The last time Kent State beat a Big Ten team was Dec. 21, 2001, when the Flashes defeated Indiana 77-66 in Kent. That’s 18 years; only a few of Kent State’s players could have been alive then.

Overall the Flashes are 5-29 against Big Ten teams. That doesn’t count Nebraska and Penn State; KSU was 0-5 combined against those two schools before they joined the Big Ten.

This season the Flashes play Michigan, Ohio State and Purdue. The Michigan game is Friday at the Akron Classic. Next Thursday the Flashes will play Ohio State in Kent in the first meeting between the two teams in 37 years. On Dec. 3, KSU will travel to Purdue.

Kent State is 2-0 so far this season with wins at Duquesne and at Youngstown State.

It’s only the second time in school history the team has played three Big Ten schools. The first was three years ago, when KSU played Minnesota and Iowa during the regular season and Michigan in the WNIT.

Kent State’s five wins came against Indiana, Illinois in 1994, Michigan State in 1981 and Purdue in 1980 and 1981.

The Big Ten and MAC play about five or six games a year. The Michigan schools have played Michigan State and Michigan pretty consistently over the last five years. Ball State seems to play Purdue most seasons. But Toledo has played only three Big Ten teams in the last five years, Bowling Green just one. Ohio has played nine games against the conference.

For many years, the power conferences like the Big Ten didn’t like to schedule good MAC teams at all — especially on the road. They could only lose in prestige in those games. Sometimes they would pay mid-majors like the MAC to play them at home in what usually would be an easy early season win.

The only home games the MAC plays against the Big Ten this season are Michigan’s game at Akron and Kent State’s game against Ohio State.

Things may change a little as the NCAA emphasizes “quality wins” in tournament selection and seeding. It’s a considerably more significant win if, for example, Indiana were to beat Toledo at Toledo than if Toledo loses at Indiana. RPI ratings count a road win more than double a home win.

Games do happen in postseason tournaments. Central Michigan beat Ohio State in Columbus two years ago and lost to Michigan State in East Lansing last season in the NCAA tournament. Northwestern played both Ohio and Toledo in last year’s WNIT. Kent State has played Michigan twice in the WNIT.

I looked at the record of all MAC schools against the Big Ten over the last five years, a time when the MAC has been as strong as ever. Here’s what I found:

• Akron 0-2.
• Ball State 1-4.
• Bowling Green 0-1.
• Buffalo 2-1.
• Central Michigan 2-5.
• Eastern Michigan 1-5.
• Kent State 0-6.
• Miami 0-3.
• Northern Illinois 0-4.
• Ohio 4-5.
• Toledo 0-3.
• Western Michigan 0-9.

That’s an overall record of 10-46. Eight of the wins were by Buffalo, Central and Ohio, the conference’s best teams over that period. Ball State beat Purdue in the year when the Cardinals went undefeated in non-conference play. Eastern Michigan beat Rutgers in 2015.

So far this season Eastern Michigan has lost to Michigan State 85-50 and Western Michigan to Michigan 76-55. Akron plays Michigan Saturday in Akron.

Later in the season Northern Illinois is at Purdue, Ohio is at Ohio State, Michigan is at Eastern Michigan, Ball State is at Wisconsin in an Hawaii tournament, and Bowling Green is at Purdue.

Here’s Kent State’s all-time record against the Big Ten:

• Illinois 1-2.
• Indiana 1-3.
• Iowa 0-3.
• Michigan 0-5.
• Michigan State 1-3.
• Minnesota 0-3.
• Northwestern 0-2.
• Ohio State 0-6 (all games before 1983).
• Purdue 2-2.

Kent State is 0-3 against Nebraska and 0-2 against Penn State, but all of those games came when those teams were in other conferences.

The Flashes have never played Maryland, Rutgers and Wisconsin.

Sophomores Asiah Dingle (3) and Mariah Modkins celebrate after overtime. (Photo from KSU Twitter feed.)

The KSU women’s basketball team knew its first two games were going to be important and difficult.

The Flashes managed to win both of them — but they were so very close.

After beating Duquesne 77-75 on a last-second shot Tuesday, Kent State rallied to force overtime at Youngstown State Saturday. Then they polished off the Penguins 82-73.

The games were critical for a Kent team that has aspirations of a big season. Both opponents were strong mid-majors (they won a total 41 games last season). Both games were on the road, where statistics show a team is less than half as likely to win as at home.

“We knew these first two games were going to be really difficult,” coach Todd Starkey said after the game. “We  knew that if we were going to have any success in the non-conference, we needed to get off to a good start.

“I’m happy we found another way to win.”

