The Kent State women’s basketball team hadn’t beaten a Power 5 school since 2010. Coach Todd Starkey had never beaten one.

But on Sunday the Flashes led for 37 of 40 minutes in their 81-74 victory over Penn State. On Friday, they had beaten No. 19 UCLA 75-69.

Sunday’s win gave KSU (5-1) third place in the Gulf Coast Showcase tournament. The team had lost to Massachusetts 72-64 in Saturday’s semifinals.

Kent State’s start is its best since 2010, when it went 6-0, including their last victory over a Power 5 team. That was a 59-58 win against the PAC 12’s Washington in another holiday tournament.

“How about that — two Power 5s in three days,” Starkey exclaimed in a postgame interview. “I’m really proud of this group. We’ve still got a lot more more to do, and I’ve got bigger dreams for this program. But it’s a great validation of what we’ve begun to build.”

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All about KSU’s 75-69 win over UCLA.

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The Penn State game had many good story lines:

• Five Kent State players scored in double figures. A sixth scored nine points. Two players had double-doubles.
• Senior Lindsey Thall became the 23rd Kent State player to score 1,000 points.
• KSU overwhelmed a taller Penn State team on the boards, outrebounding them 46-23 with a 17-3 advantage in offensive rebounds.
• The game was often close, but the Flashes led for 37 of the 40 minutes.

An offense where anyone can score

It’s quite telling that on Saturday, in the only game Kent State has lost this season, only one player scored in double figures.

In KSU’s two wins this weekend, five Flashes scored at least 10 points.

On Sunday, it was junior guard Katie Shumate with 17 points, Thall with 16, sophomore guard Casey Santoro with 15, junior forward Nila Blackford with 13 and freshman forward Bridget Dunn with 10. Hannah Young just missed joining them with nine points.

“This is one of the things that separates us from other teams,” Thall said. “When we get multiple people in double figures, it’s hard to stop us. And anybody can have an awesome night on any given day.”

The Flashes had 15 assists — highest this season against a Division I opponent — on 28 baskets. Eight different players had an assist, led by three from Shumate, Young and Santoro.

“Those are the best kind of games to play in, when the ball is moving across the court, and then we’re hitting big shots,” Thall said. “There’s nothing better than that.”

6:43 4Q | Kent State 63, Penn State 51

Casey Santoro lays it in and the Flashes have scored 7 straight to take largest lead of the game.#GoFlashes ⚡ pic.twitter.com/vi6FNTjGOC

— Kent State Women’s Basketball (@KentStWBB) November 28, 2021

Starkey said KSU’s balance was the strength of the team.

“We were a lot more connected all the way around tonight,” he said. “We really shared the basketball. When we play that way, it’s really, really tough to beat us.”

1,006 points for Thall

Thall became the 23rd player in Kent State history to score 1,000 points. She finished the game with six more.

59.4 3Q | Kent State 51, Penn State 47

Lindsey Thall scored her 1,000th career point at the free throw line with under a minute left in the period.#GoFlashes ⚡ pic.twitter.com/ARydxbxUjk

— Kent State Women’s Basketball (@KentStWBB) November 28, 2021

In a postgame interview, KSU announcer David Wilson asked Thall if she had thought she would score 1,000 when she enrolled at Kent State four years ago.

“I only hoped that I could contribute any way I could, and scoring is one way,” she said. “It’s an honor to be one of those 23 players.”

And to do that while beating Penn State?

“It was a good one. I definitely wouldn’t want it to be any other game,” Thall said.

Starkey had nothing but praise for his senior forward.

“A thousand points, and she’s got a lot more coming,” he said. “What a great three days she had down here!”

Thall scored 20 points against UCLA, 22 against Massachusetts and 16 against Penn State. She made 10-of-24 three-point shots and grabbed a total of 26 rebounds.

Thall made the Gulf Coast all-tournament team.

A rebounding rout for KSU

Kent State’s 23-rebound margin over Penn State was its biggest this season, six more than their margin against Division III John Carroll in KSU’s 101-40 victory. It was even more lopsided on the offensive boards, where the Flashes led 17-3.

