Katie had 14 points, including eight in Kent State’s fourth-quarter rally. (File photo by David Dermer.)

This is not how Kent State hoped to start its conference season.

The Flashes lost their second straight in the MAC Wednesday, falling 74-69 to Eastern Michigan at home. A team that hoped to challenge for a top-four finish in the league at the least now has to dig out of an 0-2 hole. The loss at home to Eastern, a team with a worse record, especially hurts. The Eagles are 2-0 in the MAC and 7-6 overall.

Eastern was clearly the better team Wednesday. The Eagles scored the first basket two minutes into the game and led for the next 38 minutes. KSU rallied in the last four minutes but couldn’t get closer than three points.

“Eastern Michigan is a much better team this year,” coach Todd Starkey said, “but we can’t start the way we did offensively.”

The Flashes missed their first eight shots and made seven of 30 (28%) in the first half.

“We got some decent looks, but we let them take us out of our stuff,” Starkey said. “We tried to run certain actions to get shots we eared early. I think about half of those eight shots were ones that we wanted to get. The others were kind of forced.

“We played a passive first half, and you can’t do that against anybody.”

Eastern struggled shooting, too — at least on 2-point shots, where they made just 5 of 22 in the fist half.

But from 3-point distance, the Eagles made eight of 12 for the game, by far their best percentage of the year. They had been averaging 29.9% from distance before the game.

“We gave them some very good looks,” Starkey said. “I think of those 12 3s, not even half of them were contested.”

The Flashes played better in the second half, when they made 11 of 23 shots for 48%.  They played much better in the last minutes, but they started from too far behind.

Kent State was down by 12 points with 2:07 to go. At that point, Eastern had outscored Kent off turnovers by 19-13. KSU had 16 turnovers; Eastern 14.

Then the Flashes had steals on Eastern’s next three possessions and cut the lead to 70-64.

The Flashes forced seven turnovers over the last four minutes and scored 11 points from them. They made four of their last seven shots and made 13 of 13 free throws in the fourth quarter.

“We had more of a sense of urgency,” said freshman guard Katie Shumate, who eight of her 14 points in the fourth quarter.

But Eastern made 12 of its 13 foul shots in the last quarter and five in the last 30 seconds.

Fouls and more fouls

Referees called 58 fouls in the game, 33 on Eastern and 25 on Kent State. Three EMU players fouled out, and three more had four fouls. Three guards had fouled out when KSU made its run at the end. Kent State’s Shumate fouled out in the last seconds. Three Flashes finished with four fouls.

The Eagles made 28 of their 35 free throws, Kent State 27 of its 33.

All the clock stoppages for fouls made the game last two hours and 20 minutes, a half hour longer than usual.

Box score

Notes

• Five Kent State players scored in double figures, led by Megan Carter with 15. Shumate had 14, Asiah Dingle and Lindsey Thall 11 and Nila Blackford 10. Dingle came bench two minutes into the game. Freshman Clare Kelly started but didn’t score in 16 minutes.
• The Flashes held EMU’s Areanna Combs to 15 points, her lowest of the season. She had scored more than 20 in all six games she had played and had 32 against Bowling Green Saturday. Combs made just 3 of 18 field goals. (“We tried to crowd the paint on her and make her take tough shots,” Starkey said.) Combs did made 9 of 11 free throws and have nine rebounds. She drew nine fouls from KSU players.
• Thall blocked seven shots, one off her career high. She was fourth in the MAC going into the game.
• Eastern dominated rebounding, especially in the second half. Rebounds were even at 23 at halftime. The final was 43-30.
• Eastern has won five games in a row and is 2-0 in the MAC for the first time since the 2011-12 season.
• Kent State has lost two in a row for the first time this season.

Kent State returns to action at 1 p.m. Saturday against Western Michigan. The Broncos are 2-0 on the MAC after winning at Akron 56-51 Wednesday. They’re 9-4 overall and have won three in a row. Saturday’s game is the first of a doubleheader with the Kent State men, who play Central Michigan 30 minutes after the women finish.

