ankle injury, had 13 points and six assists. Junior guard Ali Poole had 10 points, including two three-pointers, and four rebounds.
• Alexa Golden and Mariah Modkins also had two three-point baskets. Overall KSU made 10 three-pointers
• Kent State scored 23 points off of 20 Duquesne turnovers. Duquesne scored 100 off of KSU’s 13 turnovers. That’s the widest margin in the Flashes’ favor in quite a while.
• KSU made 38.5 percent of its shots and the same percentage of its three-pointers. Duquesne’s shooting percentage was 48; it made 26.9 percent of its three-point shots. The Dukes outrebounded Kent 39-33.

Kent State travels to Wright State Sunday for the first of four straight road games. The Raiders are 4-3 and ranked 21st in this week’s Mid-Major Top 25.

Box score

MAC update

• Buffalo is 5-1 and was ranked second in this week’s College Insider’s Mid-Major Top 25. Senior guard Cierra Dillard scored a total of 53 points in wins over South Dakota State, another top mid-major, and Georgetown at the Southpoint Shootout in Las Vegas. Dillard leads the country in scoring at 26.6 points per game. The Bulls are sixth in the ESPN mid-major poll.
• Central Michigan is also 5-1 and ranked fifth in the mid-major poll. The Chippewas beat the ACC’s Virginia (2-5) and Chattanooga (4-4) at Virginia’s Thanksgiving tournament. CMU is fourth in the ESPN poll.
• Miami (4-1), Ohio (5-0), Northern Illinois (3-2) and Eastern Michigan (3-1) also got votes in the mid-major poll. Ohio coach Bob Boldon is on the panel that votes on the poll.

Results from Wednesday:

• Youngstown State (5-2) 72, Akron (3-1) 61 at YSU.
• Northern Illinois (3-2) 81, North Dakota State (2-5) 63 at NIU.
• Ball State (2-5) 75, Cincinnati (5-3) 63 at Ball State.
• Western Michigan (2-3) 64, Eastern Kentucky (0-6) 53 at Western.

Other Bowling Green (3-3) and Toledo (3-2) were idle Wednesday.

 

 

In honor of his 200th career victory, the women’s team insisted that coach Todd Starkey ring the victory bell after last week’s win over Youngstown State. (Photo by Austin Mariasy from the KSU website.)

 

Going into the season, it looked as if Wednesday’s game against Duquesne would be one of the toughest games on Kent State’s schedule.

The Dukes have five starters back from a team that was 25-8 and are picked to win the Atlantic 10 Conference.

But things aren’t quite as clear now. Duquesne is 2-3, with losses to TCU (4-1), Texas (6-0) and Toledo (3-2). The Dukes have beaten Mount Saint Mary’s (2-3) and Sant Francis of Pennsylvania (1-4).

Kent State is 3-2, on a three-game winning streak and coming off one of its best victories in years, a 62-34 beating of previously unbeaten Youngstown State on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. The Flashes’ two losses were to North Carolina State (6-0 and 13th in this week’s Associated Press Top 25) and North Carolina (5-2).

So we could be in for a good game at 7 p.m. Wednesday at the M.A.C. Center.

“They’ve gotten off to a bit of a rocky start, but they’re a really good team,” coach Todd Starkey said in an interview with the Record-Courier’s Allen Moff. “They’re a balanced, veteran ball club that’s used to winning. We’ve got to make sure they can’t get into a rhythm because if they do, they can make you look real bad.”

Duquesne’s best player is 5-4 senior guard Chassidy Omogrosso, a preseason all-Atlantic 10 selection. She was the team’s leading scorer from a year ago and holds Dusquesne’s record for most three-point baskets in a season. But she’s off to a slow start, averaging 6.6 points a game and shooting just 20 percent from three-point distance.

The Dukes’ leading scorer and rebounder so far is 6-3 senior forward Kadri-Ann Lass, who averages 9.6 points and 5.2 rebounds. She was a second-team Atlantic 10 preseason choice. Senior Julijana Vojinovic was a first-team pick. She’s a 5-10 guard who’s averaging 5.6 points a game. Last season she averaged 10.9.

Duquesne has 10 players who average more than 9.8 minutes per game.

Kent State will get back one of its best players. 5-4 freshman point guard Asiah Dingle, who missed the Youngstown game with an ankle injury. Dingle averages 12.8 points a game. The woman who replaced her in the starting lineup, 5-foot freshman Mariah Modkins, played very well against YSU, scoring 14 points with two three-point baskets, three assists and two steals.

Other KSU starters are likely to be:

• 6-4 senior center Merissa Barber Smith, who had 11 rebounds and five blocked shots in 15 minutes against Youngstown.
• 5-9 senior guard Alexa Golden, eighth in the MAC in steals at 2.2 a game.
• 5-7 junior guard Megan Carter, fifth in the league in scoring at 18.2 points per game.
• 6-2 freshman forward Lindsay Thall, 16th in the MAC in three-pointers at 1.8 a game and  fourth in the MAC in blocked shots at 1.6 per game.

First player off the bench is likely to be 6-foot junior Ali Poole, who is averaging about as many minutes as any starter except Carter.

Starkey’s 200th victory

KSU’s win over Youngstown State was the 200th of Starkey’s career. He’s 35-34 in three years at Kent State and was 165-95 in nine years at Division II Lenoir-Ryne in North Carolina. He then spent two years as an assistant at Indiana. Here’s what he had to say about it:

“It’s  really a tribute to the fact that I’m getting old and that I’ve coached a lot of good players. It’s a little bit sentimental to get against Youngstown State, which is kind of my hometown university.”

