For a happy moment, the Kent State women’s basketball team ranks in the top 25 in the country in the RPI, a widely used ratings system.

The Flashes are ranked 17th of the nation’s 329 Division I teams by WarrenNolan.com and 21st by RealTimeRPI.com.

RPI is based on a team’s record, its opponents’ record and opponents’ opponents’ record. Road wins are rated about double of home wins; home wins and road losses count less.

Kent State’s rankings — the highest I can remember in 30 years of following the team — come after the Flashes won three games in a row against Ohio, Toledo and Duquesne. Those three teams have a combined record of 12-5. Ohio (4-2 with a 65 RPI) and Duquesne (2-3 and 73) rank in the top 100 RPI, as do earlier opponents Ohio State (4-0 and 23) and Saint Francis (4-4 with a 61 RPI). Ohio State beat the Flashes 103-47 in KSU’s opener and Saint Francis won 67-64 at home.

Toledo is 5-1 with a 147 RPI.

The big reason behind KSU’s ranking is strength of schedule. RealTimeRPI ranks the Flashes’ schedule 16th toughest in the country; WarrenNolan ranks it eighth. Kent’s five opponents have a combined record of 16-7.

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Kent State is hot on 3-pointers, rebounds well at the end to beat Duquesne 73-66.

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You’re starting the see the problems with early-season RPIs.

How can Ohio State, a team that beat Kent by 56 points, rank behind the Flashes? How can Toledo rank 86 spots behind Saint Francis when Saint Francis has lost three more games?

RPIs are like this at the beginning of every season. They have usually started to settle down by New Year’s, but this season of COVID is crazier than most.

(A quick attempt at explanations: All four of Ohio State’s games have been at home, and its opponents’ records total 10-10. Toledo won four of its games at home, and its opponents are 10-22. Saint Francis opponents are 28-14.)

At one time, a top-50 RPI was a likely ticket to the NCAA Tournament. In recent years, the ratings system has been less in favor. The weakness in the RPI is that it rewards playing good teams more than it rewards beating good teams.

As of this season, the NCAA has dropped the RPI as part of its tournament selection criteria. Instead it’s using something called the NET, which emphasizes something called “adjusted net efficiency.” That measure’s key components are points per possession and opponents’ points per possession. It’s adjusted for strength of schedule and whether victories were at home or on the road.

The NCAA hasn’t released its first NET rankings yet. Kent State isn’t likely to fare as well in it as in the RPI, especially this season. First, the lopsided Ohio State game will haunt KSU statistically all season. Second, as the Power conferences get into league play, their strength of schedules (and rankings) will go up.

Still, it’s something to talk about it as we wait for teams to get back on the court. For the MAC, that’s Saturday, when the Flashes play at Eastern Michigan. EMU’s record is 4-3; its RPI is 140.

KSU center Linsey Marchese has averaged 3.8 points and 5 points and has started every game so far.

The Kent State women return to the court Monday against Duquesne for what likely is their last game of 2020.

AN EARLIER VERSION OF THIS POST — THANKFULLY POSTED ONLY A SHORT TIIME — SAID THE GAME WAS ON SUNDAY. WRONG. GAME IS AT 1 P.M. MONDAY.

The game starts at 1 p.m. at the M.A.C. Center. No fans are allowed because of COVID-19 protocol. The game will be live streamed on ESPN+ and on the Kent State Radio Network. ESPN cost $4.99 a month and will include most games — men’s and women’s — in the MAC season. Click on the link to get instructions to sign up.

Kent State (2-2) isn’t scheduled to play another game before returning to MAC play at Eastern Michigan on Saturday, Jan. 2. In an interview after KSU’s 61-57 win over Toledo Sunday, coach Todd Starkey didn’t think it was likely the Flashes would add another game before then.

Duquesne (2-2) and Kent State have played almost identical schedules this season. Both lost by big margins at Ohio State. Kent State lost by three points at Saint Francis; Duquesne beat Saint Francis by two. On Friday, Duquqesne lost 77-74 at Toledo, a team Kent State beat on the road 61-57. The Dukes also beat St. Bonaventure, a school originally on Kent State’s schedule until it was wiped out by COVID problems.