“Phenomenal,” said Starkey, using one of his favorite words.

Ali Brigham, Penn State’s leading rebounder, stands 6-4 and had 10 rebounds in the team’s win over St. Johns on Friday. She had three against Kent State. Forward Anna Camden stands 6-3. She had two rebounds.

Thall and Blackford are KSU’s tallest starters at 6-2.

Brigham scored only three points, often going against Blackford.

“Oh, wow,” Blackford said when told that statistic.

Blackford and Thall combined had more rebounds (26) than Penn State’s entire team (23).

A pair of double-doubles

Blackford led all rebounders with 14 and added 13 points, both her best totals of the season She had her best three rebounding games of the season in the tournament, grabbing more in every game.

“I’m really proud of Nila for coming back and having a good game,” Starkey said. “She struggled yesterday (2-for-12 shooting and five turnovers) and was feeling kind of down about it.

“We talked to her about what she needed to do to stay aggressive and finish around the basket. She did a good job of really battling for rebounds against some really big players.”

Thall had 10 rebounds, including four offensive boards, to go with her 16 points. It was the second double-double of her career. She averaged 8.7 rebounds over the tournament’s three games.

KSU had something to prove

The Flashes were outscored 45-29 in the second half of Saturday’s loss to Massachusetts and were out to show they were better than that.

“We know we did not perform to our best at all,” Blackford said. “We came out here today and said, ‘That’s not the type of team that we are, and we’re going to show you.'”

“We knew we were better than that,” Starkey said. “I don’t know whether we had a little bit of malaise from the UCLA game. So we wanted to come out and play as tough as we had before yesterday. And this group really showed the kind of people we’re about.”

Starkey had worried about Penn State’s transition game, and the Lady Lions came out running in the second half (“a Navy blur going by us, coming in waves” he said.)

But midway through the quarter, KSU adjusted its defense to drop three players back in transition defense. That slowed down Penn State.

A close game, but Flashes stayed in control

Kent State led almost the entire game, but it wasn’t easy. The Flashes jumped off to a 18-8 first-quarter lead, but Penn State cut it to 32-30 at the half.

The Lady Lions took brief one-point leads twice in the third quarter. But after a scramble in the final seconds of the quarter, Young hit a long 2-point basket at the buzzer to send KSU into the fourth quarter with a 53-49 lead.

Kent State started the fourth quarter on a 10-2 run, led by 3-pointers from Thall and Santoro. Penn State cut KSU’s lead to 74-70 with 1:51 to go, but the Flashes scored the next five points.

23 points but 20 shots

Penn State’s leading scorer, Makenna Marisa, hit her average of 23 points.

“We knew she was probably going to get 20 again, but we wanted make sure she got 20 points on 20 shots,” Starkey said. “And she got 23 points on 21 shots. So we did our job there.”

Box score

Kent State’s women had eight days to prepare to play No. 19 UCLA, and they took advantage of them.

The Flashes put together a game plan that included five different defenses and knocked off the Bruins 75-69 in the first round of the Gulf Coast Showcase tournament.

Kent State goes to 4-0 on the season and will play Massachusetts (6-0) in the tournament semifinals at 5 p.m. Friday. All tournament games are streamed on FloHoops, which costs $29.99 a month. If you watch the games, make sure to cancel after Sunday.

“We knew playing against a team like UCLA, we couldn’t be predictable,” coach Todd Starkey said. “They had too much firepower.

“If you’re predictable defensively, they’re the type of team that’s going to be able to pick you apart and get their personnel to their spots.”

The defenses were all variations on schemes the Flashes had played during Starkey’s six years in Kent. A lineup with its top eight players returning from last season made it possible.

“It’s a veteran team, and they know how important communication is,” Starkey said. “And communication won us the game as we went through the different defenses.”

Kent State held UCLA to 36% shooting and just 24% in the fourth quarter.

