Freshman Clare Kelly scored 20 points and had five rebounds against Hiram. She had 11 points in her previous nine games combined. (Photo from KSU Twitter feed.)

 

Kent State coach Todd Starkey has been wanting three more things from his team over the last month: points from his bench, more assists and better defense.

He got all three Monday as his team overpowered Division III Hiram 92-36 in KSU’s last non-conference game of the year.

The Flashes will open the Mid-American Conference season at Ball State Saturday with a 7-4 record, the same non-league record they had last season.

Against Hiram, Kent State:

• Got 29 points from its bench, led by 14 points from sophomore guard Hannah Young. That’s three times its season average. The Flashes got 20 more points from freshman Clare Kelly, who usually comes off the bench. She started in place of Katie Shumate.
• Had a season-high 25 assists, led by nine from backup point guard Mariah Modkins and eight from starting point Asiah Dingle. Both were career highs. The 25 assists were KSU’s most since 2012.
• Held the Terriers to 26% shooting, lowest by any opponent this season. Hiram’s 36 points were the lowest against Kent this season.
• Won by the third-biggest margin in school history.

Now this was Hiram, a team with a 3-9 record that, like all Division III schools, gives no athletic scholarships. The Terriers had no starter taller than 5-foot-9.

The individual story of the game was Kelly, whose 20 points were nine more than she had scored all season. The freshman from Olmsted Falls was one of the best 3-point shooters in the state in high school but hadn’t found the range in college. She had made just three of 18 before Monday.

Against Hiram she made five of eight from 3-point distance and 7 of 10 overall. She had five rebounds and a steal in a team-high 26 minutes.

“That’s no surprise to anybody on our team,” Starkey said. “We see her do that routinely in practice. So tonight everybody else got to see that.

“It was good to see her get in a rhythm and her teammates’ get excited about it. But I told her on the bench at the end of the game that I was more pleased with her defense and her rebounding.”

Kelly said it was nice to see the ball go in the basket.

“In past games, some of my shots haven’t been going in,” she said. “But I just have to know to trust my shot and trust my teammates for making great passes to me. They make the game of basketball fun. I’m sharing their energy when they make extra passes.”

The passes and assists were a key part of the game plan, Starkey said.

“The No. 1 thing that we wanted to accomplish was to get over 20 assists,” the coach said. “We really want to emphasize sharing the basketball. We’ve got good individual players who can create for themselves, but one thing we’ve got to do is a better job of creating for each other.”

Young’s 14 points and eight rebounds were both career highs for her. She also had a steal, an assist and blocked a shot. The key to scoring off the bench, she said, is the mantra KSU coaches preach:

“Know your role, stay in your role, star in your role,” Young said.

Box score

Notes

• Five Flashes scored in double figures for the third time this session. Dingle had 17 points, five rebounds and two steals to go with her eight assists. She had only one turnovers. Nila Blackford joined Young with 14 points and Lindsey Thall had 12.
• Speciality statistics, like the final score, were overwhelmingly in Kent’s favor:
  • Points off turnovers: KSU 27-2.
  • Points in the paint: KSU 52-12.
  • Second-chance points: KSU 31-2.
  • Fast-break points: KSU 32-10.
• Shumate was the only KSU player not to get in the game. She had been leading the team in minutes played. “Coach’s decision,” Starkey said, not related to injury or illness. Shumate should be fine going forward, he said.
• Every other person on the roster played at least eight minutes. Only Kelly and Dingle played more than 26.
• Senior Ali Poole scored a season-high seven points and had a season-high seven rebounds. She has struggled with a knee injury suffered in August.

Video highlights

Arena at Thursday halftime warmup, when attendance was announced at 120. At the start of Friday game, I counted — literally counted — 49 people in the stands. (wbbFlashes photo.)

Twice this season Kent State has won games in the last minute. A third game went to overtime (KSU won).

But in Las Vegas Friday, the last-minute rally went the other way as Troy pulled out a victory over the Flashes 71-64.

Kent State had led for almost the entire game, but Troy used a pressure defense to rally in the fourth quarter.

With the score tied 64-64 and 19 seconds to play, Troy senior  forward Japonica James stepped between Kent players who weren’t more more three feet apart on an inbounds pass in front of the Kent bench. She tipped the ball, then grabbed it and drove the length of the court for a layup. She was fouled and made the free throw.

“She shot the gap,” KSU coach Todd Starkey said. “A really good player made a great play.”

“They just jumped it,” said senior Megan Carter, who was inbounding the ball.

On the next possession, the Flashes got the ball to forward Nila Blackford, who looked to have a clear path to the basket. But she traveled as she went up for a layup.

The loss at the Las Vegas Holiday Hoops Classic leaves the Flashes’ record at 6-4. 

Troy is 9-2. Its RPI, a ranking system based on record and schedule strength, is now 59th of 351 teams. That’s higher than any team in the MAC. The Troy radio announcer called the win the team’s biggest of the season.

Starkey was far more upbeat after the loss than he was about the team’s 62-48 win over 2-7 Georgia Southern on Thursday.

“I thought we played a really good basketball game,” the coach said. “I thought we showed incredible toughness against a really good Troy team.

“We kind of gave that game away. Their pressure was intense, so we obviously needed to take care of the ball the way we needed to.

“We learned that we need to execute down the stretch, show our composure a little bit — and understand that we’re a really good basketball team when we play with that kind of intensity.”

The Flashes took an 8-5 lead six minutes into the game and led for the next 33 minutes.

But in the fourth quarter, Troy went to a full-court press, and the Flashes has seven turnovers in the last four minutes and got off just four shots. The Trojans ended the game on a 14-2 run.

“They amped up their defense, but I think we just got careless,” Carter said. ‘We weren’t managing our possessions well.”

Kent State, which hadn’t played in 11 days before the Las Vegas tournament, is now off another 10 for Christmas. The Flashes will play their last non-conference game against Hiram on Dec. 30 at the M.A.C. Center, then start MAC play the next week.

“We gotta keep our heads up,” she said. “It’s one loss. We  should have had this game, but you can’t dwell on the past. It’s learn from it and take that anger that we should have won and put it on the next opponent.”