I think we can conclude from those scores that the teams should be very well matched.

They were last year. The Flashes and Duquesne met in the first game of the season with Kent State pulling out a 67-65 victory on a shot at the buzzer by Megan Carter.

Duquesne has averaged almost 22 wins a year over the last seven seasons.

The Dukes return three starters from last year’s 20-11 team, though the best of them — senior guard Libby Bazelak — has missed every game so far with an injury. Bazelak led the Dukes in scoring last season and was selected for the preseason All-Atlantic 10 team. Laia Sole, a 6-2 forward, made the All-Atlantic 10 preseason second team. she averages 10 points and 8.5 rebounds a game.

Current leading scorer is 5-8 guard Amanda Kalin, who averages 17.5 points a game. She scored 32 points and hit 5-of-6 3-point shots against Toledo. The Dukes also start 6-4 center Precious Johnson, who is averaging 2.5 blocks so far this season.

Duquesne’s front line is the same size as that of Kent State, which starts 6-4 Linsey Marchese, 6-2 Nila Blackford and 6-2 Lindsey Thall.

Marchese, a junior transfer from Indiana, has averaged only 11 minutes a game so far, partly because Kent State has played three teams with smaller lineups. She has averaged 3.8 points and 5.0 rebounds.

“She’ll definitely come around and be a big, big contributor for us,” coach Todd Starkey said after KSU’s win over Toledo. “She hasn’t played much basketball the last two years. (Until this season, transfers had to sit out a year).

“I think it’s just a matter of shaking off some of the rust and getting in a little bit of a flow. She has looked good in practice.”

After her 21-point, 15-rebound performance against Toledo, Blackford leads Kent State in scoring (13.8 points per game) and rebounding (9.5). Her rebounding average is best in the MAC.

Thall is third on the team at 9.5 points per game and leads the MAC in blocked shots at 1.5 a game. She has led the league in blocks the last two seasons.

Starkey said his team has shown progress but still has more to do.

“It’s a great sign that we were able to be two tough conference opponents and still have a pretty large margin for improvement.”

Notes

• Toledo outrebounded Duquesne 43-29. Kent State had outrebounded the Rockets 48-28 five days earlier.
• KSU point guard Mariah Modkins is second on the team in scoring at 10.5 points per game. She’s making 50% of her 3-point shots, which is tied for seventh in the MAC. She’s also eighth in the league with 3.8 assists per game.
• Live statistics for the Duquesne game can be found on the KSU website.

MAC scores

Saturday

• Buffalo (4-2) 71, St. Bonaventure (1-2, 0-2) 52 at Buffalo.
• Bowling Green (5-1) 76, Morehead State (1-5) 61 at Morehead State.
• Evansville (3-1) 66, Miami (1-4) 60 at Evansville.

Friday

• Michigan State (5-0) 79, Central Michigan (3-2) 70 at Michigan State.
• Toledo (4-1) 77 Duquesne (2-2) 74 at Toledo.

Wedneday

• Ohio (3-1) 77, Northern Illinois (2-4) 67 at NIU.

THE KENT STATE WOMEN PLAY AT TOLEDO AT 2 P.M. SUNDAY. PREVIEW AND LINK TO ESPN+ BROADCAST IS HERE.

Katie Shumate led Kent State in scoring with 18 points. The sophomore guard is battling back from knee surgery and had only 10 points total in KSU’s first two games. She also played twice as many minutes as she had in both of the team’s first two games. (Photo from team’s website.)

Kent State’s 84-80 win over Ohio Friday had lots of important pieces:

• After two disappointing losses, the Flashes (1-2) beat one of the favorites for the MAC championship. Ohio (2-1), which is led by two all-conference players, had beaten Notre Dame two weeks ago.

• Kent State made a school-record 16 3-points baskets.

• Six players scored in double figures.

• The Flashes had 22 assists on 25 baskets.

