Source MAC communications office
Kent State returns home from a four-game road trip Wednesday to play Buffalo, a team right behind it in the Mid-American Conference standings.
Away from home, the Flashes lost games at second-place Central Michigan and 10th-place Western Michigan but swept a weekend series at Northern Illinois to move back into the center of the MAC race.
Wednesday’s game starts at 6 p.m. at the M.A.C. Center. Fans still aren’t allowed because of COVID-19 protocols. The game will be streamed on ESPN+, which costs $5.99 a month. Online radio starts at 5:45 p.m. on the Kent State Radio Network.
The Flashes are 8-4 in the conference. They and Ohio (10-5) have .667 winning percentages, which ties them for third. The league office would give OU the tiebreaker for the third seed if the league tournament started today.
The MAC is using winning percentage to determine standings. Because of COVID-19 postponements and cancellations, teams have not played the same number of league games, and there’s no way they all will when the regular season ends in 11 days.
Six teams have winning percentages between .688 (second-place CMU at 11-5) and .636 (seventh-place Eastern Michigan at 7-4). If Eastern wins Wednesday and Central loses, EMU could jump all the way to second place, depending on results of other games.
If the Buffalo beats KSU Wednesday, they’ll move past the Flashes, perhaps into a second-place tie.
Buffalo was picked to finish third in the conference in the coaches’ preseason poll. But like almost every team, the Bulls have had highs and lows. They’ve lost twice to Central Michigan and 82-74 to league-leading Bowling Green. Ten days ago, they lost at home to eighth-place Ball State by 13 points. Four days later, Buffalo beat Ball State on the road by seven.
Buffalo is led by guard Dyaisha Fair, last year’s MAC freshman of the year. She averages 24.8 points a game, sixth in Division I, and ranks in the nation’s top 25 in 3-point field goals, assists and steals. She scored 36 points at Ball State Wednesday.
Only one other player, freshman guard Cheyenne Evans, averages in double figures at 10.3 points a game.
The Bulls are third in the MAC in points per game (75.0) and third in defense (69.0 points). They’re third in the league in rebounding margin (plus-4.7) behind Northern Illinois (plus 6.6) and Kent State (plus-5.4). Buffalo leads the league in offensive rebounding.
Coach Todd Starkey was delighted with his team’s two wins at Northern Illinois, which broke a three-game winning streak.
Does he think the team is back to where it was when it was 4-0 and in first place before its 25-day COVID-19 pause in January?
“We’re different now,” he said after Sunday’s 71-58 win. “Before we were humming along offensively and needed to get better defensively. Over the last two games, our defense really improved.
“But just because you do well against one team, you have to prove it against multiple opponents to see where you really are.”
Kent State’s Nila Blackford is third in the league in rebounding (10.6 per game) and seventh in field-goal percentage (47.5%). Lindsey Thall leads the MAC in blocked shots (1.7 per game).
As a team, KSU is second in the league in 3-point percentage (36.5%). Four Flashes are among the top 12 in the league in shooting 3s: Katie Shumate is sixth at 41.7%, Thall eighth at 39.5%, Clare Kelly 10th at 38.7% and Mariah Modkins 12th at 38.5%).
The game is Kent State’s “Play4Kay” game, which helps raise awareness and funding for women’s cancer research and honors female cancer survivors. It’s named after Kay Yow, a hall-of-fame coach at North Carolina State who died after two battles with breast cancer.
MAC Standings
Through games of Sunday, Feb. 21
| MAC W-L | Pct. | MAC Home | MAC Away | All games | |
| BGSU | 12-3 | .800 | 7-1 | 5-2 | 16-4 |
| CMU | 11-5 | .688 | 4-3 | 7-2 | 13-7 |
| Ohio | 10-5 | .667 | 5-2 | 5-3 | 12-6 |
| Kent St | 8-4 | .667 | 4-1 | 4-3 | 9-6 |
| Buffalo | 9-5 | .643 | 4-2 | 5-3 | 12-7 |
| NIU | 9-5 | .643 | 5-4 | 4-1 | 11-8 |
| EMU | 7-4 | .636 | 2-3 | 5-1 | 10-6 |
| Ball St | 9-7 | .563 | 2-6 | 7-1 | 11-9 |
| Toledo | 5-11 | .333 | 3-5 | 2-6 | 9-11 |
| 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 |