The fabulous fourth

Kent State outscored UCLA 27-17 in the fourth quarter. During three minutes starting with 4:18 to go, the Flashes went on a 12-0 run, forcing UCLA to tightly contested shots and then grabbing the defensive rebound.

“Those were really good defensive possessions,” Starkey said. “And we did a phenomenal job boxing out after the shots, then pursuing the ball instead of waiting for it. We were digging and scratching for everything.”

A big, big win

UCLA is the highest ranked team Kent State has ever beaten. The Flashes beat No. 25 Texas A&M in the first round of the 1997 NCAA Tournament and beat No. 24 Virginia in Kent on a Sunday afternoon in January 2000.

It was Starkey’s first win over a Power 5 team.

“This a huge win for our program and for the university,” Starkey said. “Obviously, UCLA is a great program. When you beat one of the blue bloods, it’s a special thing.”

But the coach wouldn’t call it the biggest win in his Kent tenure. He voted for the two home games when KSU clinched Mid-American Conference East Division titles.

“Anytime you cut the nets down, that’s always a bigger win,” he told broadcaster David Wilson.

Fighting off a third-quarter knockdown

The Flashes led 39-32 at halftime, but UCLA started the third quarter with much higher pressure defense, outscored KSU 20-9. lThe Bruins led 52-48 going into the last quarter.

“We took their best punch and got staggered a little bit,” Starkey said. “I knew they were going to come out, really play physical and try to dictate everything that happened. They did that for most of the third quarter, but they never got too far away from us. We really did a good job of getting the ball to where it needed to go and staying aggressive on offense.”

Lots of offense from lots of places

Kent State made 50% of its shots and 53% of its 3-point attempts. The Flashes took the lead in the second quarter when Lindsey Thall, Katie Shumate and Hannah Young hit consecutive 3-pointers. Then Casey Santoro hit a layup and followed with another 3-point basket.

“We were getting good shooters good looks,” Starkey said. “We had some really good ball movement and good spacing. We’re tough to defend when we space the floor like that.”

The Flashes were able skip passes over the UCLA defense and work the ball into the paint, then kick it out for 3-point attempts.

Five Flashes scored in double figures.

LINDSEY THALL made 5-of-7 three-point shots on her way to 20 points. She added seven rebounds, two assists and a block.

“She was dialed in on both ends of the court,” Starkey said. “When she can shoot in rhythm like that, she can knock down 70% or 80% from 3. She’s a fourth-year player and has played a lot of big games and big moments. She doesn’t get rattled in those situations.”

Thall on the win: “We just tried to practice and prepare the way we do for all games. We didn’t want to come out and play afraid. And I don’t think we did that….This is only going to give us confidence going forward.”

KATIE SHUMATE had 17 points on 6-of-12 shooting, along with seven rebounds, an assist, a block and a steal. She had 10 points in the first quarter, when UCLA had jumped to a 14-5 lead. The Flashes trailed only 22-20 after the quarter.

“Katie really helped turn things around for us early by getting aggressive and getting to the basket,” Starkey said. “She had a great drive and finished with her left hand early in the game that helped us establish that we could score at the basket.”

CASEY SANTORO scored 14 points, including seven free throws in the fourth quarter. She ran the offense for 30 minutes against potential all-PAC 12 guards.

“Casey’s not gonna back down from anybody,” Starkey said. “She’s as tough as they come and she loves those types of challenges.”

Santoro on the game: “Going into the game, we kind of told ourselves, ‘It’s just another team.’ And going against a Power 5 school, we knew they had a chip on their shoulder. So that gave us even more energy and confidence.”

NILA BLACKFORD had eight rebounds, her most of the season, to go with 11 points. All eight of her rebounds were in the second half, with four of them in the last four minutes. She scored off of one offensive rebound and grabbed another offensive rebound off of a missed foul shot with a minute to go.

“Nila did a great job of not getting frustrated and forcing things after struggling in the first half,” Starkey said.

HANNAH YOUNG scored 10 points on 3-of-4 shooting, including a 3-pointers. She had three rebounds and a resounding block of a shot by UCLA all-American candidate Charisma Osborne. In KSU’s fourth quarter rally, she scored on a left-handed drive, spinning and scoring with her right hand.

