KSU’s Mariah Modkins scored 10 points, hit two 3-point baskets, had three assists against one turnover, and a steal against Buffalo. (Photo by Hayley Steffy of KSU Athletic Communications.)
Mariah Modkins may be the smallest player in Division I — listed, as coach Todd Starkey said, “very modestly” at 5-foot-1. She may be closer to 4-11.
But she came up very big for Kent State Wednesday, scoring two key baskets in the fourth quarter as the Flashes beat Buffalo 65-62 at the M.A.C. Center.
The win clinches Kent State a spot in the MAC Tournament in Cleveland March 10-14. Only eight teams qualify this season; first-round campus games were a casualty of COVID-19.
The victory also sends KSU into second place in the MAC with three games to go in the regular season. The Flashes are 9-4 in the conference and 10-6 overall. They are two games behind first-place Bowling Green.
Buffalo is 9-6 and tied for fifth in the MAC and is 12-8 overall.
Modkins’ first key play came with six minutes to go, shortly after Buffalo had pulled ahead by four points.
After Nila Blackford made a short jumper, Modkins stole the inbounds pass and scored to tie the game 54-54.
“She just floated it out there, and I went and got it,” Modkins said. “You have to try to catch them on their heels, when they’re not paying attention.”
With 30 seconds to go, Modkins hit a four-foot running floater as the shot clock expired. That gave Kent State a 63-62 lead, and the Flashes held on at the end to win.
“We were late in the shot clock,” Modkins said. “I knew that I wasn’t able to get to the basket, so I just loaded it up.”
“She’s been doing that all year — finding ways to win,” Starkey said. “I think she’s one of the most undertold stories in the country. (Because of her size), everybody counts her out. So she plays with a little bit of a chip on her shoulder and wants to prove people wrong.
“She’s really come into her own and blossomed into a leader.”
Last season Modkins split point guard duties with Asiah Dingle and averaged just 3.1 points a game. After Dingle transferred to Stony Brook in the offseason, Modkins claimed team leadership.
She is averaging 7.3 points a game, is ninth in the league in 3-point shooting (39.3%) and is fourth in the league in assist-turnover ratio (1.7-to-1).
“She’s the one who set the tone for us at Northern Illinois with the type of ball defense that she played,” Starkey said. KSU’s back-to-back road wins at NIU were the team’s best defensive games of the year, and Wednesday’s defense was just as good.
Defending the nation’s sixth-best scorer
The Flashes held Buffalo 10 points below its average. The Bulls’ Dyaisha Fair, who ranks sixth in Division I in scoring, had 23 points, three below her average.
Katie Shumate was the primary defender on Fair.
“We liked Katie’s length against her,” Starkey said. Fair is 5-5. Shumate is 5-11 with long arms.
“Katie did a really good job,” Starkey said. “Fair took 21 shots and only made nine. Her field-goal percentage went down as the game went on. She must have started the game 4-for-4.”
Fair leads the MAC in assists at 5.4 a game; she had just one against Kent State.
Fair had a chance to tie the game with a 3-pointer in last 10 seconds. She got away from Shumate, but Clare Kelly picked her up and smothered her until Fair got off a desperation 3 at the buzzer.
Buffalo ranks in the middle of the conference with 6.7 three-point baskets per game and a 3-point shooting percentage 32.1%. Kent State held them to 1-of-8.
Buffalo’s 62 points were its second lowest total of the season. KSU held the Bulls without a field goal in the last 4:55.
Blackford booms in second half
Nila Blackford, Kent State’s leading scorer, had only two points in the first half on 1-of-8 shooting. She scored 16 in the second half, making eight of her 10 shots.
“We changed our strategy,” Starkey said. “She was getting touches in the low post and trying to score through their size and strength. In the second half, we tried to get her touches at the high post and the perimeter and let her drive.
“I was really pleased she didn’t just try and bulldozer her way to the basket. She had two or three really nice pull-up jump shots and played with much more composure.
“She was pressing a little bit in the first half. To her credit, she listened to the adjustments, calmed herself down and really played within herself.”
Blackford finished with 18 points and nine rebounds, just missing her 11th double-double of the season. She hasn’t had fewer than nine rebounds in any MAC game.