Starkey grew up in Canfield, and his father taught music at YSU.

The view from Youngstown

YSU coach John Barnes after the Kent State game:

“Nothing was falling. A lot of that has to do with the defense. [Kent State] is long and they’re physical.”

“At the start, they were super aggressive, and they were super physical. Usually, we’re physical ourselves. We weren’t tonight. We got pushed around.”

YSU lost its second straight to 3-3 Yale on Friday. Score was 58-56.

How to follow the Duquesne game

The game starts at 7 p.m. Wednesday at the M.A.C.C. Reserved seat tickets are $10, general admission $5.

Audio broadcast starts about 6:45 p.m. on Golden Flash iHeart Radio.

Video is through ESPN-plus, which costs $4.99 a month. The service covers about 85 percent of KSU men’s and women’s basketball games and some KSU events in other sports. It includes access to many other MAC games and those of other conferences, plus some unique programming. Here’s a Kent State Q&A on ESPN+ and a link to the KSU-Duquesne game, which will guide you through a purchase.

Live statistics are available through the KSU website.

Links

Preview from Kent State women’s website, including links to statistics, roster and more.

Preview from Duquesne website, including links.

MAC statistics, including standings.

In her first college start, freshman Mariah Modkins scored 14 points, had three assists and two steals. (Photo from KSU website by Austin Mariasy)

Kent State played its best game of the season — perhaps its best game of the decade — as it routed previously undefeated Youngstown State 62-34 Tuesday at the M.A.C. Center.

It was Kent State’s third win in a row. It came over a team that had beaten Pittsburgh from the ACC, Loyola from the Missouri Valley Conference and Robert Morris, the preseason favorite in the Northeastern Conference, by an average of 10 points.

KSU’s defense smothered a YSU offense that had averaged 74.2 points a game. The Penguins made 17.2 percent of their shots, and that includes three three-point baskets in the last three minutes. YSU went 0 for 17 shooting in the third quarter and scored only on two foul shots.

“I can’t say enough about our defensive effort,” said coach Todd Starkey, who recorded his 200th career victory and had his team insist he ring the victory bell afterwards. “I knew we had it in us. We’d seen moments of that, in the North Carolina game, in brief moments in our games over the weekend.

“This was a good sustained 40 minutes. We paid attention to our defensive game plan, and our interior defense was really good.”

Starkey said the plan was to try to play Youngstown one-on-one in the post so the Penguins couldn’t kick the ball out for open three-point shots.

Freshman forward Lindsey Thall and 6-4 senior Merissa Barber-Smith, with help from Ali Poole and Sydney Brinlee, frustrated YSU all game. Sarah Cash, a fifth-year senior and preseason all-Horizon League selection, got off only seven shots and made one of them.

“People don’t realize what a difference it meant when we lost Merissa (to a medical issue) last year,” Starkey said. “”When you don’t have to double team, it settles everything else down around it. She can contest shots, rebound and block shots.”

Barber-Smith blocked five shots and had 11 rebounds in 16 minutes. Thall blocked two shots — giving her six in two games — and had a season-best nine rebounds. “Her best post effort,” Starkey said.

Youngstown State made made six of 31 shots and two of 17 three-pointers in the first half. Kent State seemed to be able to contest every shot.

The Flashes’ offense in the first half was its best of the year. KSU made 48 percent of its shots and 63 percent of its three pointers to take a 35-16 lead at halftime.

Leading scorer Megan Carter led the team with 20 points, seven rebounds and three assists.

Kent State got a big boost from freshman Mariah Modkins, who started at point guard in place of the injured Asiah Dingle, KSU’s second leading scorer. Modkins scored 14 points on six of 12 shooting in 35 minutes. She made two three-point shots, had three assists and two steals.

“I’m not surprised by it,” Starkey said. “She’s a really good player. She did a great job picking her spots, really hawking the ball. I think her energy intensity really lifted the whole team.”

Modkins said it was “exciting to hear her name called” after playing so much less than she had in high school.

“I knew that I had to bring energy, especially on defense,” she said. “We knew that their guards were not as steady with the ball. So we had to really pressure the ball and make them uncomfortable.”

Offensively, Modkins said that after two early turnovers, she “slowed my mind down to make the right reads and get the ball where it needed to go.”

Starkey said he “wasn’t exactly happy” after the weekend victories over Northern Kentucky and Oakland.

“I knew we had better than that in us,” he said. “Our younger players didn’t get that. But Megan, Ali, Lex (senior Alexa Golden), they get it. They understood, they were nodding their heads. And I think our young players saw how bought in they were and said, ‘OK, maybe there’s something to this.'”

Starkey, Carter and Poole had all criticized the team’s toughness in interviews Sunday.

“That was the No. 1 point today — to be tough from start to finish,” Starkey said. I thought we were,” the coach said.

Box score

Notes

• The 32 points were the lowest Kent State had allowed since it beat Robert Morris 46-31 last season. That score was the lowest in more than two decades. But the Flashes’ offense was far better than in this game.
• Kent State’s offense fell off to 29 percent shooting in the second half. “In the second half, playing three games in four days caught up to us,” Starkey said.
• The Flashes  scored 12 points off of 11 YSU turnovers. Youngstown had six off of 11 KSU turnovers, Kent’s lowest number of the season. The Flashes had 20 points in the paint; Youngstown had six. KSU had 17 fast-break points, YSU five.
• Community college transfer Jess Wallis sank a three-point basket for the first points of her college career. Sophomore Monique Smith got her first points of the season on an offensive putback, one of three rebounds she had. Freshman Annie Pavlansky saw her first collegiate action.
• Everyone on the roster but Dingle played.