“Her growth over the second part of last year and into this year has been phenomenal,” Starkey said. ” It’s so great to see a player that has invested so much time in her own development get this kind of payoff.”

Young on the win: “Every time we would get into a huddle, we’d say, ‘Look, this is a big team, but that’s okay. If we play in our game, if we stay controlled, if we play solid defense, we’re going to be fine. And that’s what happened.”

Pretty numbers

Kent State outrebounded UCLA 35-33. The Flashes scored 12 second-chance points to the Bruins’ seven.

UCLA made only five turnovers for the game, but Kent scored 11 points from them.

Kent State blocked four shots. UCLA blocked zero.

The Flashes outscored UCLA in the paint 28-18.

Eight different KSU players played at least 10 minutes. UCLA had only eight players in uniform. All played at least 12 minutes, and all scored.

The score was tied six times and the lead changed hands 10 times.

NOT SO GOOD NUMBER: Kent State made only 16 of 30 foul shots.

Box score

Three weeks ago, Kent State senior guard Hannah Young started student teaching at Kent’s Longcoy and Holden elementary schools.

On Thursday, she and her new students had a wonderful time at the M.A.C. Center as the Kent State women routed Division III John Carroll 101-40. It was “Kids Day,” a KSU promotion in which close to 1,000 local elementary students were invited to a morning game.

“They’ve been like, ‘I can’t wait for this game,'” Young said at the team’s postgame press conference. “And then being able to see them out there, screaming and having so much fun.”

After the game, the young fans crowded around Young and her teammates. “Can you sign my shirt?” some asked. Other handed players signs they had made for the game. Young walked off the court with what seemed to be a double armful of signs.

The result was what you would expect when a Division III team, which offers no athletic scholarships, takes on a Division I team. After falling behind 7-4, the Flashes went on a 13-0 run and utterly dominated the game. They made half of their shots, including 15 three-point baskets, and scored 52 points off of 29 John Carroll turnovers.

KSU’s point total was the first time the Flashes have gone over 100 points in 21 years. (“One point more!” the elementary students chanted when Kent hit 99 in the last minute.)

The win also gave KSU its first 3-0 start since 2010 and coach Todd Starkey his 250th career victory at three schools. It was his 85th win in six years at Kent State, where he has the third-most victories in school history.

All 12 players who got into the game for Kent State played at least seven minutes; 11 played at least 13 minutes. All 12 scored, led by sophomore guard Casey Santoro’s 19 points.

src=”https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js” charset=”utf-8″>Santoro finished with 19 points (8-12 FG, 3-4 3FG), 6 assists, 4 rebounds and a steal. pic.twitter.com/xZIe2a28zy

Santoro’s total equaled a career-high, which she set 10 days ago in KSU’s opener at Northern Kentucky. She leads KSU in scoring at 15 points a game; her freshman season, she averaged 21 minutes a game but just 6.7 points. In high school, she averaged close to 25 points a game.

7:27 2Q | Kent State 35, JCU 11

Casey Santoro drives in for a layup and a game-high 10 points.#GoFlashes ⚡ pic.twitter.com/9oJvG5mF9z

— Kent State Women’s Basketball (@KentStWBB) November 18, 2021

“It’s just confidence and experience,” Santoro said. “This summer I got to be here with everybody and be connected with everybody.” (Before her freshman year, there were no workouts because of the COVID pandemic. “That kind of stunk,” Santoro said.)

zYoung (and Starkey in earlier interviews) emphasized how hard Santoro has worked to improve.

“You’ll never see her take a day off,” Young said. “She always puts in the hustle plays, and that always translates into scoring opportunities. She has a really quick first step. She’s always looking to score coming off the ball screen, or she’s going to shoot it. You have to be ready to guard her.”

Santoro, who made just 31% of her shots and 26% of her 3-pointers last season, is shooting 56% from the field and 50% from 3-point distance so far this season. She leads the team in assists with 14.

Young also has upgraded her game.