Other MAC scores

• Central Michigan (2-0 MAC, 9-4 overall) 73, Ohio (1-1, 8-5) 71 at Ohio.
• Toledo (1-1, 6-7) 71, Buffalo (1-1, 10-3) 59 at Toledo.
• Miami (1-1, 8-6) 66, Northern Illinois (0-2, 4-9) 64 at Miami.
• Ball State (2-0, 10-4) 86, Bowling Green (0-2, 7-7) 80 at BG.

MAC standings

Here’s the KSU report card on key benchmarks for the first game of the conference season:

Ball State 66, Kent State 62

Score 70 points on offense: 62.  KSU’s lowest total of season against mid-major, though Ball State’s defense is among best in conference. MISSED.

Hold opponent under 70: 66. Defense was one of KSU’s best performances of the season, right on Ball State’s average. SUCCESS.

Make 40% of shots: 39.3%, about Kent’s average and 4 points better than Ball State’s defensive average. JUST MISSED.

Hold opponent under 40%: 38.3. Kent State’s second-best number of the season against a Division I team. MADE.

Outscore opponent by five on free throws: Ball State 12, Kent State 10. Six BSU foul shots came in last two minutes, when Flashes fouled to stop the clock. But KSU number is among its lowest of season. MISSED.

Outscore opponent by five off of turnovers: Kent State 9, Ball State 4. Hit it exactly, though both numbers are among lowest for a Kent game this season. Ball State had by far its most-turnover-free game of season. MADE

Have 14 assists: Flashes had six, a season low, on 24 baskets. NOT EVEN CLOSE.

Get 10 points from the bench: Kent State got only a 3-point basket from backup point guard Mariah Modkins. MISSED BADLY.

BOTTOM LINE: Flashes played pretty well against a good opponent on the road. But look at the last two bench marks. KSU needed just a couple more baskets. Low assists often mean the offense isn’t working well, and Flashes needed just a little more offense to win. Three points from the bench isn’t going to win championships.

GAME STORY: Ball State used 3-pointers, 4th-quarter scoring spurts to beat Flashes.

Kent State statistics

MAC women’s ‘golf’ standings

I’m stealing this from a regular on the Flash Fanatics bulletin board, who has done this for men’s basketball for several years. It’s simple and useful.

It gives a team one point for a road win and subtracts a point for a home loss. A home win gets zero. In a year when winning on the road looks critical in the MAC, it might be useful.

Central Michigan won 77-72 at Akron. Buffalo won 86-72 at Miami. Otherwise the home teams won.

1. Central and Buffalo +1.

3-10. Ball State, Bowling Green, Eastern Michigan, Kent State, Ohio, Western Michigan. 0.

11. Akron and Miami. -1.

The official MAC standings

Freshman forward led all players with 23 points and nine rebounds. She leads the team in both categories this season.

It was the last seconds of the third quarter, and Megan Carter had just given Kent State a 43-41 lead with a nifty fake and 12-foot jump shot.

Twelve seconds later Ball State’s Jasmin Samz hit a long 3-point shot at the buzzer to give the Cardinals the lead going into the fourth.

Ball State went on to beat the Flashes 66-62 in Muncie in the opening game of the Mid-American Conference season. Neither team led by more than seven points throughout the game.

“It was a big momentum swing,” coach Todd Starkey said in his postgame interview with David Wilson on Golden Flash iHeart Radio. “A more mature team understands that as long as there’s time ticking off the clock, you’ve got to make sure you’re talking (on defense.)

“We had one person who didn’t talk on that possession, and that left one of their best shooters wide open.”

But Starkey said the game really wasn’t lost on that basket or some plays that didn’t go Kent’s way in the last minutes.

“We flat out beat ourselves,” he said. “This is a game we could have and should have won. We’re playing from behind all the way down the stretch. There were a couple of three-minute stretches where we just completely lost our minds.

“We’ve got to learn from that. If we do, I don’t think there is anybody in the league we can’t beat. If we don’t, I don’t think there’s anybody who can’t beat us.”

After KSU had taken a 48-46 lead on 90 seconds into the fourth quarter, Ball State outscored Kent 7-0 over the next 1:20. Three minutes later, the Flashes closed the score to 56-54, and BSU went on a 5-0 run over the next three minutes.

Ball State freshman Sydney Freeman — a 57% foul shooter going into the game — made six free throws in the last 40 seconds to seal the game.