Box score

Notes

• Troy leads the country in offensive rebounding at 25 a game. It had 11, its lowest of the season, against Kent State. The Flashes had 12 offensive rebounds. “If we can play with that kind of intensity, we can rebound with anybody,” Starkey said. “If you can rebound with Troy, you can rebound with anybody.”
• Total rebounding was 40-28 Troy.
• Carter led Kent State with 24 points, her high for the season. She also had three assists against two turnovers and a steal. Carter ran the offense for most of the game, even when point guard Asiah Dingle was on the court. Dingle sat out 12 minutes with foul trouble.
• Freshman Katie Shumate had her first double-double  with 18 points and 10 rebounds (‘phenomenal,” Starkey said). Blackford had 11 points and seven rebounds.
• The Flashes took their most 3-point shots of the season — 33 — and made 10. Carter made four of 11, Shumate four of seven.
• Troy scored 23 point off of 18 turnovers, KSU’s second highest total of the year The Flashes scored 13 points off of 19 turnovers. Going into the fourth quarter, points off turnovers were even at 11-11. 
• Troy, which is fourth in Division I in foul shots made, outscored Kent State 20-10 from the free-throw line. The Flashes had averaged 20 points a game from foul shots in its six wins. 
• Monique Smith, Clare Kelly, Sydney Brinlee and Ali Poole all played more than nine minutes. That’s about as much as Kent has used its bench this season. Poole, a starter last year who has been fighting a knee injury since summer, played 15 minutes, her most of the season. The reserves, however, scored only two points on a basket by Smith.
• Kent’s shooting percentage was 34,4, about 5 points below its average. The Flashes shot only 23% in that disastrous fourth quarter. Troy’s shooting percentage was 39.7% and 50% in the fourth quarter.
• KSU had 12 assists on 22 baskets. Dingle had four and Carter three.
• The 71-64 score was exactly the same as Troy’s victory over Toledo on Thursday.

The view from Troy

Coach Chanda Coach Rigby quoted on Troy’s website

“We were down for the pretty much the whole game and every time we would score, they would score. Finally, we broke it down to two and one point deficits but couldn’t never get over that hump. Other than that, the first score of the game, James’ layup was the first lead we had.”

On the late game rally

“I can’t say enough about our senior leadership. Kayla’s been in these battles for four years and she’s hungry. She’s been coming off the bench for us and has been playing her role fantastic.

“I can’t say enough about Japonica either. She couldn’t get going the entire tournament. She couldn’t get anything except fouls called against her but she kept her spirit up and made the play of the game for us.”

 

 

Kent State’s Asiah Dingle (No. 3 in white) on defense vs. Georgia Southern. Dingle had six of Kent State’s 14 steals. It was a career high for the point guard. (WbbFlashes photo.)

Kent State had just beaten Georgia Southern 62-48, but coach Todd Starkey wasn’t pleased.

“I thought we played a very poor basketball game,” Starkey told announcer David Wilson on his postgame radio show. “When you play against a team who has only four assists and 25 turnovers, you better win by more than 14 and score more than 62 points.

“We had some good moments, but in order to be good in the MAC, you have to be a good team for four quarters. And we weren’t.”

It was Kent State’s first game in 11 days, so it might have been a case of needing to “shake the rust off,” Starkey said. After the Flashes lost to Purdue Dec. 11, the team took a week off for finals. This week has been travel and preparation for the Las Vegas Holiday Hoops Classic.

The win moves Kent State’s record to 6-3. Georgia Southern, a Sun Belt Conference team, is 2-7.

The Flashes played their best defense statistically this season. Georgia Southern’s 48 points were the lowest KSU has allowed  by 10 points. The Eagles shooting percentage of 35.8 was the first time Kent State had held a team below 40%.

Kent had 14 steals, and Georgia Southern’s 25 turnovers were the most against KSU this season. The Flashes outscored the Eagles 25-3 off of those turnovers. They had 12 turnovers themselves, Georgia Southern had been forcing almost 20 a game.

So why was Starkey so unhappy?

• Georgia Southern is far from a good team. The Eagles’ RPI ranking was 291 of 351 teams. (Kent’s was 61.) Kent’s Friday opponent, Troy, has an RPI of 85 and record of a record of 8-2.
• The Flashes missed nine of 18 layups, some of those coming after steals and turnovers.
• KSU’s offense went stagnant several times. The team didn’t score at all for the last seven minutes of the second quarter, though it still held a 29-24 halftime team. The Flashes’ 62 points were the second lowest they had scored this season.

“We’re a much better basketball team when we get ball movement,” Starkey said in his postgame interview with wbbFlashes. “Especially in the second quarter, we were trying to make way too many individual plays instead of really executing our offense and sharing the ball.”

A minute into the third quarter, freshman guard Katie Shumate grabbed three straight offensive rebounds, then sank a 8-foot jump shot. They sparked a 9-2 run, with eight of those points coming on baskets by Shumate.

“I had been struggling a little bit,” said Shumate, who had made just 26% of her shots in the last four games after leading the team in shooting percentage earlier in the season. “So it was nice to see some fall.”

And the offensive rebounds?

“After someone on my team puts a shot up, I see an opportunity to get another possession.”

Freshman Clare Kelly gave Kent a lift late in the third quarter with a 3-point basket and a determined offensive rebound just before the buzzer. After grabbing the ball, she slipped it to Megan Carter for a layup to give KSU a 47-34 lead.

The Flashes extended the lead to as many as 18 in the fourth quarter. Georgia Southern never got within nine.

Box score

Tomorrow vs. Troy

One reason Starkey may have been unhappy was thinking about tomorrow’s opponent.

Troy is on the opposite end of the Sun Belt from Georgia Southern. The Trojans were picked second in the league; Georgia Southern was picked 11th.

Troy leads Division I in rebounding and offensive rebounding (25 per game). It is fourth in the country in free throws made.

The Trojans have had eight different players lead the team in scoring this season and average 82.8 points a game, 10th in the country. They also give up 69 points a game, 24th in the country. Don’t expect a low scoring game.

Troy does miss a lot of shots. Its season field-goal percentage is 34.5, lowest of any team Kent has played.

Troy beat Toledo, which has had a disappointing season so far, 71-64 on Thursday.

“This is a much bigger, more physical team,” Starkey said. “They’re very good in transition, and man, do they have athletes. They keep coming at you in waves. We’re going to have to play significantly better tomorrow in order to come away with a second win.”

