All five of Kent State’s Mid-American Conference games have been decided by less than 10 points, and the Flashes have lost four of them.
The latest was a 70-64 loss at Ohio University on Wednesday. The Flashes led by two points going into the fourth quarter but couldn’t score a basket for five minutes near the end of the game.
Kent State is now 9-5 on the season but 1-4 and tied for 10th place in the MAC. Ohio is 7-4 and 1-1 in the MAC. The Bobcats have had three league games postponed because of COVID-19.
Key things to know:
- KSU committed a season-high 19 turnovers, 15 because of Ohio steals. The turnovers led to 19 Ohio points.
- The team shot under 30% from 3-point distance for the fourth time in five MAC games. In non-conference play, KSU was one of the best 3-point shooting teams in the country.
- For the first time this season, the Flashes failed to outrebound its opponent. Rebounding was 43-43, but OU outrebounded Kent State 12-5 in the fourth quarter.
- Junior Katie Shumate led KSU with 18 points. Freshman Bridget Dunn tied a career-high of 15 points for the second-straight game and had a career-high eight rebounds. Hannah Young had 10 points and 10 rebounds.
“We’ve got to stop beating ourselves,” coach Todd Starkey said in a radio interview after the game. “We turned the ball over way too much. We gave them way too many second-chance opportunities.
“That’s Ohio’s game. They’re going to try to turn you over and score, and they’re going to crash the offensive glass. It was 19 to 9 in points off turnovers. That’s really the game there.
“So it’s another disappointing loss where we kind of gave it away. You just shake your head because we can’t get out of our own way right now.”
How the game slipped away
The Flashes led by three after the first quarter, by one at halftime and 46-44 going into the fourth quarter, and the game was tied 56-56 with 5:39 to go.
Then the Flashes missed five shots in a row until Bridget Dunn cut an Ohio lead to 62-61 with a 3-point basket with 32 seconds to go.
But OU’s Cece Hooks, last season’s MAC player of the year, scored on a short jumper four seconds later. Then Hooks forced a tie-up that gave the ball back to Ohio with 30 seconds to go. All Kent State could do after that was foul.
In the fourth quarter, Hooks had 14 points on 6-of-7 shooting, four rebounds and two steals. Her team outscored KSU 10-3 off turnovers and 14-4 in the paint, mostly off turnovers or on hard drives to the basket. The Bobcats made 10-of-17 shots in the quarter.
Hooks finished the game with 28 points, 11 rebounds and three steals.
Stolen away
Ohio’s 15 steals were the most against Kent State since the 2017-18 season, and they came in a season when KSU had cut down its turnovers considerably. Going into the game, KSU had a +1.2 turnover margin.
But Ohio leads the league in steals and turnover margin. Hooks, who was among four OU players who had at least three steals, leads the conference in that category.
At halftime Wednesday, all eight KSU turnovers were on OU steals.
Battle of the boards
The Flashes had outrebounded every team they played this season and were up seven rebounds on OU in the fourth quarter. But OU outrebounded Kent 12-5 in the fourth quarter and held the Flashes without an offensive rebound. The Flashes had 13 offensive rebounds in the first three quarters.
Overall rebounds were 43-43, and the teams were even at 9-9 on second-chance points.
Shumate, Dunn and Young lead the Flashes
Katie Shumate’s 18 points were her most since Dec. 8. She made 8-of-21 shots, had two 3-point baskets, five rebounds, two assists and two steals.
Bridget Dunn equaled her career-high of 15 points for the second game in a row and had a career-high eight rebounds. She made 6-of-12 shots and 3-of-8 three-pointers. Dunn has started in place of senior Lindsey Thall, who missed her fourth-straight game because of COVID.
Hannah Young, a 5-10 senior guard, had her third double-double of the season (and her career) with 10 points and 10 rebounds. She made 4-of-5 shots and 2-of-2 three-point attempts. She leads the MAC in 3-point percentage at 57.7% (15-of-26).
Mariah Modkins played 16 minutes, her most in a month, largely because Casey Santoro got into first-half foul trouble Modkins led KSU with four assists.
Next: Eastern Michigan at the M.A.C.C. on Saturday
The Flashes play Eastern Michigan (4-6, 1-2 MAC) at 1 p.m. at the M.A.C. Center. On Tuesday, Eastern lost 83-73 to Ball State (9-5, 2-2) at home. KSU beat Ball State 54-51 at Ball State on Saturday.
Other MAC scores
- Akron (6-4, 3-1) 66, Miami (4-7, 0-2) 53 at Miami.
- Toledo (11-3, 5-0) 74, Central Michigan (3-11, 1-4) 49 at Toledo.
- Bowling Green, Northern Illinois, Western Michigan and Buffalo were all idle because of COVID difficulties.
Notes
- Kent State shot 39.4% from the field, its best of the MAC season. But the Flashes were only 8-of-28 from 3-point range (28.6%). The two teams combined to miss 42 three-point attempts. Ohio was 9-of-31 (29.0%) from distance.
- Kent State shot only seven free throws, making four. Ohio was 5-of-13 from the line.
- Hooks is 10 points away from becoming Ohio’s all-time leading scorer.
- OU’s Erica Johnson, a preseason all-MAC pick, played her first game in a month. She made 2-of-18 shots (2-of-14 on 3s). She had eight rebounds and four assists. Johnson had averaged 20.3 points a game before she was sidelined by COVID.
- Starkey left after the game for Indiana, where his mother died on Tuesday.