The game followed the pattern of the win over Duquesne. The Flashes fell behind in the first half (seven points at Duquesne, 32-27 at YSU). They rallied behind good defense and timely scoring.

“We had talked about it in the locker room, trying to start off strong so that we don’t have to fight at the end,” said sophomore guard Asiah Dingle, who had 18 points. “But I guess it means we’re good at fighting, right?”

Kent State trailed 54-47 going into the fourth quarter. The Flashes held YSU to four of 11 shots in the fourth quarter and two of nine in overtime.

“We were doing some light pressure to try to keep them out of rhythm offensively,” Starkey said. “They were doing a good job of running all the way through their offense and hitting on the third of fourth option.

“When our players were picking up more full court, (the Penguins)  were working off more of a 23-second shot clock. By pressing, they could only get to the first or second option before they needed to take a shot.”

The pressure also helped lead Kent to seven steals in the fourth quarter and overtime. The Flashes scored 13 points on 10 YSU turnovers in that time.

A key stretch came after the Penguins had taken their biggest lead of the game — 61-53 — with 7:26 to go. The Flashes ran off nine points in a row over three minutes to take the lead on two free throws by Lindsay Thall. The teams were within two points until the end of regulation. Thall hit two more free throws with 43 seconds to go to tie the game.

In overtime, the teams were tied at 71 with 2:16 to go when play stopped for almost three minutes while the referees sorted out whether a foul on Thall was her fourth or fifth. (It was the fourth.)

Dingle waited at the scorer’s table to check in all that time.  When she got in, she scored on a driving layup 22 seconds later to give Kent State the lead for good. Seventeen seconds later, Nila Blackford stole a pass. Then Megan Carter was fouled on a three-point attempt with the shot clock expiring. She made all three shots and Youngstown State could never regroup.

For the second game in a row, five KSU players scored in double figures. Dingle had 19 and Carter 18.

Dingle also had five steals, equaling her career high, and eight rebounds, which is one off her career high. She made eight of 16 shots.

Carter made nine of 11 free throws, had two steals and drew 10 YSU fouls.

Freshman Katie Shumate had 16 points, eight rebounds, three steals and a blocked shot. For much of the game she guarded Chelsea Olson, who had a triple-double with 11 assists in YSU’s 87-59 win over Canisius Tuesday. Against Shumate, Olson had three assists and fouled out.

“(Shumate) is going to keep improving” Starkey said. “She still doesn’t know college defensive concepts well. She’s just a really good player and acts on instinct. When she starts picking up some of the intricacies of defense, she’s going to be really difficult to handle.”

Blackford had 14 points and 10 rebounds, including six offensive rebounds in the first half. She also had two assists, two steals and blocked two shots while playing all but 26 seconds of the game. Blackford was one rebound short of a double-double in her first game.

Thall had 10 points, two steals and two blocks. She has blocked six shots in two games. Thall led KSU with 22 points against Duquesne, but Youngstown allowed her only four shots. “They had a really good game plan for us,” Starkey said.

Notes

• Kent State outrebounded YSU 41-36 and had 18 offensive rebounds. The Flashes led Youngstown in second-chance points 18-12.
• Kent State made 26 of 72 shots for 36.1%. In a difficult second quarter, the Flashes made only four of 22. The Penguins made 45.2% of their 62 shots. Kent won its second straight game while shooting worse than its opponent.
• Also for the second game, the Flashes forced the other team into far more fouls. Youngstown committed 27 and had two starters foul out. KSU made 24 of 36 free throws. The Flashes had 17 fouls.
• Senior Sydney Brinlee hit a three-point shot for her first points of the season. Sophomore guard Mariah Modkins hit two free throws for her first points. But the YSU bench outscored Kent’s 21-5.
• Senior Ali Poole, who has been fighting a knee injury, didn’t dress. She had played 13 minutes against Duquesne.

Box score

All about the Flashes’ 77-75 win at Duquesne.

Lindsay Thall goes to the basket in Tuesday’s game at Duquesne. Thall scored 22 points and make six 3-point shots. (Photo by David Dermer. Other good photos of the women’s game and Wednesday’s men’s game are on Dermer’s Twitter feed — @DavidDermerPix.)

Until I took a deeper look into the box score of Kent State’s win over Duquesne, I didn’t realize how well the Flashes had played in the second half.

The first half was not good — 35% shooting to Duquesne’s 50%. 13 rebounds to Duquesne’s 29. Halftime score was 45-38.

The first quarter was downright bad — 29% shooting (Duquesne 59%). Five rebounds (Duquesne 14).  First quarter score was 25-16.