They game starts at 3 p.m. Kent time (noon in Las Vegas). You can watch a live stream of the game on Vimeo or listen to it on Golden Flash IHeart Radio.

Notes

• Asiah Dingle led Kent State with 16 points, five assists and career-high six steals. Asked about the defense, she smiled and answered, “I just like stealing the ball.” Shumate on the steals: “Well, we have Asiah.”
• Carter had 11 points, including three 3-point baskets in four attempts. She had two steals.
• Just Dingle and Carter scored in double figures, the fewest number for the team this season.
• Nila Blackford had two steals and two blocked shots to go with six points and five rebounds.
• Lindsey Thall blocked four shots and had seven points and a steal.
• Georgia Southern outrebounded KSU 42-34, though rebounding was much closer until the fourth quarter. Shumate led KSU with six rebounds.
• KSU got 12 points from its bench, the most this season. Junior forward Monique Smith had four points, equaling a career high for the third time this season. She also had two steals, and Starkey said her energy game the team a lift in the first half.
• Sophomore Annie Pavlansky made her first basket of the season and the first 3-pointer of her career with 22 seconds to go.
• Ali Poole, who has been hampered with knee problems, since a summer injuiry, made her first basket of the season and played six minutes.
• All 14 KSU players got into the game. Georgia Southern played 13, sometimes substituting five at a time.
• Attendance was listed at 120. Thirty or 40 looked to be Kent State fans.

The view from Georgia Southern

Coach Anita Howard, quote on the team website:

“I’m not happy at all, I’m not pleased with us coming out to Vegas and showing no fight. We weren’t competing. The turnovers was because we were too lackadaisical.”

On moving forward:

“Its’s nothing with the Xs and Os. It’s all about what pumps inside your chest, and that’s your heart. Hopefully we’ll get that message across and come out with a renewed sense of energy tomorrow.”

For statistics junkies

Jay Fiorello is the assistant athletic communications director for women’s basketball. As we waited to interview Starkey and players after the game, he told me that a lot of the numbers in the box score didn’t look right.

They weren’t. The postgame box had Lindsey Thall was zero blocks. The revised had her with four. Asiah Dingle’s steal total went from four to six, a career high. As a team, Kent State picked up seven more rebounds; Georgia Southern added five. Points off turnovers rose to 25 for the Flashes, which might make coach Starkey a little happier.

How could things get that messed up? The folks running the tournament aren’t basketball people. The arena is used far more for rodeos.

They did get the final score right. Earlier this season, the people at Youngstown State at first had Kent winning 61-53. But the Flashes scored 62 points.

 

 

Flashes huddle at the end of practice on Wednesday. They play Georgia Southern Thursday and Troy Friday, both at 3 p.m. Kent time (noon in Las Vegas, where the tournament is being played).

A player for Georgia Southern’s women’s basketball team — Kent State’s tournament opponent in Las Vegas Thursday — sniffed as she walked into the arena at the South Point Hotel inn Las Vegas.

“It smells like horse,” she said.

Indeed. The arena is used most for the hotel’s resident rodeo. Workers shoveled out tons of dirt earlier this week to make way for the six teams that will compete here Thursday and Friday.

Kent State plays Georgia Southern at 3 p.m. Kent time (noon in Nevada) Thursday in the first game of the Las Vegas Holiday Hoops Classic.

The court on the floor was a little dusty from the removed dirt; KSU coach Todd Starkey stopped practice Wednesday for a moment so that his players could wipe their feet on a specially designed board.  Arena seats are set well back from the court, which will make for a quieter game — more so because all of the teams are a long way from home.

Still, it’s pre-Christmas in Las Vegas for players and fans.

It will be the Flashes’ first game in 11 days. They broke for exams after their 77-64 loss at Purdue Dec. 9 and flew to Las Vegas Monday. Tuesday they practiced at the high school where a friend of KSU coach Todd Starkey is based. They also toured the neighboring Hoover Dam.

Wednesday’s 90-minute practice saw the team running plays and defenses against a simulated Georgia Southern schemes and  getting used to the new rims.

The Flashes are 5-3, with all three losses coming to Big Ten teams. Georgia Southern is 2-6 and coming off a 69-66 loss to the SEC’s Mississippi in a game decided in the last minute on Monday.

“I think we’re one of the better teams here,” Starkey said after practice. “It’s a good field. We’re going to have to play our best basketball.”

Georgia Southern’s strength is rebounding; the Eagles outrebounded Ole Miss 44-42. But the team also was picked 11th in the 12-team Sun Belt Conference and ranks in the bottom 50 in the country in field-goal percentage, field-goal defense and assists per game. Its leading scorer is guard Tatum Barber at 12.3 points per game, Guard Alexis Brown averages 108 and was a second-team all-Sun Belt selection last season.

Starkey said the problems with a long layoff are more mental than physical.

“You can get a little bit complacent, a little bit out of game rhythm,” he said “So we’ve got to make sure that we are sharp. That’s our job as coaches.”

Kent State has won games decided in the last minute against Duquesne, Youngstown State and Robert Morris and beat  Purdue Fort Wayne by eight points and St. Bonaventure by 23. It lost to Big Ten teams Michigan, Ohio State and Purdue.

Its game against Purdue before finals was the team’s best of the season. Save for a 12-2 run at the end of the second quarter, the Flashes played the Boilermakers evenly for most of the game despite both of KSU’s post players struggling with foul trouble.

All five KSU starters average in double figures, led freshman forward Nila Blackford at 14.6 points per game and sophomore forward Lindsay Thall (14.2). Blackford also leads the team in rebounding at 8.3 per game.

The Flashes have been scoring about seven more points a game than they did last season, when they went 20-13. But they’ve struggled on defense, where opponents have made 47% of their shots. The defense did play its best in the most recent games against Purdue and St. Bonaventure.

Friday’s opponent: the Sun Belt’s Troy

KSU plays Troy, which was picked second in the Sun Belt, at 3 p.m. Kent time Friday.

Troy is 7-2 and is one of the nation’s strongest rebounding teams, leading Division I in rebounds and offensive rebounds per game. The Trojans push the ball hard, ranking second in the country at possessions per 40 minutes (84.6). By comparison, Kent State averages 72.6 possession a game.