The Flashes are off for Thanksgiving and return to play their fourth straight home game Tuesday, Nov. 27, against Duquesne. The Dukes have all of their starters back from a team that went 25-8 last season. But so far they’re 1-3, with losses to TCU, No. 11 Texas and Toledo. After that game, Kent State travel on Dec. 3 to play their fourth Horizon League opponent, Wright State, which was picked third in the conference. (YSU was picked fourth.) Wright State also is 1-3 with losses to three good teams.

Freshman Asiah Dingle is KSU’s second-leading at 12.8 points per game. Her status for the Youngstown State game is unclear because of an ankle injury suffered Sunday. (Photo by Melanie Nesteruk/Kent Stater)

 

Kent State plays third straight Horizon League team Tuesday, but this one is likely to be a lot harder than the two the team beat last weekend.

The Flashes host Youngstown State at 5 p.m. at the M.A..C.C. in the first game of a doubleheader with the KSU men’s team, which plays Savannah State a half hour after the women end.

YSU is 4-0, with wins over Pittsburgh (2-2), Loyola (2-1), Robert Morris (1-3) and Carlow University, an NAIA school. All of the Penguins victories over Division I schools were by about 10 points.

Youngstown has won 11 of its last 12 games going back to last season. Kent State beat the Penguins 55-44 in Youngstown in its second game last year.

The Penguins have four players back with starting experience, including 6-1 redshirt senior forward Sarah Cash, who has scored 1,059 points in her career. Cash was a Horizon League preseason first-team selection. A second-team member was 5-10 point guard Chelsea Olson, who is averaging 11.8 points and 9.5 rebounds through four games.

Kent State beat Eastern Kentucky 62-61 Saturday and Oakland 75-65 Sunday in the the initial Kent State Classic tournament. Both are Horizon League members, picked to finish sixth and seventh in the league. Youngstown is predicted to finish fourth.

The Flashes may be without a key member of their lineup. Starting point guard Asiah Dingle hurt her ankle late in the Oakland game and was on crutches after the game.

If she can’t play, point duties will go to freshman Moriah Modkins and junior Megan Carter. Modkins played 15 minutes — her most of the season — against Oakland and had six points on two three-point baskets.  The 5-foot guard played for Solon High School’s state runner-up team last season.

Carter is Kent’s leading scorer at 17.8 points a game, ninth in the MAC. She’s averaged 34.5 minutes a game this season; senior Alexa Golden played 35 Sunday.

“I’d like to play Lex and Morgan for a few less minutes,” KSU coach Todd Starkey said Sunday, “but right now some of our freshmen and transfers aren’t quite ready to be in the heat of the battle.”

Freshman guard Hannah Young averages 16 minutes and six points a game. No other shooting guard has played more than a minute.

Carter and 6-4 senior Merissa Barber-Smith lead the Flashes in rebounding at 5 per game. Barber-Smith has done it in only 14 minutes per game, but she’s also scored only four points.

Golden is fourth in the conference with 2.5 steals a game. Dingle (1.8) is 14th, Ali Poole (1.5) 19th and Carter (1.3) 27th.

Thall is fourth with 1.5 blocks per game, heavily influenced by her four blocks against Oakland.

Preview from Kent State women’s website, including links to statistics, roster and more.

Preview from YSU website, including links.

MAC statistics.

To follow the YSU game

The game starts at 5 p.m. Tuesday at the M.A.C.C. Reserved seat tickets are $10, general admission $5. The men’s game at Savannah State follows a half hour after the women finish. One ticket gets you in both games.

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

Video is through ESPN-plus, which costs $4.99 a month. It covers about 85 percent of KSU men’s and women’s basketball games and some KSU events in other sports. The service includes access to other MAC games and those of many other schools, plus some unique programming. You can watch it through your cable or satellite company or the ESPN app. Here’s a Kent State Q&A on ESPN+  and a link to the KSU-YSU game. When you try to watch it, it will guide you through a purchase.

Live statistics are available through the KSU website.

 

 

 

 

 

Megan Carter had 18 points for Kent State. She leads the Flashes so far this season in scoring, assists and minutes played and is tied for the most rebounds. (Photo from KSU website.)

 

The Flashes came out of their home-court weekend with two victories, but the team still has much to work on.

Kent State beat Oakland 75-65 Sunday after a 62-61 victory over Northern Kentucky Saturday. Both teams are predicted to finish in the lower half of the Horizon League. Neither has beaten a Division I team yet. Northern Kentucky is 1-2 and Oakland 1-4.

The Flashes are 2-2. They lost games at North Carolina and North Carolina State on their opening weekend.

Kent State coach Todd Starkey and juniors Megan Carter and Ali Poole all said the team needed to show more toughness.

“I thought we did a few things better,” Starkey said, “but one of the things that we’re going to have to get solved is winning loose balls and rebounds. And we fell asleep defensively a couple of times especially in the second half.”

“We need to have a lot more toughness,” Carter said. “The teams we play are going to get better. So we’ve got to step up.”

How Poole defined toughness: “The nitty gritty. Not getting beat on defense, not letting them get the offensive rebounds, crashing for the offensive rebounds, stepping up and taking the charge.”

“We have the talent to win games,”Poole said. “We have the athleticism to win games. We can’t shoot ourselves in the foot. We hurt ourselves more this weekend than the other team doing anything spectacular against us. So as soon as we get us figured out, I think we’ll be all right.”