• And a key moment came when KSU scored eight points in one trip down the court. Nila Blackford made a layup and converted on a 3-point play. Ohio was called for a technical foul, and Lindsey Thall made both shots. After Kent put the ball inbounds, Clare Kelly hit a 3-point basket. That took KSU from a 63-61 deficit to a 69-63 lead with 8:10 to go in the game. Kent State led for the rest of the game.

“I didn’t know whether we were quite ready for a performance like this based on how things have gone over the last couple of months,” coach Todd Starkey said. “I’m really proud of their resilience. They really responded to things that we talked about after the St Francis game (a 67-64 Wednesday loss). They were coachable and swallowed their pride and came out and competed.”

In this season of COVID-19, the Flashes lost 10 days of late preseason practice because of the virus and saw their opener canceled. They have had five other games canceled or postponed. They played their first game three days after returning to practice and were run off the court by No. 18 Ohio State 103-47. They lost a disappointing game at 1-4 Saint Francis Wednesday.

KSU’s Super Six

KATIE SHUMATE: 18 points, 3 of 5 three-pointers, 3 assists and a block.

54.1 2Q | Kent State 38, Ohio 33

Pavlansky finds Shumate off the turnover for a 3-point play! pic.twitter.com/y8mSmWoC3Y

— Kent State Women’s Basketball (@KentStWBB) December 11, 2020

Shumate, Kent State’s second-leading scorer and rebounder last season, had off-season knee surgery. She played only 15 minutes in each of KSU’s first two games and wasn’t much of a factor. Against Ohio, she played 30 minutes.

“She’s been working hard all year coming back,” Modkins said in a postgame interview. “It was a good boost of confidence for Katie and just what she needed.

“Now, I think, she’s going to get into a groove, and it’s going to be really hard to stop her.”

Starkey also praised Shumate’s defense against all-MAC wing Erica Johnson.

“She just needed to shake off some rust,” the coach said. “She’s not quite 100%; she’s still working on getting some strength back.’

MARIAH MODKINS: 15 points, 3 of 3 three-pointers, 6 of 6 free throws, 7 assist in 37 minutes.

9:38 1Q | Kent State 3, Ohio 0

Flashes win the tip and Mariah Modkins cashes in from long range on the first possession of the day! pic.twitter.com/2gpyZSemjP

— Kent State Women’s Basketball (@KentStWBB) December 11, 2020

“I just kind of do what I have to do every night,” she said. “Some nights it’s going to be different — whether it’s making shots or distributing the ball. Today I think it was a little bit of both. And I was able to step up to the plate and connect.”

Modkins, who averaged three points in 14 minutes a game her first two year, leads the team in minutes at 32 per game and is third on the team with a 10.7 point average.

NILA BLACKFORD: 11 points, 13 rebounds, two assists and two blocks.

Starkey had called out Blackford’s rebounding against Saint Francis. (She had only five boards against players three and four inches shorter).

“We’ve been pretty hard on her, to be honest,” Starkey said, “and she’s responded. That’s a great thing as a coach to see — when you present the truth to someone and then they respond to it. That’s being coachable.

“And she did a really good job of letting the game come to her instead of forcing drives into three or four players like Ohio wants you to do.”

CLARE KELLY: 14 points, 4 of 8 three-point shooting, an assist and a steal.

Clare Kelly’s triple capped the possession, which also included a 3-point play by Nila Blackford and 2 technical foul shots by Lindsey Thall. pic.twitter.com/AqqjVzYYJv

— Kent State Women’s Basketball (@KentStWBB) December 11, 2020

Kelly’s 14 points and four 3-pointers were her highest by far against a Division I team. (She had 20 against Division III Hiram last season.)

“It was a great boost for her,” Starkey said. “Clare is a talented player, and her freshman year she was trying to figure out what college basketball was going to look like.

“Some of these kids are a confident performance away from being the kind of player that they’re capable of being. I’m hoping that’s the case with Clare.”

LINDSEY THALL: 11 points, 4 rebounds, 4 assists, 4 blocks and a steal.