The second half belonged to the Flashes:

• 54% shooting (14 of 26) to Duquesne’s 44%. KSU made 60% of its shots in the third quarter.  Duquesne made only three of 10 in the fourth.
• 17 rebounds to Duquesne’s 15. That’s a huge reversal, though it’s due somewhat to KSU’s missing fewer shots, and therefore giving Duquesne fewer chances for rebounds.

The Flashes made some offensive and defensive adjustments at halftime, coach Todd Starkey said. And, the coach said, they just played better as the team’s freshmen settled down.

“I loved the way that we regrouped,” said senior Megan Carter, who hit the basket with 0.2 second to go to win the game. “We didn’t let mistakes get the best of us, and we kept playing.”

Foul play

Three Duquesne starters fouled out. A fourth had four fouls. Overall Duquesne had 29 fouls to Kent State’s 17. It was one of the keys to the game.

“They were playing very physical, and the way the game is supposed to be called right now, those are fouls,” Starkey said.

Duquesne’s coach didn’t complain.

“I’m not criticizing the officials,” the Dukes’ Dan Burt said in his postgame news conference. “We’ve got to get smarter.”

The referees called a ton of offensive fouls. Two Duquesne starters fouled out on them. “It was real legit,” Burt said of forward Paige Cannon’s two fourth quarter fouls. “She pushed off twice.”

The stat sheet told Starkey another part of the story.

“One of the key stats of the game is fouls drawn,” he said. “Katie Shumate drew nine. We talk about playing aggressive and make the other team defend you. They obviously they couldn’t defend Katie.”

Asiah Dingle drew seven fouls. Carter and freshman forward Nila Blackford drew five each.

Kent State struggled turning those fouls into points, making only 13 of 22 free throws. KSU freshmen missed six of those — first game jitters, perhaps?

Notes

• Lindsay Thall’s six 3-point field goals were one off the school record and equaled a career high. Thall, who make 40% of her 3-pointers last season, was six of nine Tuesday.
• Five Kent State players scored in double figures, something that happened only once last season.
• Because of lingering injuries to seniors Carter (thumb) and Ali Poole, the Flashes started three freshmen (Blackford, Shumate and Clare Kelly) and two sophomores (Dingle and Thall). Kelly hit a 3-point basket to score KSU’s first points of the season, but she played only six minutes.
• Carter replaced Kelly two minutes into the game and played 35 minutes. Shumate played 38, Dingle 35, Thall 30 and Blackford 25. Poole played 14 minutes off the bench. Senior forward Sydney Brinlee played eight, sophomore guard Mariah Modkins played four and sophomore wing Annie Pavlansky played about a minute and a half. It was the first time Pavlansky had played in a close game in her time in Kent.
• After Tuesday, Carter has 936 points. She ought to be the team’s 22nd 1,000-point scorer before Christmas.
• Kent’s win breaks a four-game losing streak to Duquesne. The Flashes are 3-5 against the Dukes all time.
• The game was the first the Duquesne women have ever played in the PPG Paints Arena, home of hockey’s Pittsburgh Penguins. The Duquesne arena is being renovated, and the Duke women will play “home” games at four different sites near Pittsburgh this season, including at their rec center.

The view from Duquesne

From coach Dan Burt:

“It was a two-point loss to a good team from a league that frankly is much better than ours from an RPI standpoint.”

“It was disappointing after the way we started. In the second and third quarter, (Kent State) was able to score and get back and set up their defense.”

“(Duquesne defenders) had a difficult time guarding a drive, then getting back out to cover (KSU’s Thall), who is a very good three-point shooter. That’s where our breakdowns happened. If we close out an extra three or six inches, they probably won’t take some of those shots.”

Around the MAC

• No. 21 Syracuse 66, Ohio 54 at Syracuse. Ohio, 30-6 last season, is favored to win the MAC.
• Green Bay 109, Central Michigan 105 in double overtime at Central. Defending champion Central is a slight favorite to win the West Division, even though the Chippewas lost two all-conference first-team players. Green Bay is the team Kent State beat in the WNIT last season.
• Harvard 59, Northern Illinois 53 at NIU. Northern was picked just behind Central in the West. Harvard was picked third in the Ivy League.
• Buffalo 61, Central Connecticut 56 at Buffalo. Buffalo was picked second in the East, one spot above Kent State.
• No. 17 Michigan State 88, Eastern Michigan 50 at Michigan State.
• Toledo 74, Georgia State 48 at Georgia State. Toledo was picked third in the West.
• Indiana-Purdue at Indianapolis 65, Ball State 48 at IUPUI.
• Bowling Green 89, Cleveland State 62 at Bowling Green.