The tale of the RPI

Kent State’s RPI is 61 of 351 Division I teams. Georgia Southern is 291 and Troy 85. RPI is based 25% on a team’s record, 25% on its opponents’ record and 50% on its opponents’ opponents’ records. Road wins and home losses are weighted more heavily. To some extent, the RPI is used in postseason tournament selection and seeding.

To follow the game

The game starts at 3 p.m. Kent time (noon in Nevada).

Video is live streamed on Vimeo through the hotel.

Audio starts at about 2:45 Kent time on Golden Flash IHeart Radio. David Wilson is the announcer.

Live statistics are available during the game through the tournament.

 

 

 

“

Yesterday we gave you an overview of the MAC and its East Division. Today it’s the MAC West.

Central Michigan (4-3). RPI 104. Power rating 74.

CMU, two-time defending MAC champions, lost its first three games to very good teams — Green Bay (5-4, RPI 60), No. 7 Louisville (9-1, RPI 5) and Western Kentucky (7-2, RPI 28). Since then the Chippewas have won four in a row against somewhat lesser competition, the best being Marist (5-2, RPI 103).

Central lost all-MAC players Presley Hudson and Reyna Frost to graduation and coach Sue Guevara to retirement. But junior guard Micaela Kelly is playing like an all-conference guard for new coach Heather Oesterle, averaging 20.4 points a game. Forward Kyra Bussell is seventh in the league in scoring at 15.3 points a game.

In the next three weeks, Central will play South Dakota State (6-4, RPI 67),  Bethune-Cochran (6-1, RPI 193) and Central Florida (4-4, RPI 98). All those teams look to be the caliber of the MAC’s first division.

Ball State (4-4). RPI 130. Power rating 104.

The Cardinals have a 2-3 record against five teams in the RPI top 100.  Their win over Butler may be the league’s second best (after Ohio’s win at Ohio State.) Games against Providence (7-1, RI 62) and New Mexico (6-3, RI 109) in the Lobo Invitational before Christmas will tell us how good they are.

Ball State has the best field goal defense (36.5%) and the third best scoring defense (63.3) in the league. Junior forward Oshlynn Brown has the third highest field goal percentage (55.6) and is the second leading rebounder (9.5 per game) in the conference.

Western Michigan (4-3). RPI 223. Power ranking 241.

The three Division I teams the Broncos have beaten have a combined record of 3-24. The three teams they’ve lost to have a combined record of 20-6. After exams, they play Chicago State (0-10), Stony Brook (7-1) and Loyola Chicago (8-0). The only non-conference team WMU plays that’s close to its level is Denver (4-4, RPI 299) in the Puerto Rico Classic. It’s hard to get an overall impression from that.

The Broncos have forward Brianna Mobley back from injury. She’s one of the MAC’s best post players, leading the league in rebounding (10.3 per game) and ranking 17th in scoring (12.7). Redshirt sophomore guard Jordan Walker, who like Mobley missed all last season, is averaging 14.6 points per game. Junior forward Leighah-Amori Wool is fourth in the MAC in rebounding (8.4 per game).

Northern Illinois (3-5). RPI 161. Power ranking 196.

The Huskies have lost three close games to good teams — six points to Harvard (7-3, RPI 124), three points to Illinois Sate (5-2, RPI 27) and five points to Purdue (7-2, RPI 25). They also won two games in overtime to teams that are a combined 4-15 and lost to Milwaukee (2-6, RPI 172) by 13. So here’s another team we don’t know quite what to make of.

NIU has preseason all-MAC forward Courtney Woods back from an injury that sidelined her for most of last season. She’s averaging 18.4 points. The Huskies also had four starters back, but none is averaging in double figures.

The Huskies, who averaged 85 points two years ago and 73 last season, are scoring 66.4 this year.

Toledo (2-5). RPI 272, Power ranking 174.

If I had had to guess the MAC team with the worst RPI at this point in the season, it certainly wouldn’t have been Toledo. But here the Rockets are, tied for the fewest wins in the conference. All of their losses have come to teams with winning records and RPIs between 110 and 160 — except for a three-point defeat at Notre Dame (5-7, RPI 73).  Four of the five losses have been by fewer than eight points. So the Rockets are another team that might be better than their record.

The Rockets lost last season’s two best players to graduation and haven’t really found replacements. Toledo doesn’t have a player in the MAC’s top 25 scorers or top 15 rebounders. Nakiah Black averages 10.4 points; point guard Mariella Santucci averages 5.6 rebounds and 4.3 assists.

Eastern Michigan (3-6). RPI 195. Power ranking 246.

The Eagles have played one of the MAC’s toughest schedules — 11th most difficult in the country by one measure I saw. They lost by more than 30 points to No. 19 Michigan State and No. 24 Michigan and four other games by an average of 14. Their best win is against Southeast Missouri (4-2, RPI 162) by five.

Oklahoma State transfer Areanna Combs, a 5-10 junior guard, played her first game Dec. 1 and has averaged 19 points, including 29 in an 11-point loss at 8-0 Binghamton. With her in the lineup, the Eagles also lost by 11 to 5-3 Wichita and beat 3-8 Purdue Fort Wayne by 24. Freshman guard Aaliyah Stanley averages 13.1 points.

MAC statistics, including standings.

RPI rankings are from WarrenNolan.com.

Power rankings from Omni Rankings.

 

 

 

Ohio was the clear favorite to win the Mid-American Conference women’s championship this season. The next best teams were pretty unclear.

After eight or so non-conference games for league teams, it’s even more unclear. 

With almost all MAC schools on break this week for students to take finals, it’s a good time to take stock of the MAC.

Ohio is 6-2 with the league’s only marquee win, a six-point victory over Ohio State in Columbus. But Ohio has only the third highest RPI in the conference. Kent State and Buffalo rank better.

The league doesn’t look as strong as it’s been for the last two years, when it ranked eighth in the country. By most rankings I’ve seen, the MAC is about 11th this season.

Just Kent State (65th) and Buffalo (88th) are in the top 100 in the RPI rankings of WarrenNolan.com,the service I used most. Central Michigan (102), Ohio (106) and Bowling Green (111) are fairly close.

At the end of last season, the MAC had six teams in the top 100, led by Buffalo (26), Ohio (31 and Central Michigan (35).

RPI is based 25% on a team’s record, 25% on its opponents’ record and 50% on its opponents’ opponents’ record. Road wins and home losses are weighted more heavily. There are 351 Division I teams.