More scoring
Shumate had 17 points, 14 in the first half. She kept the Flashes in the game when they made only 9-of-33 shots. Her jump shot at the end of the first half capped a 10-3 KSU run and cut the score to 32-30 at halftime.
Shumate also had five rebounds, blocked two shots and drew nine fouls. “A really, really complete game,” Starkey said.
Modkins finished with 10 points, three assists, two 3-point baskets and a steal. She had only one turnover.
Lindsey Thall also scored 10, had three assists, blocked two shots and had two steals before fouling out.
Clare Kelly had six points, including a 3-pointer when Buffalo was leading by six and looked to be starting to pull away.
Sharing the ball
Kent State had 13 assists on 24 baskets. In their three-game winning streak, the Flashes have had their second, third and fourth highest number of assists this season.
“Our ball movement has gotten significantly better” Starkey said. “That builds trust, and they’re making that next pass, passing up good shots for great shots, or average shots for good shots.”
Freshman Casey Santoro led KSU with four assists.
How Modkins takes charge
A Starkey story from the fourth quarter:
Thall, one of KSU’s steadiest players, had fouled out with 1:21 to go. Freshman Lexi Jackson went in to replace her.
Modkins pulled her aside in the huddle and looked up 16 inches at the 6-foot-4 Jackson.
“Now do your job!” Modkins told her.
A minute later Jackson pulled down the biggest defensive rebound of the game in heavy traffic to give Kent State the ball and the lead.
Notes
- Buffalo averages 16.6 offensive rebounds, sixth best in the country. But Wednesday Kent State had 13 offensive rebounds, and the Bulls had 12. The Flashes outscored UB 14-12 on second-chance points. Overall Buffalo outrebounded KSU 37-31.
- Buffalo outscored KSU 46-28 in the paint, but the Flashes outscored UB 27-3 on 3-pointers.
- After shooting 27% from the field in the first half, Kent State made 15-of-28 shots in the second for 54%. For the game, KSU shot 39.3%, about its average for the season. Buffalo was 25-for-55 for 45.5%.
- Buffalo’s Summer Hemphill played in her first game in almost two months. A preseason all-MAC pick, she missed all of last season with an injury and was hurt again in December. Having her back will help the Bulls a lot in the tournament. She didn’t score and had four rebounds in 12 minutes against KSU.
Next for the Flashes
KSU travels to last-place Miami for a 1 p.m. Saturday game, then plays at first-place Bowling Green Wednesday night.
Home games against both of those teams were decided in the last seconds, with the Flashes beating Miami 71-69 and losing in overtime to BG 80-79.
MAC Standings
Through games of Wednesday, Feb. 24
| MAC W-L | Pct. | MAC Home | MAC Away | All games | |
| BGSU | 12-3 | .800 | 7-1 | 5-2 | 16-4 |
| CMU | 11-6 | .647 | 4-4 | 7-2 | 13-8 |
| Ohio | 10-5 | .667 | 5-2 | 5-3 | 12-6 |
| Kent St | 9-4 | .692 | 5-1 | 4-3 | 10-6 |
| Buffalo | 9-6 | .600 | 4-2 | 5-4 | 12-8 |
| NIU | 9-6 | .600 | 5-3 | 4-3 | 11-9 |
| EMU | 7-5 | .583 | 2-4 | 5-1 | 10-7 |
| Ball St | 10-7 | .588 | 2-6 | 8-1 | 12-9 |
| Toledo | 6-11 | .333 | 3-5 | 3-6 | 10-11 |
| WMU | 4-12 | .200 | 3-4 | 1-8 | 5-13 |
| Akron | 3-12 | .143 | 1-5 | 2-7 | 6-12 |
| Miami | 2-15 | .125 | 1-8 | 1-7 | 3-18 |
Wednesday’s MAC results
- Toledo 72, Central Michigan 67 at Central.
- Western Michigan 66, Eastern Michigan 56 at Eastern.
- Ball State 82, Northern Illinois 79 at Northern.
- Akron 84, Miami 63 at Miami.
The Bowling Green at Ohio game was canceled because of COVID-19 problems at OU.