The first half was as good a defensive performance as Kent State has shown all season. The Flashes held Ball State to 24 points and 30% shooting and led 26-24.

But in the second half, the Cardinals, just a 28.4% 3-point shooting team going into the game, made five of seven 3-point shots. Kent State made one of seven.

KSU freshman Nila Blackford had 23 points and nine rebounds and thoroughly outplayed Oshlynn Brown, Ball State’s preseason all-MAC forward. Blackford scored Kent State’s first six points of the second half and had a three-point play that give the Flashes the lead early in the third quarter. She scored seven points in the last 1:08 AS KSU tried to rally at the end.

Brown had five points and seven rebounds. She had averaged 12.4 and 9.8.

In the end, it was a hard-fought game between two teams that hope to contend in the MAC this season.

“This is the one we wanted,” Starkey said, “and we had a chance to steal it. This would’ve been a great way to get start conference play, but we couldn’t make enough place down the stretch to get the win.

“They’re a tough team. They’ve got good balance. They’re going to win a lot of games this year in the league,

“I think if we can get some things fixed, we’re going to win a lot.”

Kent State is 7-5 on the season. Ball State is 9-4 and already has won more games than it did all last season.

Box score

Notes

• It was Kent State’s 13th straight loss at Ball State, dating back to 1997. In the same time period, the Flashes are 12-2 in Kent. The two teams meet again at the M.A.C. Center Jan. 29.
• Carter had 13 points for Kent State, eight in the second half. Lindsey Thall had 10, all in the first half when she made two 3-point baskets in the first four minutes. Ball State adjusted its defense, and Thall was able to get off only one 3-pointer the rest of the game and none in the second half.
• Ball State is one of the better rebounding teams in the MAC, and Kent State battled them to a virtual draw (39-38 BSU). 5-4 guard Asiah Dingle had eight, one off her career high. She also had three assists, a block and two steals to go with seven points.
• The Flashes had nine turnovers, tying a season low. But Ball State had eight, lowest of the season for a Kent State opponent. The Cardinals had been committing the most turnovers in the conference. Kent State did outscore BSU off of those turnovers 9-4.
• The Flashes had a season-low six assists on 24 baskets. Getting more assists had been a point of emphasis for Kent State going into the conference season.
• KSU made 39.3% of its shots, about its season average and four points above Ball State’s league-leading defensive average. The Flashes were four of 14 from 3-point distance. Ball State’s shooting percentage was 38.3%, about three points below its average. But the Cardinals’ eight of 17 three-point shooting (47% and a season high by five points) was the difference in the game.

Kent State opens the home part of its MAC schedule at 7 p.m. Wednesday against Eastern Michigan in the M.A.C. Center. The Eagles beat Bowling Green 78-61 in Ypsilanti Saturday and are 6-6.

The view from Ball State

Coach Brady Sallee from video on Ball State website:

On freshman point guard Sydney Freeman, who led Ball State with 16 points and six assists: “It was a really good start for her against a couple of really good point guards with quickness. Every time they made a mistake on a ball screen, she made them pay. To have a freshman be that savvy is pretty special.”

On shutting down Kent State forward Lindsey Thall in the second half: “I might have mentioned her name 340,000 times at halftime. She’s a good player and deserves that much attention. The places she scored…we were supposed to be guarding her. We just had to get back to the plan.”

Other MAC scores

• Central Michigan (8-4) 77, Akron (7-5) 72 at Akron.
• Buffalo (10-2) 86, Miami (7-6) 72 at Miami.
• Ohio (8-4) 87, Northern Illinois 67 (4-8) at Ohio.
• Western Michigan (7-4) 84, Toledo (5-6) 72 at Western.

MAC standings

Kent State’s Monique Smith has averaged almost 11 minutes of playing time over the last four games, totaling more than she played all last season. She’s been among the first post players off the bench and three times has equaled her career high of four points. Smith is a 5-11 junior from San Diego.

Six critical road games could determine Kent’s MAC season.

Six critical numbers for the Flashes to have conference success.

Kent State’s Mid-American Conference opener at Ball State Saturday is reminiscent of the Flashes’ first game of the season.