Omni Power rankings, which takes into account other factors like recent results and margin of victory, also has two MAC schools in the top 100 — Central Michigan at 74th and Ohio at 77th. (Kent State is 150th behind Ball State, Bowling Green and Buffalo).

Only Buffalo (7-2), Ohio (6-2) Kent State (5-3), Bowling Green and Central Michigan (both 4-3) have winning records.

The league’s non-conference record is 48-45 against Division I competition, a 51.6 winning percentage; last season it was 87-41 —70.0%. Two years ago it won 65% of its non-conference games.

Surprise teams?

Buffalo is better than expected, considering graduation losses. The Bulls have the best freshman in the conference — Dyaisha Fair, who is second in the country in scoring.

Bowling Green was picked last in the MAC East and is 4-3 and has shown a pretty potent offense. But the Falcons haven’t beat a really good team yet. Ball State is 4-4 with wins over Butler (6-3) and Lehigh (6-2) and losses of less than 12 points to Cincinnati (5-4), Wisconsin (6-3) and Western Kentucky (7-2).

Surprise teams in a disappointing way are Toledo, which is 2-5 after being picked third in the West, and Northern Illinois, 3-5 after being picked in a virtual tie with Central Michigan.

Most teams have three or four non-conference games left. Ohio plays at TCU (7-1, RPI 27) and Texas (5-4) next week. A win or two would be impressive. Central Michigan  plays South Dakota, Belmont, Bethune Cookman and Central Florida, all good mid-majors. Almost every other team plays at least one strong team; some upsets could shake things up and boost the league’s overall RPI ranking.

Here’s a look at the MAC East. MAC West post is here.

Buffalo: 7-2. RPI 89. Power ranking 114.

The Bulls lost the MAC’s leading scorer, Cierra Dillard, and have replaced her with the MAC’s new leading scorer, freshman DyaishaFair. She’s averaging 23.4 points per game. Senior forward Theresa Onwuka is averaging 18.8 points per game.

The Bulls’ schedule makes it hard to figure how good they are. The best team they’ve beaten is Drexel, which is 5-4 with an RPI of 65. They lost at No. 1 Stanford by 19 points.

Wild card for the Bulls is the status of Summer Hemphill, one of the best best post players in the conference. She hasn’t played at all because of an injury.

Ohio: 6-2. RPI 108. Power ranking 77.

The Bobcats are picked to win the MAC. After just missing the NCAA tournament last season, they scheduled a much tougher schedule. So far they’ve lost to Syracuse of the ACC and beaten Ohio State. They’ve lost fairly close games to Syracuse and Butler, both good teams. How they do against TCU and Texas may tell us if Ohio is a national-caliber team.

OU has the league’s best scoring defense at just 58.9 points per game, best 3-point defense at 25.4% and second-best field-goal defense at 37.4%.

The four starters returning from last season — senior guard Amani Burke, junior guard Cece Hooks, sophomore wing Erica Johnson and junior forward Gabby Burris — all average in double figures.

Kent State: 5-3. RPI 66. Power ranking 150.

The Flashes have beaten five mid-majors of varying quality and lost to three Big Ten teams that are in the top 40 in RPI rankings. They’ve added freshmen Nila Blackford (8.3 rebounds per game) and Katie Shumate (6.0 rebounds) to the starting lineup, and they are KSU’s top two rebounders.

Kent State has struggled on defense — its field goal defense of 47.2% is last in the league by three percentage points, but its last two games have shown improvement. KSU is averaging 72.4 points per game, more than seven points about last season.

All five starters average in double figures.

Bowling Green: 5-3. RPI 110. Power ranking 112.

The Falcons lead the MAC in points per game (79.5), field goal percentage (47.2), 3-point percentage (41.2),  and rebounding margin (plus-7.5). They have the league’s leader in shooting percentage — 6-2 junior center Angela Perry  at 72.3%  and in 3-point percentage — junior Madison Parker at 51.2%.

But the best team BG has beaten is Cleveland State, which has a 7-1 record but an RPI of 152. They’ve lost to Valparaiso (4-3, RPI 107), Green Bay (5-4, RPI 59) and San Francisco (5-4, RPI 95).

Bowling Green plays at Loyola-Chicago (8-0, RPI 64) and at Purdue (7-2, RPI 24) later in January.

Akron: 4-4. RPI 169. Power ranking 159.

The Zips beat 5-3 Youngstown State and played well against No. 24 Michigan, losing 80-71. But the other teams they’ve beaten — St. Bonaventure, Purdue Fort Wayne and Detroit Mercy — have a combined two wins against Division I competition. They’ve lost three in a row to Cleveland State (7-1, RPI 152), Duquesne (8-2, RPI 112) and Butler (6-3, RPI 78).

Their plus-4.1 turnover margin is third in the MAC; their field goal defense of 44% is second worst. Junior college transfer Jordyn Dawson, a 5-11 forward, is fifth in the conference in field goal percentage (48.8) and fifth in steals (2.4 per game). Senior forward Haleigh Reinoehl is fifth in the league in rebounding at 7.9 per game.

Miami: 4-5. RPI 154. Power ranking 162.

Returning stars Lauren Dickerson (17.2 points per game) and Savannah Kluesner (12.8 points, 8.2 rebounds) have played well, and Redhawks have added freshman guard Peyton Scott, who averaged 27.4 points in high school and is averaging 12.8 in college.

But Redhawks’ only victory against a team with a winning record is against Eastern Kentucky (5-3, RPI 201). They’ve lost to No. 16 DePaul by 19, No. 25 Miami of Florida by 18 and Cincinnati (5-4, RPI 146) by 30. Miami is last in the league in field goal percentage (36.6) and 10th in field goal defense (43.4).

Link to the MAC West rundown.

MAC statistics, including standings

 

Asiah Dingle came out of a three-game slump to lead Kent State with 16 points. Thirteen came in the second half on six-of-11 shooting. She also had three assists and a steal against one turnover, her low for the season.

Four minutes at the end of the second quarter cost Kent State a chance at an upset at Purdue Sunday.

The Flashes missed eight of their last nine shots in the quarter. Purdue made four of five, including a three-quarter-court shot at the buzzer. That shot ended an 11-2 run and gave Purdue a 38-24 halftime lead.

Kent State played perhaps its best basketball of the season in the second half, outscoring Purdue 40-39. But the Flashes never got within eight points. Final score was 77-64.