One more thing that shows how far KSU needs to go:

Akron, predicted to finish behind Kent in the Mid-American Conference, beat both Oakland (85-65) and Northern Kentucky (77-60) far more easily. 

For Kent State, the biggest differences between Saturday and Sunday’s wins were (1) Oakland isn’t as experienced as Northern Kentucky or as good, especially on defense, and (2) Poole, who had only four points Saturday, had 15, including three three-pointers.

“She knew she didn’t play well yesterday,” Starkey said. “Her coming back and playing with that type of intensity is important to us. We need to have that type of consistent effort from her.”

Poole said her game strategy was “crashing the boards.”

“That’s sort of my mantra,” she said. “If I get rebounds, everything else seems to kind of follow, and it helps keep my defense focused.”

Poole had seven rebounds to lead Kent State.

Carter had 18 points, leading the Flashes in scoring for the third time in four games. She also had six assists, five rebounds and a steal against one turnovers. She is averaging 17.8 points a game. Last year she averaged 10.2.

Freshman point guard Asiah Dingle, the team’s second-leading scorer at 12.8 points a game, had 15 points before going down with an ankle injury in the fourth quarter. Trainers worked on her for the rest of the game, and she met her team on crutches at center court afterwards.

Starkey said they’re still evaluating the injury, but he didn’t seem to indicate it would be a long-term problem.

Notes

• Freshman Lindsey Thall scored 11 points and blocked four shots, both career highs. She made three of 11 three-point shots and leads the team in three-point baskets (8) and attempts (25). Her six blocks also lead the Flashes. Thall’s entire old Strongsville High School team was at the game. Her mother, Dawn, is the school’s ninth grade coach and was one of the top scorers in Strongsville history as a player there.
• Back-up point guard Moriah Modkins, also a freshman, played 15 minutes, her most of the season and scored six points on two-of-three three-pointers.
• Community College transfer Sydney Brinlee, a 6-foot forward, played 13 minutes, by far her most of the season, and scored six points. “She’s a live body in there and can run the floor. She can rebound, she’s got a great voice on defense. So as she grows in confidence, I would assume that her minutes are going to increase.”
• Merissa Barber-Smith started her second game of the season with Dingle, Thall, Carter and Alexa Golden. The 6-4 senior center had six rebounds in 12 minutes.
• Starkey’s goal for the season is for the Flashes to average 75 points. This was their first game they scored in the 70s. The Flashes made 26 of 62 shots for 41.9 percent and nine of 26 three-pointers. Oakland made 36.7 percent of its field goal attempts and 47.6 percent of its three-point shots (10 of 21). The Grizzlies outrebounded Kent State 39-38 and outscored the Flashes 22-8 on second-chance points.
• KSU had six steals — its lowest total of the season — but scored 21 points on 21 Oakland turnovers. The Flashes committed 14 turnovers, equaling their lowest total of the year.
• The games were part of the “Kent State Classic,” in which the Flashes and Zips played the same teams on alternate days. Next year they’ll do the same thing at the JAR in the “Akron Classic.”
• Attendance was 821, down from 1,273 on Saturday but still more than any non-conference game in the last two years.

Kent State returns to action Tuesday with its third-straight home game against an Horizon League team. This time it’s Youngstown State, which is 4-0 and picked to finish well ahead of Oakland and Northern Kentucky in their league. The game is a first of a doubleheader with the KSU men at the M.A.C.C. Tipoff is at 5 p.m.

Box score

Other MAC results

SUNDAY

• Mississippi (3-1) 69, Western Michigan (1-3) 66 at Mississippi.
• Toledo (2-1) 65, Duquesne (1-3) 52 at Toledo.
• Ohio (3-0) 100, Eastern Kentucky (0-3) 60 at Ohio.
• Northern Illinois (2-1) 80, Northern Iowa (1-3) 59 at Northern Illinois.
• No. 3 Oregon (4-0) 1-2, Buffalo (2-1) 82 at Oregon.

SATURDAY

• Central Michigan (2-1) 108, Western Kentucky (0-4) 90 at Central.
• Eastern Michigan (2-0) 50, Illinois State (1-2) 41 at Eastern.
• Bowling Green (2-1) 61, Robert Morris (1-3) 60 at Bowling Green.
• Missouri State (1-2) 74, Ball State (1-2) 54 at Missouri State.

FRIDAY

• Miami (3-0) 78, Detroit Mercy (1-3) 59 at Detroit.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Junior guard Ali Poole hit two foul shots with five seconds left to clinch the victory. (Photo by Austin Mariasy from KSU website.)

Three minutes into the second half, Kent State was rolling.

Leading 28-23 at halftime against Northern Kentucky, the Flashes scored the first 10 points of the second half on two three-point baskets by Alexa Golden and two steals that led to layups. They led 38-23.

Then, coach Todd Starkey said, “they took their foot of the gas.”

Northern Kentucky battled back to take the lead in the fourth quarter, but the Flashes made enough plays at the end of the game to escape with a 62-61 victory in their home opener.

Kent State is now 1-2 on the season; Northern Kentucky is 1-1.

“That’s part of a young team,” Starkey said. “They don’t get how relentless some teams in college are. They’re not going away.”

Starkey delayed our postgame interview while he talked to his team. His message?

“W’ve got to be better than that,” he told them. “I thought Northern Kentucky played with better focus and intensity for most of the game. They had a really good game plan and executed it better than we executed ours.

“We’ve got a long way to go before we’re ready for the rest of our non-conference season and MAC play.”

How did the team respond?

“They owned it,” Starkey said. “They know they didn’t play particularly well. I’m proud of them for that.

“We’ll get better, without a doubt, and fix some of those mistakes.”

