Nila Blackford had her ninth double-double in 10 MAC games with 14 points and 12 rebounds. (File photo by Hayley Steffy of KSU Athletic Communications.)
Kent State started well in its road game at Western Michigan Wednesday, but things went downhill after that in a 71-58 loss to the 10th-place Broncos.
The Flashes led 19-12 after the first quarter, then made only four baskets in the second.
The third quarter was perhaps the low point of the season for the Flashes. They missed all 10 of their field goal attempts, missed seven foul shots, and were outscored 21-5.
Kent State outscored Western 23-19 in the fourth quarter but couldn’t get closer than 12 points.
The loss was KSU’s third in a row. It drops KSU to 6-4 in the Mid-American Conference and 7-6 overall. Western is 3-12 and 4-13. The Flashes are in a three-way tie for sixth place with Ball State and Western Michigan.
“We didn’t handle adversity very well,” KSU coach Todd Starkey said. “We got off to a decent start, but when things weren’t going our way, we kind of gave in to that.
“Then when we tried to solve some of the things that weren’t going right, it seemed like we were pressing too hard and not playing as connected as we need to be and not being as intense as we needed to be.”
The Flashes trailed 31-30 at halfway because of Clare Kelly’s offensive rebound, basket and free throw at the second-quarter buzzer.
Western outscored KSU 7-0 to start the third quarter. After two free throws by Katie Shumate, the Broncos went on another 11-2 run. The Flashes missed six layups, two 3-point shots and two jump shots in the quarter. They made nothing from the floor. When the Flashes drew fouls, they made only 5-of-12 free throws.
“That third quarter…it just wasn’t what we’re about,” Starkey said. “So we’ve got to look ourselves in the mirror. We just have to respond to adversity better than that.
“We’re still the same players in the same uniforms, but we’re not playing like it. We’ve got the tools to be capable of playing good basketball. We’re just not doing that right now.”
The game was Kent State’s sixth in 15 days since the Flashes finished a 25-day pause after a COVID-19 outbreak on the team. KSU had led the MAC at 4-0 before the virus hit; since they are 2-4.
“Everybody’s has to be truthful and honest with themselves about what they need to do to get it right,” Starkey said. “But the team has been through a lot the last couple of months. We as coaches have to figure out how hard you push. What do they have left to give? How can they respond?
“They’re a resilient bunch. They’re capable of probably a lot more than they think they are at this point. So we’re just trying to balance really caring for them and who they are as people.
“They’re also good at basketball. They love playing the game. So we’re asking ourselves a lot of questions trying to get it right. We just have to move forward and get better as long as there are games to be played.”
The scorers
Nila Blackford led the Flashes with 14 points and 12 rebounds — her ninth double-double in 10 MAC games. (In the other game, she had nine points and nine rebounds.)
Lindsey Thall had 14 points, including four 3-point baskets, and seven rebounds. Kelly had 13 points. Shumate and Casey Santoro had seven points. Mariah Modkins had four assists and two steals.
Notes
- The game was KSU’s 10th of the MAC season, which officially qualifies it for the league tournament in March. Teams had to play at least half of the 20 scheduled league games. Every other team has qualified. Eastern Michigan also has played 10 conference games. Next lowest is Northern Illinois at 12. Bowling Green, Central Michigan, Ohio, Ball State, Toledo and Western Michigan have played all 15 of their scheduled games.
- Kent State made only 11 of 24 free throws (46%), its worst performance of the season by 9 percentage points.
- Western Michigan, which leads the MAC in turnovers per game, had 12 — six below its average. Kent State scored 15 points off of them. The Flashes had 18 turnovers, slightly above their average, and the Broncos scored 18 points from them.
- Twelve KSU players got into the game. Walk-on guard Ali DiGuilio saw her first action of the season at the last minute. Senior Margeaux Eibel scored her first point of the season, a free throw in the last minute.
- Senior forward Reilly Jacobson led Western Michigan with a career-high 27 points. Freshman forward Taylor Williams had eight points and nine rebounds. She averages a double-double and had 30 points and 21 rebounds in her last game.
Next for Kent State
The Flashes travel on to Northern Illinois for a rare weekend double header with the Huskies.
KSU will play 1 p.m. games on Saturday and Sunday. They’re both makeup games from Kent’s January of COVID.
Northern Illinois is in second place in the MAC at 9-3 and is 11-6 overall. It has won five games in a row and nine of its last 10.
Around the MAC
In the game of the day, first-place Bowling Green (12-3 MAC, 16-4 overall) took the lead in the third quarter and beat third-place Central Michigan 76-67. A CMU win would have tied the two teams for first place. Central is 11-5 and 13-7 in the league.
Every other game was an upset, counting KSU’s loss.
Ball State (9-6 MAC, 11-8 overall) beat Buffalo (8-5 and 11-7) 76-63 at Buffalo. Ball State made 51% of its shots, Buffalo just 30%.
Miami (2-14 and 3-17) won its second MAC games, beating Toledo (5-10 and 9-10) 62-60. Miami guard Peyton Scott, the MAC’s fourth-leading scorer at 22.1 points a game, struggled with foul trouble, scored only seven points and had eight turnovers. But Kelly McLaughlin (25 points) and Katie Davidson (21 points) took up the slack for the Redhawks.
Eastern Michigan, scheduled to play Akron, had to postpone its fifth straight game because of a COVID outbreak. The Northern Illinois game at Ohio was postponed because of coronavirus problems at Ohio.
MAC Standings
Through games of Wednesday, Feb. 17
| MAC W-L | Pct. | MAC Home | MAC Away | All games | |
| BGSU | 12-3 | .800 | 7-1 | 5-2 | 16-4 |
| NIU | 9-3 | .750 | 5-2 | 4-1 | 11-6 |
| CMU | 11-5 | .688 | 5-3 | 7-2 | 13-7 |
| Ohio | 10-5 | .667 | 5-2 | 5-3 | 12-6 |
| Buffalo | 8-5 | .615 | 4-2 | 4-3 | 11-7 |
| Ball St | 9-6 | .600 | 2-5 | 7-1 | 11-8 |
| EMU | 6-4 | .600 | 2-3 | 4-1 | 9-6 |
| Kent St | 6-4 | .600 | 4-1 | 2-3 | 7-6 |
| Toledo | 5-10 | .333 | 3-5 | 2-5 | 9-10 |
| WMU | 3-12 | .200 | 3-4 | 0-8 | 4-13 |
| Akron | 2-12 | .143 | 1-5 | 1-7 | 5-12 |
| Miami | 2-14 | .125 | 1-7 | 1-7 | 3-17 |