Kent State travels to Central Michigan Saturday to face the only team coach Todd Starkey has not defeated in his five years at KSU.
The game starts at 1 p.m. on ESPN3, which is free if you get ESPN by cable, satellite or app. Online radio starts at 12:45 p.m., and you can get live statistics during the game at the CMU website.
Not many other people have beaten Central, either. The Chippewas have won four straight overall MAC regular season championships. In that run they’ve never lost more than three games.
This season CMU has already lost four games. The Chipps are 10-4 and in fifth place in the league by winning percentage (.714). In this COVID season, Central is one of only four teams that has played every scheduled MAC games.
Kent State, which had seven games postponed by the coronavirus in January, is in second place in the MAC at 6-2 (.750 winning percentage). Bowling Green, which beat the Flashes 80-79 in overtime on Wednesday, is in first at 11-3.
Because CMU is in the West Division in normal years, Starkey’s teams have played Central only four times. (This season there are no divisions.) Last season the Flashes lost by 13 in Mt. Pleasant; the previous year Central overcame a fourth-quarter deficit and beat KSU 72-75 in Kent.
This season Central has come from behind in the fourth to win its last two games. Both were by just three points against two of the weaker teams in the league — 74-71 over 10th-place Western Michigan and 81-78 over last-place Miami.
Both games were on the road, where the Chippewas have much better record in MAC games than they do at home. CMU has won seven of eight away games but is 4-3 on its home court.
Central returns five starters from last year’s championship team, but senior forward Kyra Bussell has missed the team’s last two games because of injury.
CMU’s top player is Micaela Kelly, last season’s MAC player of the year. Kelly averages 23.1 points a game, 10th highest in Division I, and scored 37 against Miami Wednesday. Point guard Molly Davis, a member of last season’s all-freshman team, averages 19.8 points a game, sixth in the MAC.
Central is second in the league in team scoring (77.8 per game) and first in field-goal percentage (45.8%). But the Chippewas are eighth in scoring defense (72.9) and seventh in field-goal defense (43%).
Kent State is fifth in scoring (74.4) and sixth in field-goal percentage. The Flashes are sixth in team defense (72.5) and fifth in field-goal defense (40.9%). All stats are for MAC games only.
KSU’s Nila Blackford is one of four players averaging a double-double in MAC play at 17.1 points (11th in the league) and 12.1 rebounds (second). The other double-double players are Oshlyn Brown of Ball State, Ce’Nara Skanes of Eastern Michigan and Taylor Williams of Western Michigan.
Kent’s Lindsey Thall leads the MAC blocked shots at 1.9 a game and is fourth in 3-point percentage (45.2%). Katie Shumate is second in 3-point percentage (48.3%) and fifth in free-throw percentage (88.0%).
The game is the first of four straight on the road for the Flashes. They’ll play at Western Michigan Wednesday. Next weekend they’ll play back-to-back games at Northern Illinois on Saturday and Sunday to make up for two games postponed in January.
MAC Standings
Through games of Wednesday, Feb. 10.
| MAC W-L | Pct. | MAC Home | MAC Away | All games | |
| BGSU | 11-3 | .785 | 6-1 | 5-3 | 15-4 |
| Kent St | 6-2 | .750 | 4-1 | 2-1 | 7-4 |
| Buffalo | 8-3 | .727 | 4-1 | 4-2 | 11-5 |
| NIU | 8-3 | .727 | 4-2 | 4-1 | 10-6 |
| CMU | 10-4 | .714 | 4-3 | 7-1 | 12-6 |
| Ohio | 9-5 | .643 | 4-2 | 5-3 | 11-6 |
| EMU | 6-4 | .600 | 2-3 | 4-1 | 9-6 |
| Ball St | 7-6 | .538 | 2-5 | 5-1 | 9-8 |
| Toledo | 4-9 | .308 | 3-4 | 1-5 | 8-9 |
| Akron | 2-11 | .154 | 1-4 | 1-7 | 5-11 |
| WMU | 2-11 | .154 | 2-4 | 0-7 | 3-12 |
| Miami | 1-13 | .071 | 1-6 | 0-6 | 2-16 |