Kent faces a good team on the road in a game that will help set the tone for the season.

The Flashes managed to win that first game against Duquesne on a last-second shot by Megan Carter. The win looks better and better as the season goes on; Duquesne won 10 games in a row before losing to Oklahoma State this week and is 10-3.

Ball State may be an even tougher game. The Cardinals are 8-4 and have won four straight games, including a three-game sweep of the Lobo Christmas Classic at the University of New Mexico. Their RPI ranking is 94 of 351 teams, fourth best among MAC teams. Kent State is third with an RPI of 75 and a record of 7-4.

BSU is the surprise team of the MAC, having been picked fifth in the MAC West after a  8-23 record last season. It was the only losing season in coach Brady Sallee’s eight years in Muncie. He has taken the Cardinals to the WNIT six times.

Last year’s team had been hit by injuries and unanticipated graduate transfers of its two best players. This year’s team has its top three players back from last season, along with the return of 2018’s top freshman from an injury. The Cardinals have added a freshman to the starting lineup who scored 1,700 points in high school.

“We’re going to have play really good basketball to have a chance to beat Ball State over there,” KSU coach Todd Starkey said. “They have very good balance. They have a very good coach. It’s a tough place to play.”

Statistically Ball State is the best defensive team in the MAC. The Cardinals allow 61.1 points a game, lowest in the league. They lead the MAC in field goal defense at 35.4% and are third in 3-point defense at 28.4%. They’re third in the league in rebounding margin at plus-2.5.

Offensively Ball State averages 67.5 points a game, eighth in the league, and makes 41% of its shots, fourth in the conference. Its 34.1% three-point shooting is third in the MAC.

The Cardinals’ weakness is turnovers, where their minus-2.08 margin in next to last in the MAC. They’ve made more turnovers than any team in the league.

Kent State will try to exploit that. The Flashes’s are third in the MAC with a plus-4.18 margin and make the fewest turnovers per game in the league in non-conference play.

The Flashes’ defense ranks statistically toward the bottom of the conference, especially its 43.8% field goal defense (12th of 12 team). KSU’s offense ranks third in scoring.

Both teams have balanced scoring. All five Kent State starters average in double figures. So do three of Ball State’s starters, and two other player average more than 8.5 points a game.

Ball State’s top player is 6-1 junior forward Oshlynn Brown, a preseason all-MAC West selection who averages 12.4 points and 9.4 rebounds.

All of KSU’s loses have come to teams in the top 50 in the country in RPI — Michigan (48), Ohio State (19) and Purdue (14) of the Big Ten and Troy (40) of the Sun Belt Conference.

Starkey says Kent State’s record reflects its performance well.

“We’re probably right where we deserve to be,” Starkey said. “We won some buzzer beaters, but we gave one away against Troy.

“So now it’s an 18-game (conference) season, and everybody’s good. There isn’t a single easy out in the conference.”

A long time ago

The last time Kent State’s women won at Ball State was 1997.

• Almost every current player on both teams hadn’t been born.
• Todd Starkey hadn’t gotten his first coaching job yet.
• Brady Sallee was a first-year assistant at Kent State under Bob Lindsay.

Since then, the Flashes have gone to Muncie 11 times and lost. They lost under five times under Lindsay, four times under coach Danny O’Banion and twice under Starkey. Last season the Flashes lost 48-44 in their worst offensive game of the season.

In Kent during that time period, KSU has won 12 of 14. The two teams will play at the M.A.C. Center on Wednesday, Jan. 29.

Links

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

Detailed media game notes form Kent State.

Ball State website, including links.

MAC statistics.

MAC standings.

To follow the game

Tipoff is at 1 p.m. at Worthen Arena on the Ball State campus in Muncie, Indiana. It’s about a four-and-a-half hour drive. The address is 2000 W. University Ave., Muncie, if you’re using a GPS.

Video is streamed on ESPN+, which costs $4.99 a month. This link will connect you and tell you how to pay. More than half of KSU men’s and women’s basketball are on ESPN+, as are games from other MAC schools and other mid-major conferences. Some wrestling, gymnastic, baseball and softball events also are streamed.

Audio starts at about 12:45 on WHLO 640 and Golden Flash iHeart Radio. David Wilson is the announcer.