After KSU led by 15, Northern Kentucky outscored the Flashes 27-10 to take a 50-48 lead with six minutes the play. Kent tied the game on the next possession, and the teams were within three points of each other until junior guard Ali Poole hit two free throws with five seconds left to give KSU a 62-58 lead. NKU hit a three-point shot with less than a second left.

At their best, the Flashes showed some nice things. Freshman point guard Asiah Dingle takes the ball to the basket without fear. She and junior Megan Carter provide a strong perimeter punch. When the Flashes get steals and push the ball the way they did at the beginning of the third quarter, they’re very exciting.

KSU had 13 steals and forced 27 Northern Kentucky turnovers. That led to 23 points for the Flashes. But Starkey said that’s not enough.

“We force 27 turnovers, we have to score more than 61 points,” he said. “Steals are great. But if the steals lead to empty possessions, then it’s pointless.”

Kent State made 20 turnovers of its own. (A “horribly sloppy game,” Starkey said.)

Golden, KSU’s only senior starter, picked up two first-quarter fouls and played just six minutes in the first half. But she scored 11 with three three-pointers in the second half, her most points in a game this season.

“I let the team down in the first half,” she said in a postgame radio interview. “In the second half, I did what I could to help us win.”

“We got better ball movement.” Starkey said, “and Lex did a good job of finding space and knocking down good shots.”

“Lex is our heart and soul,” said assistant coach Mike McKee, who did the postgame interview on Golden Flash iHeart Radio while Starkey was being interviewed for ESPN3. “She brings us energy and focus and doesn’t care if she gets three threes or is scoreless.”

KSU’s rebounding, Starkey said, “was horrible.“The Norse outrebounded the Kent State 35-24.

“That’s got to get fixed,” Starkey said. “We did a lot better job of rebounding against ACC teams (in North Carolina) than we did today. That was an effort thing.”

Attendance was listed at 1,273, the biggest crowd since Starkey became coach.

“] wish we would have played better,” Starkey said, “I didn’t think we showed what we’re capable of. I hope they’ll come back and give us another chance.”

A triple header Sunday

The women should have a good crowd, at least toward the end of game, when they play Oakland Sunday in their second game of the Kent State Classic. The game starts about 1:30 p.m. Kent State’s men play Alcorn State at the M.A.C.C. a half hour after the women finish.

It’s actually a triple header. Akron’s women will play Northern Kentucky at 11, One ticket gets you in all three games.

Notes

• Akron (2-0) beat Oakland 85-65 Saturday. Oakland, which lost all five starters from last year’s 15-16 team to graduation, is 1-3.
• Dingle led the Flashes with 15 points, four assists and four steals. But she also had also six turnovers. Carter had 14 points, Golden 11 and freshman Lindsey Thall nine. Golden also had three assist and three steals. Thall, Dingle and Carter had four rebounds.
• Both teams made 43 percent of their shots. Kent was eight of 23 (34.8 percent) on three-pointers. Northern Kentucky was six of 19.

Box score

To follow the Oakland game

The game is scheduled to start about 1:30 p.m. Saturday at the M.A.C.C. Akron plays Northern Kentucky at 11 a.m. The KSU game will start a half hour after that game finishes.

General admission tickets are $10 at the M.A.C.C.

Audio broadcast starts 15 minutes before the game — likely sometime between 1:15 AND and 1:30 on Golden Flash iHeart Radio.

Video is through ESPN+, which costs $4.99 a month. It gives you access to Kent State events not on regular ESPN or other networks, including men’s and women’s basketball, football and some wrestling and gymnastics. That would include more than 85 percent of KSU men’s and women’s basketball. The service includes access to other MAC games and those of many other schools, plus some unique programming. Here’s a Kent State Q&A on ESPN+ and a link to the KSU-Oakland game. When you try to watch it, it will guide you through a purchase.

Live statistics are available through the KSU website.

Freshman forward Lindsey Thall in action against North Carolina State. Thall had 17 points in the two games in North Carolina and made three of 10 three-point shots. (Photo from KSU website.)

Kent State went on its opening road trip as major underdogs to two ACC teams. The Flashes played well at times last weekend but lost to North Carolina 73-60 and North Carolina State 78-61.

This weekend they open at home in the first “Kent State Classic” against two average Horizon League teams — Northern Kentucky (1-0 with a win over a Division II team) and Oakland (1-2).

The Flashes play NKU at about 5:30 p.m. Saturday and Oakland at about 1:30 Sunday. Times are approximate because both games start a half hour after Akron finishes its games against the same two teams at the M.A.C.C.

Coach Todd Starkey resists calling KSU a favorite.

“This team still hasn’t won a college game,” he said. “This is a talented group, but they’ve got to learn how to win. And the only way they do that is by actually accomplishing it.

“All three of these games (KSU plays Youngstown State, another Horizon team, on Tuesday) are games that we could lose if we don’t play well,

“If we play the way we did the middle 25 minutes against Carolina, I think we win all three. If we play like we did the at start the Carolina game and in most of the N.C. game, we could go 1-2 or 0-3.”

The key, he said, is “focus and intensity.”

“I think our talent is enough so if we put those two things with it, we’re going to wins the games we should win this year.”

The Flashes fell behind Carolina 18-5 but rallied to lead 52-50 with five minutes to go. They outscored North Carolina State 19-18 in the third quarter but were otherwise overmatched.

Megan Carter led Kent State with 39 points in North Carolina.

“They were two of the most complete games she’s played,” Starkey said. “She’s had some high scoring games, but defensively she’s gotten a lot better. She’s much more consistent.”