Virginia’s Division 3A player of the year her junior year in high school, she was mostly a reserve her first three years at Kent State. But she has moved into the starting lineup this season.

“I’ve just found my role — and that’s, ‘You better go get that rebound,'” Young said. “Once I do all that, everything seems to come together.”

At 5-foot-10, Young shares the team lead in rebounding with 6-2 Lindsey Thall at 6.7 per game. She led KSU with eight on Thursday and scored 11 points for the second time this season.

“It’s all about her toughness,” Santoro said. “And she does all the little things even though she’s not the biggest player on the floor.”

Starkey said his message to the team going into a game against an opponent like John Carroll was “not wanting to practice any bad habits.”

“We did a good job of staying focused,” he said. “We had great ball movement — 23 assists and 10 turnovers was really good for us — and we shot the ball well, too.”

John Carroll actually is one of the nation’s best Division III teams. It ranked eighth in the country in the latest D3 poll and are defending Ohio Athletic Conference champions.

The game was listed on John Carroll’s website as an exhibition. For Kent, the victory and statistics against a non-Division I team won’t be counted by national rating systems, whose opinion can matter in NCAA and WNIT seedings.

Box score

Next: No. 20 UCLA

The Flashes have a week to prepare for what could be their toughest opponent of the season. On the day after Thanksgiving, they open the eight-team Gulf Coast Showcase tournament in Fort Myers against No. 20 UCLA. The rest of the field includes No. 14 Iowa State, two Big Ten teams, St. Johns and three good mid-majors.

Video highlights

Notes

• Freshman forward Bridget Dunn had her first collegiate game in double figures, scoring 11 with two 3-pointers, four rebounds and three steals.
• Thall had 15 points, including 3-of-4 three pointers, along with five rebounds, two assists and a steal. Nila Blackford had eight points and nine rebounds.
• Senior Annie Pavlansky equaled a career high with seven points, including the basket that put Kent State over 100. Mariah Modkins and Katie Shumate also had seven. Freshman Jenna Batsch’s five points included her first collegiate basket and first collegiate 3-pointer.
• KSU forced 28 turnovers and scored on almost all of them, gathering 52 points off turnovers.
• The Flashes outrebounded John Carroll 46-31 and had had more offensive rebounds (24) than John Carroll had defensive rebounds (23). KSU led in second-chance points 24-2.
• Kent State’s 23 assists were the most by a Mid-American Conference team so far this season.
• Attendance was announced at 1,566, including the elementary students.

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Kent State recruits Dionna Gray, Tatiana Thomas, Corynne Hauser.

Coach Todd Starkey has recruited three 2022 guards that could make a championship backcourt in the next five years.

The Kent State women’s basketball recruiting class, announced this week, includes the top point guard in West Virginia, one of the best all-around guards in Pennsylvania, and a “rebounding machine” wing from Illinois.

The class looks comparable to the Flashes’ current juniors and seniors. Both of those groups produced two members of the MAC all-freshman team. Three players signed in 2019 have started multiple games (a fourth – Asiah Dingle – led KSU in scoring before she transferred after her sophomore year). Three 2020 recruits started at least 15 games in their first two seasons.

In an interview about the 2020 class three years ago, coach Todd Starkey called its three players – forward Nila Blackford and guards Katie Shumate and Clare Kelly — “can’t miss” prospects.

Asked this week if he’d describe the new class the same way, the coach replied: “I really do. We feel very fortunate to get all three of them.”

The new Flashes are:

DIONNA GRAY, 5-4 point guard from Huntington High School in West Virginia. MaxPreps, a recruiting service, named her West Virginia player of the year last season. Prep Hoop Girls has her as the No. 2 recruit in the state in the class of 2022. She averaged 17.2 points 6.2 assists, 5.3 steals and 4.2 rebounds as a junior.

Starkey on Gray: “A super-quick point guard, excellent verbal leader and relentless competitor with the ability to be a disruptor on the defensive end. Has the ability to score on all three levels”

West Virginia Thunder coach Scott Johnson: “She plays as hard as anyone I’ve ever coached.” The Thunder is one of the best AAU programs in the country. Johnson has coached dozens of Division I players.