Live statistics during the game will be on the Ball State website.

Alexa Golden gots a promotion

Alexa Golden, who graduated last May after starting for the Flashes four years, has been named director of operations for the women’s team.

She had been a graduate assistant. She took over most the duties of her new job when former operations director Alison Seberger took an assistant job at North Alabama in fall.

Golden got the job officially in December. In her four years playing for the team, she got both a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice and a masters in sports and recreation management. She started another masters in fall, but said on the team’s trip that she’ll put that on hold as she gets used to her new job.

Golden is only player in Kent State women’s basketball history to have 500 points, 500 rebounds, 200 assists, 200 steals and 100 three-point field goals. She made the MAC all-defensive team as a senior and was voted as Kent State’s most valuable player last season.

Freshman Nila Blackford leads the Flashes in scoring at 13.5 points a game. But at one time or another, Sophomores Asiah Dingle and Lindsey Thall and senior Megan Carter all have held the scoring lead. All average in double figures, as does freshman Katie Shumate. (Photo from team Twitter feed.)

Earlier this week we wrote what Kent State needed to do to have a successful MAC season. But how successful can they be?

Everything — for the Flashes and every other team in the league — depends on how well they play on the road.

Let’s look at the league as a whole. Here’s how I’d rank the teams right now, grouped as teams I see as fairly even):

1-2-3. Central Michigan (7-4, RPI 55), Buffalo (9-2, RPI 70), Ohio (7-4, RPI 123).

4-5. Ball State (8-4, RPI 88), Kent State (7-4, RPI 76).

6-7-8. Akron (8-4, RPI 135), Miami (7-5, RPI 133), Bowling Green 76-5, RPI 119).

9-10.  Western Michigan (7-4, RPI 176), Northern Illinois (4-7, RPI 165).

11-12. Eastern Michigan (5-6, RPI 199), Toledo (5-6, RPI 218).

RPI takes into account a team’s record and strength of schedule. Road wins are rewarded. Home losses hurt more.

I think that Akron, Bowling Green and Western Michigan may not be as good as the records say. Northern Illinois and Toledo may be better. But but that’s a discussion for another time.

Two things to notice: The MAC has no outstanding team so far. Last year, Central, Buffalo and Ohio all ranked in the top 35 in the RPI. Central and Buffalo made the NCAA tournament. Ohio was one of the best teams that didn’t.

But the MAC has no particularly weak team either. There are 351 Division I teams. The MAC’s lowest is Toledo at 218.

So we may see a lot of upsets this season, and upsets often come when a weaker team wins on its home court.

That’s why I say that road wins are the key to the season for KSU and all MAC teams.

GAMES THE FLASHES SHOULD WIN: Home games against Miami, Akron, Bowling Green, Western Michigan, Eastern Michigan, Toledo. (6 wins)

GAMES THE FLASHES SHOULD BE FAVORED: Ball State at home. Western Michigan, Toledo and Northern Illinois on the road. Say they win three of four. (3 more wins.)

That would be nine wins or a .500 season.

TOSS-UPS: Akron, Bowling Green, Miami on the road.

KSU AS UNDERDOG: Buffalo and Ohio at home. At Ball State.

HARD TO WIN: Central Michigan, Buffalo and Ohio on the road.

Win two of three of the toss-ups and one of the three “underdog games” and the Flashes are 12-6.

Win none of those, lose one more “favored” game and get upset at home, and it could be 7-9.

Win an extra “favored” game and knock off Buffalo or Ohio once, and we’re looking at 14-4 and a chance for the MAC title.

One last look at the key games: At Akron. At Bowling Green. At Northern Illinois. At Western. At Toledo. At Northern. At Ball State.

See the pattern?

In non-conference play, Kent State went 2-1 in true road games. The Flashes won by two points at Duquesne, a team similar in record and RPI to Ball State. They won in overtime at Youngstown State, a team similar to Akron and Miami.

At a neutral site, they lost in the last 20 seconds to to Troy, a team similar in record to Buffalo, Central and Ohio. (Other losses were to Ohio State at home, Purdue away and Michigan at a neutral site. No MAC team looks that good.)

7-9 to 12-6. Watch the road games, starting Saturday at Ball State.