“We’re really proud of our second half,” associate head coach Fran Recchia said in her postgame radio interview with David Wilson. “That second quarter, though. If we could take that one back and replay it, that would be great.”

It was the best of Kent State’s three games against Big Ten teams. Its loss to Ohio State was 75-65, but the closer margin came because the Flashes outscored OSU 25-12 in the fourth quarter. Earlier the Flashes had lost to Michigan 88-53.

KSU is 5-3 as it takes a 10-day break for final exams. Purdue is 7-2.

Kent State missed 12 of 16 shots in the second quartet and 11 of 16 in the first.

“A lot of that was layups,” Recchia said. “We got some great looks.

“It’s been a point of emphasis in practice, and i think it’s something where we just have to get better. We have a lot of downhill drivers, and we have to be able to capitalize on that.”

Some of the Flashes’ problems finishing at the basket were due to Purdue’s defense, which features Ae’Rianna Harris,  two-time defensive player of the year in the Big Ten.

“We’re not going to see another team with that type of length the rest of the season,” Recchia said.

In the second half, KSU made 48.4% of its shots. It was led by Asiah Dingle, whose main game is driving to the basket. She scored 13 of her 16 points in the second half.

Purdue junior guard Karissa McLaughlin proved to be the weapon Kent State couldn’t blunt. McLaughlin was first-team all-Big Ten as a sophomore but had struggled in the Boilermakers’ first seven games. In her last three games, she made just six of 31 shots and two of 16 three-pointers. For the season, she was shooting below 30% and averaging 8.8 points a game.

Sunday she made nine of 15 and six of 10 from 3-point distance. She added 10 of 10 free throws to finish with a career-high 34 points.

Two buzzer-beating shots were especially bruising for Kent State. A KSU shot seemed to brush the rim at the end of the first half, but the officials ruled it didn’t and called a shot-clock violation. Purdue got the ball with 0.5 seconds to go; Kent State didn’t guard the inbounds play, and McLaughlin sent a 70-foot shot cleanly through the net.

At the end of the third quarter, McLaughlin hit another 3-pointer as time expired when Kent State had cut Purdue’s lead to 52-43.

Kent State got to the score to 60-52 with 4:42 to go on a jumper by reserve forward Sydney Brinlee. But McLaughlin made 10-straight foul shots in the last two-and-a-half minutes.

Box score 

Lots of fouls

Both teams struggled with foul trouble. Thall picked up two in the first six minutes and played only nine in the first half. She eventually fouled out. So did Dingle. Nila Blackford, KSU’s leading scorer and rebounder going into the game, had four fouls.

Blackford and Thall’s foul problem meant lots of playing time for reserves Brinlee and Monique Smith. Both played some of their best basketball. Brinlee had five points, including a 3-point basket, and two rebounds in 13 minutes. Smith also played 13 minutes, which I think was a career high. Her four points tied a career high, and she also had three rebounds.

Purdue’s Harris, the all-Big Ten player, was limited to 21 minutes by her three fouls. She had five rebounds, four below her average, and didn’t block a shot. She already has blocked more shots than anyone in team history. She scored 12 points.

Purdue’s leading scorer, Dominique Oden, had four fouls and didn’t score in 14 minutes.

Overall Kent State committed 23 fouls, Purdue 20. The Boilermakers outscored KSU 21-10 from the foul line. Kent State has won every game this season when it has made more free throws than its opponent and lost every game when it made fewer.

Highlights from today’s game at Purdue. https://t.co/O10Bkjn5aC

— Kent State Women’s Basketball (@KentStWBB) December 8, 2019

 

Notes

• Thall had 11 points and made three 3-point baskets. Megan Carter had 10 and a career-high nine rebounds. Blackford, who had a total of 51 points in KSU’s two previous games, had eight, seven rebounds, three assists, two blocked shots and two steals. Katie Shumate had seven rebounds and three blocked shots to go with six points.
• Purdue came into the game 15th in the country in blocked shots, averaging 5.6 per game. But Kent State blocked six to the Boilermakers’ two.
• Purdue made 45.3% of its shots, by far the lowest of the three Big Ten teams KSU has played. Both Michigan and Ohio State shot better than 55%. Purdue’s percentage actually is the third best Kent State has done on defense. Still, Purdue’s 77 points were its most of the season.
• Kent State had assists on its first five baskets, then only four for the rest of the game. KSU coach Todd Starkey said early this week he wanted his team to average at least 14. Purdue had 20 assists on 24 baskets.
• Purdue had 35 rebounds, Kent State 34 rebounds. The Flashes had 15 offensive rebounds, led by four by Blackford and Carter. Purdue had 10 offensive rebounds.
• Recchia said to get in the mood for the game, the team watched the movie “Hoosiers” on the bus as it road across Indiana.
• Attendance was 5.585, largest crowd to see KSU play this season.

Kent State is off this week for finals week and plays next at the Las Vegas Holiday Hoops Classic Dec. 19 and 20. The Flashes will play two teams from the Sun Belt Conference — Georgia Southern (2-5) and Troy (5-2). Troy’s losses have come to Mississippi State and Duke.

The view from Purdue

From the Journal & Courier, the West Lafayette newspaper

Coach Sharon Versyp on Karissa McLaughlin’s 70-foot basket at the end of the first half:

“They (Kent State) weren’t even up. They were just standing on the sideline, so I’m like, ‘Just grab it and heave it.’ That was huge.”

Purdue guard Cassidy Hardin, on that basket:

“I was like, ‘No, you’re going to make it; I know you are’ and she did.’ think going to the locker room, it let us relax.”

McLaughlin on Purdue scoring 70 points for the first time this season:

“Before we were going back to our old ways of just walking the ball up the floor and not getting points in transition. I think we got more of that today.”

Versyp on the win:

“We need this. We needed to score. It was nice to see our young kids step up and do some really good things and score the ball in a variety of different ways.”

It was Versyp’s 400th win as a head coach. The Boilermakers gave her a brief water cup shower in the locker room, the Journal and Courier reported.

“It wasn’t a very good one,” Versyp said, smiling.

Sophomore guard Hannah Young started her first college game Tuesday against St. Bonaventure and scored five points in 15 minutes. She’s been Kent State top reserve so far this season, especially in the last five games. She’s made eight of her 11 shots. 