Feature on Gray from her hometown Huntington paper and her video highlights.

CORYNNE HAUSER, a 5-7 guard from Rochester High School, which is about 30 miles northwest of Pittsburgh. She was a first-team all-state selection last season, when she averaged 19.9 points, 7.2 rebounds, 5.2 assists and 3.4 steals.

Starkey on Hauser: “One of the most dynamic playmakers we’ve recruited during my time at Kent State. Has the ability to score on all three levels and will be very difficult to defend. A very unselfish player who, to be honest, probably doesn’t shoot the ball enough.”

Hometown feature and video highlights.

TATIANA THOMAS, a 5-10 wing from Bolingbrook High school, which is about 30 miles west of Chicago. She averaged 10 points, 8.5 rebounds and three assists last season despite not being the top scoring option on her team. She still was her high school conference player of the year.

Starkey on Thomas: “Has the ability to be a lockdown defender and will really add a great level of athleticism to our team. A big guard wing player who is great at attacking the basket in the open court, and a really good rebounder (“the ‘rebounding machine,’ according to her high school coach), has a nose for the ball.”

Hometown feature and video of her stealing the ball seven times in a game last season

All three new Flashes were highly recruited. Hauser had more than 20 Division I offers, Gray more than seven, Thomas more than five. Gray and Thomas committed to Kent State fairly early in last summer’s AAU season, cutting off other possible offers.

“They’re all really good players,” Starkey said. “The three of these players would form a formidable backcourt.

“All three make players around them better. They have an understanding of how to play with others and share the basketball. All three are three positive and encouragers and competitors. Not every player has the ability to do that, especially really talented ones.” 

The three also could change the way KSU plays defense.

“They bring different elements,” Starkey said. “We’ve been a little bit close to the vest — bend but don’t break defensively. That’s fine in some aspects, but it’s nice to turn people over and have some more easy baskets on offense. With these three, we’ll be able to play a little differently next year.”

The Flashes have four seniors on the roster — forward Lindsey Thall, wing Annie Pavlansky and guards Hannah Young and Mariah Modkins — who could graduate next spring. But any of them could get another year in Kent. Because of COVID-19, the NCAA isn’t counting last season as a year of eligibility. Starkey said, however, he didn’t see any difficulty in keeping the roster to its 15-scholarship limit.

Even in the age of a transfer portal that allows new players to be immediately eligible, Starkey says Kent State plans to build through four-year recruits.

“Our goal is to bring in players out of high school that we really feel good about and develop them and hopefully retain them,” he said. “We’re selective with transfers, but we’ll take some. We got a really good one this year (junior Abby Ogle, a 2020 junior college all-American who played at West Virginia last season).” 

Even though the players are the same, things look a little different for the Kent State women’s basketball team this season.

In an 80-73 opening game victory at Northern Kentucky Wednesday, KSU got 34 points from its bench. That’s more than 20 points above its average in bench scoring last season.

Nine Flashes played more than 16 minutes, something I can’t remember happening in a close game in coach Todd Starkey’s six years in Kent. Seven players scored at least seven points. Four scored in double figures, led by 19 from sophomore point guard Casey Santoro (who didn’t start).

“We have capable people as deep as 7, 8, 9 down the bench that can really give us great minutes and the ability to score,” coach Todd Starkey said. “I don’t think we’ve ever had kind of depth since we’ve been here.

“Today it was Casey and Lindsey. Next game, it’s going to be somebody else. It’s a nice thing to have all these options.”

“Lindsey” is senior Lindsey Thall, one of five returning starters. She had 17 points, and there will be more on her later.

Three of the returning starters combined for only eight points. Two didn’t score at all.

But senior guard Hannah Young got her first early-season start in her time at KSU (she had started because of injuries in mid-season). She had 11 points, six rebounds, two blocked shots and a steal.

“She earned the start in practice,” Starkey said. “She’s been playing with great effort, and it was nice to see her benefit from all the hard work she’s put in over the last four years.”