Non-conference MAC standings

MAC RPI rankings

Flashes in the huddle late in their 92-36 win over Hiram Monday. (WbbFlashes photo.)

Since the start of the blog, I’ve done a “Keys to the Season” and/or a “Keys to the Conference Season.”

I’m going to do it a little differently this season, instead listing some benchmark numbers I think the team has to meet in order to have a good MAC season. I define that as finishing in the top four and getting a bye to the quarterfinals of the league tournament in Cleveland.

70 points

The Flashes have scored 70 points in six of their seven non-conference wins. They haven’t scored 70 in any of their four losses. Last year’s team averaged just 65.5 points a game and won on defense; this year’s has to score.

The team struggled on defense early in the season but has allowed an average of 63.5 over the last four games. Two were against good teams (loss to Purdue 77-64 and loss to Troy 71-64. Two were to less-good teams (St. Bonaventure and Georgia Southern).

(I’m not counting statistics from KSU’s 92-36 win over Hiram in any of this. The Flashes won’t play a team anywhere near as weak as Division III Hiram in the MAC.)

So 70 in the benchmark: Score at least 70. Hold the opponent under 70.

40 percent shooting.

Here’s another number that can count both on offense and defense.

Kent State has made more than 40% of its shots in only three games — Duquesne, Fort Wayne and Robert Morris.

Seven opponents have shot better than 40%.

That’s not sustainable. The last four opponents — none of which were great shooting teams — have averaged almost exactly 40%. That’s encouraging. The average shooting percentage in the MAC last season and so far this year is about 40.

So once again the goal is to shoot at least 40% and hold opponents below that number.

+5 free throws

Kent State has made up for its below-average shooting at the foul line and with turnovers. 

The Flashes outscored opponents at the foul line by about six a game so far this season. It’s been a lot more than that — plus-13 — in the six games they’ve won. Over  coach Todd Starkey’s four seasons, the Flashes have been among the nation’s leaders in free throws attempted and made. It’s made a difference in many games.

+5 points off turnovers

It’s hard to believe I’m writing this. Throughout the five years before Starkey arrived and through his first two years, the Flashes were near the bottom of the MAC in turnover margin. Currently they’re second.

The number I’m using is points off turnovers, however. As Starkey has said consistently after games, turnovers don’t do much good unless they become points. 

Kent State has on average scored six more points off turnovers than its opponents. It even had an advantage against the three Big Ten teams it lost to. But a warning: Troy was the toughest mid-major the Flashes have played and the kind of team they will have to beat to compete in the MAC. The Flashes were even in turnovers through three quarters and minus-10 in the fourth quarter, and the game slipped away.

14 assists

“We’re a much better team when we share the ball,” Starkey said after the Hiram game, when the Flashes had 25 assists, their most in seven years.

But KSU hasn’t done that very well over the last two years. The Flashes were in the bottom 40 in the country in assists per game last season at 10.8 per game. This season isn’t a lot better at 11.2 (not counting the Hiram game).

14 was the Starkey mentioned after the Flashes beat Robert Morris 82-81. They had 18 assists in that game. But over the last three, they’ve averaged 10.7.

Fourteen is a pretty modest goal. It would have been sixth in the MAC last season.

10 points a game from the bench

Kent State’s most significant victories have been in one-possession games against Duquesne, Youngstown State and Robert Morris. Its closest loss came in the last 19 seconds when Troy outscored the Flashes 7-0 in the last 19 seconds.

In those four games, KSU got a total of 10 points from its reserves. It was 0 against Duquesne, two versus Robert Morris and Troy and five against YSU. (I’m counting Megan Carter as a starter in the opener. She wasn’t in the lineup because of an injury  but came in and played 35 minutes. She’s started every other game.)

Kent’s five starters all average in double figures. But no one else averages more than four points per game. Clare Kelly scored 20 points against Hiram; Hannah Young had 14. If they can score six or eight in most games, and reserve forwards Ali Poole, Sydney Brinlee and Monique Smith can add a couple of baskets, life will be a lot easier.

Keeping track

I’ll update how the team is doing on this numbers  throughout the conference season.

KSU non-conference statistics

MAC non-conference statistics