Carter, a 5-6 junior, probably played close to 20 minutes at point guard in KSU’s opening weekend. Part of the reason was foul trouble to starting point guard Asiah Dingle, a freshman. Fellow freshman Mariah Modkins is expected to be the main backup point guard, but Starkey said that against ACC competition, Kent needed Carter’s experience and size. Modkins is listed at 5-1 and at one point against North Carolina State, guarded a player a foot taller.

Carter, a 5-6 redshirt junior guard, likely will be joined in the starting lineup three other guards — Dingle, 6-foot junior Ali Poole and 5-9 senior Alexa Golden — and 6-2 freshman forward Lindsey Thall. First guard off the bench is another freshman, 5-10 Hannah Young. First post player is 6-4 senior Merissa Barber-Smith.

Kent State’s opponents this weekend are also young. Northern Kentucky starts two freshmen and two sophomores, and Oakland starts three freshmen.

About Northern Kentucky

Northern Kentucky returns nine of 10 players from a team that went 9-22 last season, including a 59-54 loss to Kent State in the season opener. The Norse finished 10th in the Horizon League last season and are picked seventh this year.

They are the sixth youngest team in the country, according to Lillie-Anne Mulligan, an assistant sports information director at Florida Atlantic, who compiled the statistic. (FAU was 12th.) In their opener, the Norse started two freshmen (both all-state point guards), two sophomores and junior guard Molly Glick. A 5-10 guard, Glick was NKU’s leading scorer last season at 12.4 points a game and was fifth in the Horizon League in three-point baskets at 2.2 a game in conference play.

One sophomore starter is is 6-3 post player Grayson Rose, who played graduated from Garrettsville High School, about 18 miles from Kent.

The Norse beat Division II Alderson Broaddus 73-32 last Friday. Eleven players played at least 12 minutes and 12 players scored. Alderson Broaddus is a Baptist College in Phillippi, West Virginia, and has about 1,000 students. It was 7-19 last season.

About Oakland

Oakland, which is just outside Detroit, was 15-17 and seventh in the Horizon League last season. It’s picked seventh against this year.

The Golden Grizzlies are 1-2, beating Grace Christian University 94-48 and losing to Central Michigan 104-61 and Indiana 69-32. Grace Christian has 900 students on its Grand Rapids, Michigan, campus and is a member of the National Christian College Athletic Association.

Taylor Jones, a 5-8 senior guard, leads Oakland in scoring (19.7 points per game), rebounding (5.3), assists (4.0) and steals (2.3).

In their most recent game, the Grizzlies started three freshmen, a junior and a senior.

About the Kent State Classic

Kent State and Akron have agreed to alternately hold “classic” events in a move to save travel costs for both them and visiting teams. Last year the “Akron Classic” including KSU, Florida Gulf Coast and Southwestern Louisiana.

To follow the games

Saturday vs. Northern Kentucky

General admission tickets are $10 at the M.A.C.C. One ticket gets you in both the Akron and Kent games. Akron tips off at 3 p.m., the KSU game a half hour after the first game finishes.

Audio broadcast starts 15 minutes before the game — likely sometime between 5:30 and 5:45 on Golden Flash iHeart Radio.

Video is through ESPN3 and is free for cable and satellite subscribers to ESPN. Link is http://www.espn.com/watch/_/id/3452943/northern-kentucky-vs-kent.

Live statistics are available through the KSU website.

Saturday vs. Oakland

The game is scheduled to start about 1:30 p.m. Saturday at the M.A.C.C. Akron plays Northern Kentucky at 11 a.m. The KSU game will start a half hour after that game finishes.

General admission tickets are $10 at the M.A.C.C. One ticket gets you in both the Akron and Kent games. (You need a different ticket than Saturday.)

Audio broadcast starts 15 minutes before the game — likely sometime between 1:15 AND and 1:30 on Golden Flash iHeart Radio.

Video is through ESPN-plus, which costs $4.99 a month. It gives you access to Kent State events not on regular ESPN or other networks, including men’s and women’s basketball, football and some wrestling and gymnastics. That would include more than 85 percent of KSU men’s and women’s basketball. The service includes access to other MAC games and those of many other schools, plus some unique programming. You can watch it through your cable or satellite company or the ESPN app. Here’s a Kent State Q&A on ESPN+. Here’s link to the KSU-Oakland game. When you try to watch it, it will guide you through the purchase.

Live statistics are available through the KSU website.

The men play on Sunday, too

In a triple header of sorts, Kent State’s men play Alcorn State a half hour after the women’s game ends Sunday. That should be between 4 and 4:30 p.m.

It’s not posted yet on the KSU website, but I’d assume one ticket will get you in all three games — Akron vs. Northern Kentucky, the KSU women vs. Oakland and the men vs. Alcorn State.

Three Flashes for fall 2019

As expected, three high school seniors signed national letters of intent to play at Kent State next school year.

They are Katie Shumate, a 5-11 guard from Newark (Ohio), Clare Kelly, a 5-8 guard from Olmsted Falls and Nila Blackford, a 6-1 forward from Louisville. Here’s a link to my story about them from Tuesday.

Starkey is very high on them and says that person for person, they may be better than the current five freshmen. I had a good interview with him and two assistants about the recruits and will post it once we get beyond these three games in the next four days.