The shot heard ’round the MAC

Megan Carter’s winning basket made the top 10 plays of the day on ESPN’s Sports Center. Here’s one more look and how KSU radio announcer David Wilson called it.

Here's how it sounded on Kent State Radio.https://t.co/iLn86vhPd4

— David Wilson (@davepxp) November 6, 2019

Megan Carter (31) celebrates with teammates Monique Smith (left) and Lindsay Thall on the way to the locker room after the Kent State victory. (Photo by David Dermer.)

Megan Carter’s injured thumb had been hurting most of the game.

But she still was the person Kent State wanted with the ball in a tie game with four seconds to play.

Carter inbounded the ball to Ali Poole, then Poole gave it back to her at the top of the key. Carter dribbled into the lane and dropped a four-foot floater cleanly into the basket to give the Flashes a 77-75 win over Duquesne in their season opener Tuesday.

“I looked at all my options,” Carter said. “I didn’t want to turn the ball over, so I just played it safe.  I knew I had some time left, and I drove.”

It was a set play, coach Todd Starkey said.

“Putting the ball into Megan Carter’s hands with four seconds left — that’s always a really good option,” the coach said. “She’s not afraid to take big shots.”

FLASHES WIN! Megan Carter sinks the winner with 0.2 on the clock to take down Duquesne.#GoFlashes ⚡️ pic.twitter.com/4ufEB7S3xc

— Kent State Women’s Basketball (@KentStWBB) November 6, 2019

Carter is a fifth-year senior and was the Flashes’ leading scorer last season. She had injured her thumb in practice about 10 days ago, had been limited in practice, and didn’t even start Tuesday.

But she came in two minutes into the game and played almost all of the rest of the way, scoring 12 points in 35 minutes.

Carter had a large ice pack on her thumb after the game. Was it hurting?

“Yeah, but that’s OK,” she said. “We won, so I don’t care.”

Did she notice the pain when she took the winning shot?

“It was just adrenaline. I wasn’t even thinking about the thumb.”

The Flashes started three freshmen and two sophomores because of injuries to Carter and Poole. They looked very young and often unsure in the first half, even when the seniors were playing.

“We came out very slow and played very (long pause) porous defense,” Starkey said. “They’re a team that runs their stuff well, and they exposed us.”

Duquesne made 50% of its first half shots. The Dukes led by as many as 11 points and 45-38 at the half. KSU shot just 35% in the first half.

“We talked about that at halftime,” Starkey said. “We didn’t do a whole lot right in the first half, and we were only down seven.”

The Flashes fell behind by 13 early in the third quarter. At that point, Starkey said, “I didn’t know how this was going to end.”

“But our players showed a great deal of resiliency. We made adjustments, and they listened.”

Kent State held Duquesne to 30 points in the second half and 30% shooting in the fourth quarter. The Flashes shot 53.4% in the second half.

Five Kent State players scored in double figures.

Sophomore Lindsay Thall equalled a career high with 22 points before fouling out in the fourth quarter. She made six of nine 3-point shots, blocked four shots and had five rebounds.

“She kept us in the game,” Starkey said. “If she doesn’t play the way she did in those first 30 minutes, the last five minutes isn’t possible.”

Freshman Katie Shumate scored 17, playing more than 38 minutes in her first college game. She made 7 of 11 shots and both her 3-point attempts.

“She makes plays all over the court,” Starkey said. “She can get by people and she can shoot the three. So she’s really a true three-level scorer. With her length defensively, she can really guard multiple people, and she did a much better job defensively in the second half.”

Freshman Nila Blackford led the team with nine rebounds to go with 11 points. She grabbed a defensive rebound in traffic with 10 seconds to play, then was fouled. Even though she missed both free throws, it was “big, big play.” Starkey said.

Sophomore Asiah Dingle joined Carter at 12 points. She also had four assists and two steals.

Kent State won the game by dominating two statistical categories: turnover margin and fouls drawn.

Three Duquesne starters fouled out, all of them before three minutes to go and two of them before eight minutes to go. Overall Duquesne fouled 29 times, Kent State 17.

The Flashes scored 24 points on 21 Duquesne turnovers. The Dukes scored 12 on 14 KSU turnovers.

“A big point of emphasis for our steam is to capitalize on the other teams mistakes,” Starkey said. “That’s one of the things we’ve struggled at in he past three years.”

Rebounding, however, went overwhelmingly to Duquesne — 44-30. The Dukes were clearly bigger than the Flashes in at least three positions for most of the game.

The Flashes play next at Youngstown State at 1 p.m. Saturday. YSU beat Canisius 87-59 Tuesday.

Box score