In her first start of the year, sophomore Clare Kelly scored 12 points, hit both her of 3-point shots, had three assists and two steals. She played a career-high 33 minutes. (Photo by Scott Galvin from team website.)
In Kent State’s three games in the early MAC season, Nila Blackford has been playing like an all-conference selection.
The 6-2 sophomore had her third double-double in three league games to lead the Flashes to a 67-61 win at Eastern Michigan.
“She’s started to really feel it here in her sophomore year,” coach Todd Starkey said. “Her effort has been phenomenal. When she starts finishing more around the basket and making free throws, she’s going to be a difficult stop.
Blackford had 14 points — 12 in the second half — and 13 rebounds against Eastern. Over KSU’s last four games, she’s averaged 12.5 rebounds. For the season, she’s averaging a double-double — 14.5 points and 10.0 rebounds.
The Flashes are tied for first place in the MAC, with two of their wins coming on the road against winning teams. Overall Kent State is 4-2. Eastern Michigan is 4-4 and 1-2 in the conference.
The sharpshooting continues
For the third time in four games, KSU made more than 50% of its 3-point shots. The Flashes were 8 of 15. They lead the MAC in 3-point percentage at 39.4%; in their three league games, they’re making 44.4%.
“We’ve got a lot of good shooters,” Starkey said, “and we had some very timely 3s. Mariah (Modkins) had two back-to-back to get us out of a funk in the first half. Clare (Kelly) had a big one in the fourth quarter.”
Next step, according to Starkey: “We’ve got to get a little better on our inside-out game (where post players feed shooters on the perimeter).”
KSU’s best defense of the season
The Flashes held Eastern to 32% shooting, lowest of any opponent by 5 points, and 2 of 11 on 3-pointers, the fewest against them all season. Eastern had 19 turnovers, the most against KSU so far.
“We were solid,” Starkey said. “We missed some assignments on (Areanna) Combs on drives. But she’s really talented. Any given night she can be the best player in the league. Our philosophy topical has not been to try and shut down somebody’s leading scorer but to play solid all the way around.”
Combs, who is seventh in the MAC with a 19.5-point average, had 29 points. But it took her 25 shots to make her nine baskets.
Kent State’s best defense came when they needed it at the end. Eastern made three-of-11 shots over the last seven minutes.
“We dug in a little bit more defensively and got a little bit better focus,” Starkey said. “We did a little bit better of a better job of keeping Combs out of the paint and making them shoot tough shots.”
Another good game for Mariah Modkins
Modkins had a career-high 16 points, including her two 3-point baskets.
“She’s literally 5-foot-zero — probably the smallest Division I player in the country,” Starkey said, “and she just comes out and leads our team and makes tough plays. She gets banged around, and she just keeps playing.”
After the game, Starkey said, Modkins was “kind of down a little bit.”
“She’s thinking about the turnovers that she didn’t want to have down the stretch as opposed to the fact she had a career high,” the coach said. “That’s how she’s wired. She expects a lot out of herself, and that’s why she’s playing a lot better this year.”
Last season Modkins split the point guard role with Asiah Dingle and averaged three points and 15 minutes a game. This season she’s averaging 10.8 points and 33 minutes.
A successful start for Clare Kelly, a successful game for Linsey Marchese
Sophomore Clare Kelly started her first game for the season, scored 12 points, made all four of her shots and both her 3-point shots, had three assists and a steal. Her 33 minutes were a career-high. She also guarded Combs through most of the second half and “by and large, did a good job on her,” Starkey said.
Because Kelly started, Linsey Marchese did not. But the 6-4 transfer from Indiana still had her best game in a Kent State uniform. Marchese scored 10 points and had five rebounds in 20 minutes, making four-of-five field-goal attempts. The 10 points beat her career-high at Indiana.
“Her best game by far,” Starkey said. “Hopefully that will be a nice shot in the arm for her and give her some confidence.”
Monique Smith: five rebounds in six minutes
Smith, a senior, had four rebounds in the last 2:29 of the first half when starting forwards Lindsey Thall and Blackford were on the bench with two fouls.
“She’s one of the key reasons why we won because we really needed her to help us close out the first half,” Starkey said. “Then she came in late in the game and played great defense. Some of the rebounds we got as a team were because she was doing a great job of boxing out. So her play probably led to more like 10 rebounds because of how hard she was playing.”
Less good: turnovers and foul shooting
Kent State committed 23 turnovers, its highest total of the season. Eastern Michigan, which has been known for years for high-pressure defense, scored 24 points off of them. Kent State scored 13 off of EMU’s 19 turnovers.
The Flashes missed 14 of their 31 foul shots. If they made half of those, the game isn’t close. Eastern was 21 of 26. But Modkins and Shumate made six of six free throws in the last 1:02.
“The nice thing about it is we’re finding ways to win games, but we’re not playing our best,” Starkey said. “There’s definitely a room for improvement, and the good thing is that the team recognizes that.”
Notes
- Kent State made 45.7 of its field-goal attempts, its best percentage of the season. The Flashes outrebounded EMU 39-37
- The game was both teams’ first since Dec. 21. So far Kent has had the beginning of its season delayed three weeks because of COVID-19, opened at Ohio State on three days notice, had seven days off, played three games in five days, had eight days off, played Duquesne at home, then had 12 games off before Saturday. “It’s really hard to get in a rhythm,” Starkey said.
- Kent State has won four games in a row at Eastern and seven of eight overall since Starkey became head coach in 2017. Before then, the Flashes had lost 11 in a row.
- Ce’Nara Skanes, who had 23 rebounds in Eastern’s previous game against Tarleton, had 14 Saturday. She leads the MAC with a 10.5 average. Blackford is second at 10.0.
Coming home
The Flashes have two home games next week, though fans aren’t allowed because of pandemic protocol. They will play Northern Illinois at 2 p.m. Wednesday. The Huskies are 1-2 in the MAC and 3-5 overall. They beat Western Michigan 73-56 at home Saturday.
On Saturday, KSU will play Ball State (1-1 in MAC, 3-3 overall) at noon. The Cardinals were playing a late Saturday game against Bowling Green.
Other MAC scores
- Central Michigan (3-0 MAC, 5-2 overall) 90, Ohio (1-2, 3-3) 87 at Ohio.
- Toledo (2-1, 6-1) 65, Akron (0-3, 3-3) 57 at Toledo
- Buffalo (3-0, 6-2) 75, Miami (0-3, 1-6) 67 at Miami.
- Northern Illinois (1-2, 3-5) 73, Western Michigan (0-3, 3-5) 56 at NIU.
- Bowling Green (3-0, 7-1) 89, Ball State (1-2, 3-4) 55 at Ball State.