 

Three high school seniors are expected to sign Kent State letters of intent Wednesday, the first day of the NCAA’s early signing period. They are:

• Katie Shumate, a 5-11 guard who averaged 13.8 ponts a game last year for Newark (Ohio) High School. Newark went 25-2 last season and was ranked No. 1 in Division I for much of the season. Shumate was second-team all state last season and first team as a sophomore. She was rated a three-star recruit by ESPN, whose scouting report described her as an “agile off-guard executes in half-court game. Reads the defense, delivers off the dribble to the arc, savvy.” Her father, J.R. Shumate, has been head girls coach of the powerhouse program at Newark for 15 years.
• Clare Kelly, a 5-8 guard from Olmsted Falls, averaged 12.3 points a game last season and 19 as a sophomore. She has reputation as one of best three-point shooters in Ohio. Kelly was third-team all state last season, second team as a sophomore. She played on the same AAU team as current freshman Annie Pavlansky and verbally committed to Kent State 14 months ago.
• Nila Blackford, a 6-1 forward from Louisville, Kentucky, who averaged 13.2 points a and 8.7 rebounds a game for Dupont Manual High School, a consistent power in Kentucky basketball. She was rated the second-best power forward in Kentucky prior to her junior year by one Kentucky recruiting service. When Blackford committed verbally to Kent State, Starkey tweeted a meme of a coach jumping it and down excitedly with the message “we just got a big time commit!!! #BOOM.” I’ve followed the coach on Twitter since 2016. He had never done anything like that before. (Coaches aren’t allowed to mention recruits by name until they’ve signed.)

In the stands for KSU’s game at North Carolina was university President Beverly Warren, who has been a strong support of women’s sports. She also got her undergraduate degree for North Carolina in the 1970s. (Photo from KSU Twitter feed.)

It sounds a little strange, but Kent State is off to a good 0-2 start.

In their opening weekend in North Carolina, the Flashes lost to North Carolina 73-60 and North Carolina State 78-61. Some impressions:

1. This could be very solid team. Against two good ACC teams, Kent State showed they very much belonged on the same court. The Flashes outplayed North Carolina from about six minutes into the game until the last five minutes. North Carolina State was clearly the better of the two opponents, and KSU outscored the Wolfpack 19-18 in the third quarter.

The other MAC schools to play Power Five teams were blown out. Ball State lost to Purdue 80-38 and Bowling Green to Michigan State 99-69.

2. When coach Todd Starkey said in the preseason that Megan Carter had the potential to be an all-MAC player, I didn’t know what to think. Carter was wildly inconsistent in averaging 10.2 points a game last season.

She played like an all star over the weekend. She scored 17 points against North Carolina, drawing praise of Hall of Fame coach Sylvia Hatchell (“We couldn’t stay in front of her.”) She led all scorers with 22 points at N.C. State. Her shooting waasn’t great (13 of 37), but she made 11 of 15 free throws, had six assists, 11 rebounds and three steals.

3. This freshman class is indeed good. After Carter, the next three Kent State  scorers were freshmen Asiah Dingle (22 points), Lindsey Thall (17) and Hannah Young (16).

4. Dingle, the former Boston Globe high school player of the year, struggled with fouls — some on questionable calls —  but showed impressive skills. She is fearless — and startlingly quick — in driving to the basket, no matter how good or tall the defense. From the N.C. State broadcasters: “An exciting player…quick with the ball…doesn’t play at all like a freshman.”

5. The Kent State offense didn’t come close to the 70 points Starkey wants to average this season, but the defenses the Flashes faced were better than they’ll see in the MAC (except, perhaps, for Buffalo).

The offense did look the way Starkey had described it: Lots of drives and lots of three-pointers. The drives (and Carter’s pull-up jumpers) were often productive, the three-pointers not so much. The Flashes were 13 for 48 (27.1 percent) on the weekend. In his postgame interviews, Starkey said KSU missed open threes; I thought that at times, especially against N.C. State, the Flashes just seemed to be throwing the ball up when their offense didn’t work.

Post scoring? Not much. Thall had jump two two-point baskets. Merissa Barber-Smith, the 6-4 senior who probably will start against taller lineups, had just one basket, though she did have 13 rebounds in 19 minutes on the court. Overall, KSU’s rebounding wasn’t bad against taller, more athletic players. The Flashes were outrebounded 82-73 on the weekend and had more offensive rebounds than North Carolina State (12-9).

6. The defense should be all right. Starkey had said the freshmen were having trouble adjusting to the college game, but the Flashes held Carolina to only 31 percent shooting. North Carolina State made 57 percent of its shots, but the Wolfpack won’t do that all season. Neither will Carolina shoot so badly. Average the two, and it was 44 percent shooting against the Flashes for the weekend — not too bad versus the ACC.

7. Starkey pronounced himself pleased with his team and the weekend.

“I’m definitely more optimistic and not downhearted at all,” he said after Sunday’s game. “I just have to remind myself to be patient and, and where this is headed.

“I love coaching this group. We’re real young, and we’re going to learn a lot. Our learning curve hopefully is going to be a pretty steep slope.”

The coaches are learning, too, Starkey said, “learning these new players and what they can do, what will work in certain situations and how they react in game and pressure situations.”

The view from North Carolina State

Coach Wes Moore, as quoted in the Technician, the N.C. State online student paper, after N.C. State’s victory over KSU:

“I did think the first half we played better (than in its opener against Belmont). We played with a little more energy, a little more urgency. Today I thought the second half we were a little sluggish. It was too sloppy. It wasn’t fun to watch.”

“We’d like to draw more people, so we need to play well, execute, and make it where it’s something they want to come back and see again. I don’t know that we accomplished that today.”

(This from a coach whose team just cruised to a 17-point victory.)