Kent State ends its three-game Big Ten season Sunday.

It hasn’t gone well so far. The Flashes lost to Michigan by 35 points on Nov. 15 and by 10 to Ohio State on Nov. 17 in a game that looked that close because of a 3-point KSU barrage in the fourth quarter.

Their third game is at Purdue at noon Sunday. (That’s both Ohio and Indiana time. I previously incorrectly thought and reported Indiana was on Central time.)

The Flashes didn’t get any easy ones when they scheduled three Big Ten Teams for the first time in KSU history this season.

• Purdue is 6-2 with losses only to No. 18 Gonzaga (8-1) and Virginia Tech (7-1). The Boilermakers beat Drake and Arizona State, both 6-2, in the Gulf Coast Showcase before losing to Gonzaga in the finals. With Thursday’s loss to Virginia Tech, they’ve lost two in a row.
• Ohio State is 5-3. It lost to MAC favorite Ohio University at home Nov. 17. But on Thursday, the Buckeyes beat No. 2 Louisville in Columbus.
• Michigan is 7-1 and ranked 24th in the country. Its only loss was by four points to Notre Dame. Its best win was probably its 84-76 overtime victory over Syracuse Thursday.

Every team in the Big Ten has a winning record. Eleven have lost no more than two games. Twelve of the league’s 14 teams are in the Top 75 in the RPI, a rating system that takes into account its record and strength of schedule. Schools have played enough games so that the RPI is starting to mean something.

Ohio State is ranked ninth in RPI by WarrenNolan.com, one of the rankings I use most. Nolan has OSU’s schedule as the toughest in the country so far. Michigan’s RPI  is 32nd and Purdue 44th.

Kent State (5-2) is 69th, which is highest in the MAC. Buffalo has the best record in the MAC at 6-2, but its schedule strength is rated at 187, way below Kent State’s 75. Ohio is al 5-2 with an RPI of 124 and a schedule strength of 230. (I’d take all of those ratings with very large grain of salt at this point.)

We’ll do a big piece on rankings during Christmas break.

But today’s topic is Purdue, one of the better defensive teams in the country. HerHoopStats, an analytics site, ranks the Boilermakers 28th overall defense. (By comparison, the site ranks Ohio State 14th and Michigan 34th.) Purdue’s opponents are shooting 32.5% from the field and 25% from 3-point distance.

The Boilermakers don’t score a lot — just 62.2 points a game, but their opponents score even less — 55 points, 28th best in Division I.

Kent State does the opposite. The Flashes are scoring 73.6 points a game, their highest in more than 15 years, and giving up 73.9. The defensive number is 299th among the 351 Division I teams. KSU opponents are making 47.5% of their shots, 340th of 351 teams.

Purdue makes 42.5% of its shots. So the game likely will come down to whether Kent State’s defense can do its best work of the season against Purdue’s offense. The Flashes are coming off their best defensive game of the season, an 81-58 trouncing of St. Bonaventure. But the Bonnies are 1-7 and probably the second-worst team the Flashes have faced.

Can Kent State’s offense score on a Big Ten team? The record so far isn’t optimistic. The Flashes played a total of two good quarters against Michigan and Ohio State. They led Michigan 16-12 after one quarter and outscored the Buckeyes 25-12 in the fourth quarter. Outside of that, KSU has been outscored 140-77.

Purdue’s best players

• 6-1 senior forward Ae’Rihanna Harris. Last season’s defensive player of the year in the Big Ten. Preseason all-Big Ten selection. On pace to be the first Purdue player and second Big Ten player to have 1,000 points, 1,000 rebounds and 300 blocked shots.
• 5-8 senior guard Dominique Oden. Leads team in scoring at 13.1 points per game and has scored 1,452 in her career. Has made 9 of 20 three-point shots. Averages three assists and four rebounds per game. Has started 107 of 111 games in four years.
• 5-7 junior guard Karissa McLaughlin. Preseason all-Big Ten selection. Last season became third Purdue player to be all-Big Ten as a sophomore. Tied school’s second single-season 3-point record. So far this season is shooting below 30% from field and 3-point distance.

Kent State’s best players

• 6-2 freshman forward Nila Blackford. Leads team in scoring at 15.6 points per game and in rebounding at 8.4. Fourth in MAC in offensive rebounding (3.4). Has scored 51 points and grabbed 19 rebounds in last two games.
• 6-2 sophomore forward Lindsey Thall. Second on team in scoring at 14.7 points per game and tied for first in blocked shots at 1.1. Has made 44.9% of her 3-point shots, including a school-record eight against Ohio State. Scored 32 points in that game.
• 5-7 senior guard Megan Carter. Third on team at 12.9 points per game after leading Flashes at 15.9 last season. Scored her 1,000th point against St. Bonaventure on Tuesday, when she scored season-high 21 points
• 5-11 freshman wing Katie Shumate. Second on team in rebounding at 5.9 per game, fourth in scoring at 11.9, tied for first in blocked shots at 1.1 and first in steals at 2.4. Leads team in minutes per game at 36.1.
• 5-5 sophomore point guard Asiah Dingle. Leads team in assists at 3.1 per game, fifth in scoring at 11.3 after being second on team as freshman last season. Second on team in steals at 1.7.

Kent State season statistics.

MAC season statistics, including standings (all non-league games so far).

To follow the game

Tipoff is at noon Sunday at Mackey Arena at Purdue University. (It’s noon in both Ohio and Indiana; I incorrectly had thought and reported West Lafayette was on Central time.) Here are directions to the arena. It’s about a four-and-a-half hour drive. Tickets are $10. There is a four tickets for $20 promotion.

Video is on BTN+, the Big Ten’s pay-to-watch network. It costs $14.95 per month. You can sign up for one month, but don’t forget to cancel after the game. It automatically renews if you don’t. Sign up or sign in here.

Audio will start at about 11:45 on Golden Flash iHeard Radio. David Wilson is the announcer.

Live statistics can be found during and after the game on the Purdue website.

Game preview on KSU website, with links to roster, schedule and more.

Detailed media game notes for Kent State.

Preview from Purdue website, including links.

Purdue media notes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The tip in front of almost a full side of bleachers of Kent elementary school students at the noon “Kids Day” game. Total attendance was 2,104, second only to this season’s  Ohio State game over the last 15 years. 