4:34 3Q | Kent State 49, Ohio 47

Modkins throws over the defense to Thall for the lay-in and the lead! pic.twitter.com/TfmrLVLPyR

— Kent State Women’s Basketball (@KentStWBB) December 11, 2020

All of Thall’s points came in the second half.

“Lindsey was a big reason we won this game,” Starkey told David Wilson on the team’s postgame radio interview. “She didn’t get frustrated and did a really good job of being a screener that opened up 3-point shots behind her.”

CASEY SANTORO: 14 points, 5 of 8 shooting, 3 of 5 on 3-pointers, 5 rebounds, 2 assists and a steal.

2:28 4Q | Kent State 76, Ohio 72

Santoro puts the Flashes ahead by 4 to give her a career-high 14 points. pic.twitter.com/3oXKOs3CDS

— Kent State Women’s Basketball (@KentStWBB) December 11, 2020

Santoro, who scored 2,156 points at Bellevue High School, had her highest-scoring game in her brief college career.

“We got great productivity out of Casey,” Starkey said. “As a freshman, she showed some really high-level toughness and knocked down three big 3s for us.”

During almost all of her 25 minutes, Santoro played alongside fellow point guard Modkins.

All those 3-pointers

The 16 three-point baskets broke the 26-year-old record of 15 set against Eastern Michigan.

“It’s the kind of a shooting performance we’ve been waiting on,” Starkey said. “For a couple of years, I’ve known we’ve had good shooters, and it was nice to finally have a breakout shooting game.”

Assists on 88% of their baskets

Kent State’s 22 assists were the most since Starkey’s first year in 2016-17.

Assists on 88% of KSU baskets has to be close to the best in school history. Last season the Flashes’ assist rate was 46%, which ranked 332nd of 349 Division I teams.

“This team is built a little bit differently than the teams we’ve had in the past,” Starkey said. “We’ve had players that can really create their own shot. We’re not built quite that way anymore. We have some people that can do that, but this is going to be a team that plays better as it gets better at screening and passing and moving.“

The 8-point possession

Neither Starkey nor Modkins had ever seen a sequence like Kent State’s eight points in 22 seconds, sandwiched around an Ohio technical.

“But if we can get that again, I’ll be really happy,” Modkins said.

“That was huge for us,” Starkey said. “They had put on a good run on us, and we found a way to take advantage.”

Ohio’s dynamic duo

Ohio guards Cece Hooks and Erica Johnson went into the game as the nation’s top-scoring pair. That’s not likely to change.

Johnson played all 40 minutes and scored 29 points, made six 3-point baskets, 9 free throws, and had 6 assists and four rebounds. Hooks had 23 points and, at 5-foot-8, led her team in rebounding with 9. The rest of the team scored 28 points.

Ohio, which always shoots a lot of 3-pointers, took 34 and made 13.

Box score

Notes

• Ohio coach Bob Boldon tweeted Friday morning that he would miss the game because he had had COVID-19 for about 10 days. So now we know why the Ohio-Kent State game was postponed last Saturday. Associate head coach Tavares Jackson ran the Ohio bench.
• It was the ninth straight game between Ohio and Kent State that has been decided by fewer than eight points. Six of them were decided by four or fewer. Over the last four years, Ohio has won two MAC East titles and Kent has won two.
• Kent State made 25 of its 56 shots for 44.6%. Ohio was 23 of 56 for 36.5% and was only 3 of 15 in the fourth quarter.
• Kent State outrebounded Ohio 39-33, the first time the Flashes have had an edge on the boards in their three games.
• Ohio scored 19 points off of Kent’s 19 turnovers. Kent State scored 11 off of Ohio’s 13.
• Kent State’s bench outscored Ohio’s 28-6.

Next: Sunday in Toledo

The Flashes play their second MAC game and third game in five days at 2 p.m. Sunday in Toledo.

The Rockets are 3-0 and coming off an 82-79 victory at Northern Illinois on Thursday. Sophia Wiard, a 5-7 sophomore guard who averaged 3.8 points a game last season, tied Toledo’s school record with 42 points against NIU.