Notes

• North Carolina State has started the season 2-0 for the ninth straight year. The Wolfpack beat Belmont, the sixth-ranked team in the preseason Mid-Major Poll, 77-62 Wednesday. North Carolina is also 2-0, having beaten Elon, another solid mid-major, 99-69 Tuesday.
• Northwestern, a team KSU played evenly in a scrimmage 17 days ago, also is 2-0, having beaten mid-major power Green Bay on the road 57-55  and then routing No. 21 Duke 84-58 at home Sunday.
• In Raleigh, the Flashes visited the headquarters of Kay Yow Cancer Fund, who has raised millions for women’s cancers in college “Play4Kay” games. Kay Yow is a former North Carolina State coach who fought cancer for 22 years before she died in 2009.
• Kent State playing time on the North Carolina trip was Carter (74 of 80 minutes), Thall (60 minutes), senior Alexa Golden (58), Dingle (51), junior Ali Poole (47), Young (40), senior Barber-Smith (37), freshman Mariah Modkins (13), community college transfer Sydney Brinlee (11) and sophomore Monique Smith (7). Sophomore Margaux Eibel and community college transfer Jess Wallis played the last minute of the North Carolina State game.
• Modkins is listed very generously at 5-foot-1. In the North CArolina State game, she  guarded Kiara Leslie, who is a foot taller.

MAC update

MAC teams have gone 11-8 through Tuesday night, with no really special victory. Interesting games:

• Bowling Green 99, Marshall 76 at BG. In coach Robyn Fralick’s second game, Falcons (1-1) scored their most points since 2004. Freshman guard Morgan McMillen scored 32 points and made eight three-point baskets. Marshall is 0-2.
• South Dakota State 80, Central Michigan’s 71. South Dakota State (2-1) was ranked No. 2 in the preseason Mid-Major Poll. Central (1-1) was ranked No. 3. Senior Presley Hudson became CMU’s career leader in assists with 465 and three-point baskets with 304.
• Miami 60, Eastern Kentucky 44. Miami is the only 2-0 team in the MAC. Eastern Kentucky is 0-2.
• Buffalo 69, Maryland Eastern Shore 63. Buffalo (1-0) was ranked No. 4 in the mid-major poll. Eastern Shore is 0-3.
• Northern Illinois 89, Yale 80. Senior Courtney Woods scored 38 for NIU (1-1). Yale (1-1) was picked fourth in the Ivy League.
• Akron 49, North Carolina A&T 36. Akron (1-0) held A&T (0-2), the defending MEAC champions, to 12 points in second half.

MAC results so far (with links to league statistics)

MAC standings

 

Flashes host Northern Kentucky at 5 p.m. Saturday and Oakland at 1:30 p.m. Sunday in Kent State Classic.

 

Kent State statistics (with links to schedule and roster)

 

 

 

 

 

Coach Todd Starkey instructing his team. (File photo by Austin Mariasy from KSU website.)

As in its opener with North Carolina, Kent State fell well behind at North Carolina State in the first half Sunday.

Unlike the opener, the Flashes got no chance to come back against the Wolfpack, which beat the Flashes 78-61. North Carolina State, ranked 17th in the preseason Associated Poll, is 2-0.

While KSU’s opening 73-60 loss at Carolina was closer than the score (Kent led 52-50 with five minutes left), Sunday’s loss wasn’t as close. The 17-point margin came when Kent hit three three-point baskets in the last 70 seconds.

The Flashes trailed 20-7 after the first quarter and 39-20 at the half. North Carolina State shut down KSU’s offense in the first half, forcing the Flashes to take 16 of their 25 shots from three-point distance. They made only three.

Kent State actually outscored the Wolfpack 19-18 in the third quarter and 22-21 in the fourth, but the Wolfpack was in control the whole game.

“At the end of the day, they’re just better than we are at every position,” coach Todd Starkey said. “Against N.C. State’s size and athleticism, it was really difficult for us to run our offense.

“And then of course when they knock down 13 threes, it’s going to be tough for us to keep pace with them.”

For the game, North Carolina State shot 58 percent from three-point distance and 57 percent overall.

“We gave them too many open looks from three, but we double teamed when they were trying to pound it inside. When we did, they found opener shooters. When we didn’t double team, they scored in there. So it was kind of pick your poison.

“And we were kind of hoping they would miss a few more threes than that.”

Kent State made 30 percent of its shots (20 percent in the first half). The Wolfpack defense forced KSU to take 29 of its 55 shots from three-point distance. The Flashes made only nine.

Redshirt junior guard Megan Carter led Kent State with 22 points, giving her 39 for the weekend. She made five of 15 shots and 10 of 14 free throws. She also seven rebounds, two steals and two assists.

Freshman guard Asiah Dingle had 13 despite foul trouble for the second game in a row. Freshman forward Lindsey Thall had 10, and freshman guard Hannah Young had seven.

Merissa Barber-Smith led KSU with nine rebounds.

North Carolina State outrebounded KSU 36-32, ourscored the Flashes in the paint 20-10 and blocked four KSU shots.

Kent State scored 18 points off 18 Wolfpack turnovers. North Carolina State scored 13 off 14 KSU turnovers.

The Flashes open at home Saturday in the first Kent State Classic. They’ll play Northern Kentucky at 5 p.m. Saturday and Oakland at 1:30 p.m. Sunday. Akron will play Oakland after the KSU game on Friday and Northern Kentucky later Sunday.

The event is part of a partnership with Akron in which the Zips and Flashes hold a  “classic” with two other teams in alternate years. It allows opponent teams to avoid a second road trip. Last year Kent played Florida Gulf Coast and Southeastern Louisiana at Akron.

Box score