Wednesday is another game with an unexpected opponent for the Kent State women.
The Flashes were scheduled to host Bowling Green at the M.A.C. Center. But COVID-19 on the BG roster postponed that game, the third contest in a row KSU has played a team not originally scheduled.
KSU will travel to Ohio University to play the Bobcats, who were scheduled to play Buffalo, which has its own COVID outbreak. Kent State and Ohio were originally scheduled to play Jan. 19, so the Flashes will have a different, yet-to-be-determined opponent, then.
The game starts at 7 p.m. and will be streamed on ESPN3 and on the Kent State Radio Network. Live statistics are available on the OU website.
The Bobcats were league coaches’ preseason pick to win the MAC. Their first three league games were postponed because of COVID. Ohio lost its first MAC game on Saturday to Northern Illinois 71-68.
Ohio is 6-3 overall and 0-1 in the MAC. Northern Illinois is 4-7 and 1-2.
Kent State is 9-4 and 1-3. The Flashes lost their first three MAC games by close margins, then won at Ball State 54-51 on Saturday. All that came after an 8-1 non-conference season that saw the Flashes ranked as high as 12th in the College Insider Mid-Major Poll.
But since then, the Flashes’ offensive has pretty much vanished. KSU averaged 77.8 points a game in non-conference play. In the MAC, the Flashes 56.5 points and made just 32.9% of their shots.
KSU’s defense has kept it competitive. The Flashes have allowed on 59.3 points a game, third best in the conference and limited opponents to 38.1% shooting, also third in the league. They rank first in the MAC in 3-point defense, where opponents have made just 26.8% of their shots.
But KSU’s own 3-point percentage, which was third-best in Division I at 42% going into conference play, is 27.2% in league games. That’s last in the conference.
KSU forward Nila Blackford has 37 rebounds in her last three games and ranks third in the MAC in rebounding. But her scoring and shooting are down substantially from last year, when she led KSU with 15.6 points per game.
Ohio is led by last year’s MAC player of the year, Cece Hooks, a 5-8 fifth-year guard. Hooks is second in the MAC in scoring (21.6 points per game), fourth in shooting percentage (49.7), first in steals (3.6) and ninth in rebounding (7.7). She is 37 points away from becoming the top scorer in Ohio women’s basketball history record. She has 2,412.
But critical to Wednesday’s game will be the status of redshirt junior Erica Johnson, a 5-11 guard who, like Hooks, was a preseason all-MAC selection. Johnson missed OU’s game with Northern Illinois as she recovered from COVID. She is fourth in the MAC in scoring at 20.3 points a game and leads the league in assists at 5.8 per game.
Kent State is also hoping for a recovery from COVID by senior forward Lindsey Thall, who has missed KSU’s last three games. Thall is second on the team in scoring at 13.1 points per game and second in rebounding at 7.0. Before missing this this month, she had started all 83 games of her career.