Megan Carter says her philosophy on foul shots is, “Don’t leave points on the board.”

She and her teammates left exactly one on Tuesday. making  30 of 31 attempts on their way to a 81-58 victory over St. Bonaventure.

Carter had 21 points, including the 1,000th point of her career, to lead the Flashes to their fifth win of the season. She is the 22nd Kent State player to score more than 1,000.

There it is! Congratulations to Megan Carter on reaching 1,000 career points! #GoFlashes⚡️ pic.twitter.com/rQPBL8TSB6

— Kent State Women’s Basketball (@KentStWBB) December 3, 2019

Carter, a fifth-year senior, is a career 74% foul shooter. She made 12 out of 12 Tuesday, tying the fourth best performance in school history.  So far this season she’s made 35 of 40 or 87.5%.

“I always stay after practice until I make at least 50, just working with the coaches on my mechanics,” she said.

Her 21 points are her most so far this season. Carter led the team in scoring last season but struggled with a thumb injury at the beginning of the season. Other players have picked up the slack; all five KSU starters average in double figures. Carter is third on the team at 12.9 points per game.

“It’s been a long road for her to get to the point,” coach Todd Starkey said. “It’s quite the accomplishment. She’s earned it.”

Carter lost most of her freshman season to a knee injury (the third of her career going back to eighth grade). At times, she’s struggled with eligibility, confidence and consistency, but she’s fought her way to the all-MAC third team last season and the all-MAC East preseason team this year. After Tuesday, she has 1,014 points. She’ll also graduate in two weeks, though she’ll stay in school to play in spring semester.

(This story by Stater sports editor Gina Butkovich tells about Carter’s journey.)

Starkey called the victory the team’s “most complete game from start to finish.” It was the Flashes’:

• Largest margin of victory by 14 points.
• The fewest points they’ve allowed this season.
• The second-lowest field goal percentage (40.7) by an opponent.
• The best team free-throw performance in school history when Kent State has shot more than 20 times from the line.
• The team’s best assist-to-turnover ratio since 2017 (14 to 9).

“We really wanted to run our offense and trust it instead of breaking the play off and trying to make something happen,” Starkey said. “That is something that we’ve struggled. We did a better job of screening. We got really good looks around the basket.

“It’s been a point of emphasis for us to have more assists. And we had 14 assists and nine turnovers — I will take that every night. We want to try and average around 14 assists a game, so I think we’re starting to do a better job of sharing the basketball.”

Going into the game, Kent State had averaged 11 assists per game, second to last in the MAC. Its assist-to turnover ratio had been 0.78. Tuesday the ratio was 1.55.

Kent State’s Nila Blackford had her third double-double of the season with 20 points and 20 rebounds. She has missed two more by one rebound.

“I knew Nila was going to be good coming in,” Starkey said. “And the way she’s played in the last two games… (31 points and nine rebounds against Robert Morris, 20 points and 10 rebounds against St. Bonaventure).

“She’s really starting to come into her own, and the scary part is her best basketball is still ahead of her. She’s still learning. She wants two be coached. She’s done a great job in practices and getting in and studying film.”

Starkey said he was happier with Blackford’s 10 rebounds than 20 points.

“The points are going to come because she’s a good player,” he said. “It’s the consistency on the boards I appreciate the most. That’s a big, big thing for our team.”

Blackford, a 6-2 freshman from Louisville, Kentucky, has led the team in rebounding in six of seven games. Her 8.4 rebounding average is sixth in the MAC.

After Tuesday, she leads the Flashes in scoring at 15.6 per game. Against St. Bonaventure, she also led the Flashes in assists with four.

“I think it’s just us playing together so much,” Blackford said “It’s kind of like instinct. — like when I see Lindsey or Asiah, it’s just I know that they’re going to get up and get that pass.”

Besides assists, she said, setting better screens has been an emphasis in practice.

“The screens open up players more,” Blackford said. “They open up paths to the basket.”

On rebounding, where she’s third in the MAC in offensive rebounds per game:

“When the ball goes up, I’m looking for any possible way I can go get it, to be the first one to get to it.”

Box score

Notes

• Kent State’s 5-2 start is its best since 2010-11, when the Flashes won their first six games and went 9-3 in non-conference play. St. Bonaventure is 1-7. The KSU loss was the Bonnies’ worst of the season by 11 points.
• Sophomore Hannah Young got her first collegiate start, scoring five points with two rebounds, two assists and a block in 15 minutes. Point guard Asiah Dingle came off the bench after about five minutes and still played 25 minutes. (“Coach’s decision,” Starkey said.) Dingle had seven points, three assists and two steals.
• Lindsey Thall was KSU’s third player in double figures with 11 points.
• The Flashes got 18 points from the bench, by far their most of the year. Junior forward Monique Smith equaled a career high with four points.
• Everyone on the roster played except Ali Poole, who has been slowed by a knee injury. Starkey said she’d be able to play in future games, but there was no point in risking aggravating her injury in a game the Flashes were winning easily.
• The Flashes forced 16 turnovers and scored 15 points off of them. St. Bonaventure scored 11 off Kent State’s nine turnovers. It was the fifth time this season Kent State has had fewer turnovers than its opponent and the sixth time KSU has had more points off of turnovers.
• Kent State made 39% of its shots, about its average for the season. St. Bonaventure made 40.7% of its filed goal attempts, the second-best defensive average for the Flashes this season. Purdue Fort Wayne had made 39.7%.
• St. Bonaventure came into the game averaging eight 3-point baskets a game and 36.6% on 3-point shots. The Bonnies made four of 14 for 28.6%.
• KSU outrebounded St. Bonaventure 27-32. Katie Shumate equaled Blackford’s 10 rebounds, setting a career high.

Kent State plays at Purdue (6-1) at 1 p.m. Kent time on Sunday, the third of its three games against Big Ten teams.

More video

Make it 20 and 10 for Blackford! The power move gets her the and one! Her third double-double of the year!#GoFlashes⚡️ pic.twitter.com/aMxhaVtrfA

— Kent State Women’s Basketball (@KentStWBB) December 3, 2019

 

Beautiful high-low play for the and-1! Flashes lead 58-42 as we head to the fourth on education day! #GoFlashes⚡️ pic.twitter.com/RbFWbZCXJF

— Kent State Women’s Basketball (@KentStWBB) December 3, 2019