Santoro started only two games her freshman season. Wednesday she scored 14 points in the fourth quarter, nine in the last three minutes. After Northern Kentucky briefly took a 64-63 lead with 2:47 to go, Santoro scored on a short jumper. Eighty seconds later, the Flashes led by just a point when she hit a 3-point shot to give KSU a 70-66 lead. She added four free throws as Kent State pulled away in the last minute.

“The 3 was huge for us,” Starkey said. “Casey did some really nice things attacking the basket and a couple of really nice steals down the stretch, too. She played with a lot of composure and took care of the basketball.”

Santoro’s scoresheet line: 5-of-9 shooting, 8-of-11 free throws, three assists, a blocked shot (she’s 5-4) and one turnover in 24 minutes.

1:06 4Q | Kent State 70, NKU 66

Huge shot by Casey Santoro puts the Flashes ahead by 4!#GoFlashes⚡️ pic.twitter.com/iwmOpftsJ7

— Kent State Women’s Basketball (@KentStWBB) November 11, 2021

Thall, starting her 84th straight game, had an even better line: 6-of-13 field-goal attempts, 3-of-4 three-pointers, eight rebounds, three blocked shots, three steals and two assists. She had several other strong defensive plays close to the basket.

Thall played 37 minutes, the only Flash to play more than 30. In recent seasons, it wasn’t usual to see four or five players play more than 30 minutes in a close game.

Two newcomers gave the Flashes good first games.

Abby Ogle, a former junior college all-American guard, scored eight points and had three steals and three assists in 18 minutes

“I wouldn’t be surprised if she leads our team in steals,” Starkey said. “She just has a knack for that stuff. She’s a little bit of a higher-risk, high-reward type player. We haven’t really had much of that for the last couple of years. She’s a different type of player, which is nice to have.”

Freshman forward Bridget Dunn, an all-state player from Indiana, scored seven points, including a 3-point basket, and had four rebounds, an assist and a steal in 16 minutes.

“In her first college game, she showed good composure, had a big 3 early, and some good rebounds,” Starkey said. “She gives us a nice post rotation.”

Wednesday’s game was evenly matched. Northern Kentucky led by as much as eight points, Kent State by as much as 10. The Flashes spotted NKU a 7-0 lead, then scored 12 in a row of their own. Northern Kentucky outscored KSU 16-7 to start the second quarter, then the Flashes take the lead before NKU hit a 3-pointers at the halftime buzzer.

“At halftime, we talked about how we had played great basketball for 15 minutes,” Starkey said. “But five of it, we looked brain dead.

“We made some adjustments, and in the second half, we had a lot fewer lapses. We had 10 turnovers at halftime but ended with just 14.”

The Flashes also outrebounded NKU 26-16 in the second half.

“Overall, I was pleased with our efforts, especially in the second half,” Starkey said. “It was a really balanced effort and performance, and really I’m pleased with the way we played crucial possessions down the stretch.”

Special shooting

The Flashes made 50.9% of their shots, 3 percentage points better than they did in any game last season. They made 50% of their 3-pointers (6-for-12).

Next, the home opener

Kent State plays Saint Francis of Pennsylvania at 2 p.m. Sunday at the M.A.C. Center. Saint Francis beat the Flashes 67-64 last season and went 14-9. This year they’re picked third in the Northeast Conference. Saint Francis lost to Temple 73-53 Wednesday.

Box score

Notes

• Nila Blackford, last season’s leading scorer and rebounder, had 10 points and four rebounds. Katie Shumate, the second-leading scorer, had eight points. “It’s a really solid overall performance when you win when Nila and Katie didn’t score a whole lot.”
• Kent State outscored NKU 20-7 at the foul line, 27-20 in points off turnovers, 40-30 in the paint, and 10-5 on second-chance points
• Northern Kentucky was led by senior Lindsey Duvall, a Louisville transfer who scored 27 points. NKU is picked to finish fourth in the 12-team Horizon League.
• Attendance was announced at 842.