Kent State has led in the fourth quarter of six of its seven Mid-American Conference games this season and was tied in the seventh.
But the Flashes are only 2-5 in the conference after losing 65-62 at second-place Buffalo Monday night.
KSU led Buffalo by seven points with 4:11 to go but missed its last seven shots and went 2-of-4 free throws in the final four minutes. Buffalo made 4-of-5 field goals in that time and got seven free throws from Dyaisha Fair, the nation’s fourth-leading scorer.
KSU’s record drops to 10-6 and is in eighth place in the MAC. Buffalo is 10-4 and 4-0 in the conference.
Besides the last four minutes, key things to know about the game:
- The five MAC teams that have beaten Kent have a combined conference record of 18-4.
- Buffalo forced 17 KSU turnovers, including one that led to the Bulls’ go-ahead basket with 1:05 to go.
- KSU forward Nila Blackford had 11 points and nine rebounds, but she was in foul trouble much of the game and played only 21 minutes.
- Kent State starting guard Hannah Young, who had five points and four rebounds in the first half, injured her ankle in the second quarter and didn’t return.
- Bridget Dunn led KSU with 13 points, including three 3-pointers. Casey Santoro and Lindsey Thall joined Blackford with 11 points.
“It’s tough to come up short again,” coach Todd Starkey said. “Buffalo is a really good team, and it’s a tough place to win. But we had the opportunity to win the game. We just have to quit making so many mistakes down the stretch.
“We’ve had a lot of winnable games — all five of our losses have been by an average of about five points. So we have to get that fixed.”
The crazy, often changed MAC schedule
The coach said that four games in eight days — three of them on the road — had taken a toll on the team.
“Our kids are drained,” he said. “They’ve given me everything, and we’re still losing close games. It’s frustrating.
“We need some rest. This team ishas not been healthy since we’ve get gotten back from Christmas break. We’ve had significant changes to our schedule, injuries and sickness.
KSU has gotten new opponents four times so far in the MAC season when their opponents had COVID problems, something Starkey has said is mentally hard on the team.
Senior forward Lindsey Thall, who had started 83-straight games for Kent State, missed four games as she recovered from COVID. Starting guard Katie Shumate has been playing on an injured leg, and against Buffalo, starter Hannah Young went down with an ankle injury in the second quarter.
The Flashes are scheduled to get the next nine days off. Because of the MAC’s schedule shuffle for COVID, Kent State won’t play until it travels to Northern Illinois for a Jan. 26 game.
That will be a start of a series of games against teams currently in the second division of the league. The five games KSU has lost have been to teams currently in first, second, third, fourth and fifth place in the league. Those teams have an 18-4 record. Kent State’s next five games are against teams currently 4-13 in the MAC.
While Kent State rests, most of the rest of the MAC will be playing a lot of games to make up for postponements. Every other team in the league but Toledo and Central Michigan will play five games in the next 11 days. (Central, Toledo and KSU are the only teams to have played a full six-game schedule so far.) Buffalo, Miami and Ohio will have played six games in 13 days by Jan. 29.
Starkey said the team was stuck in Buffalo overnight because of the 20 inches of snow on the ground there.
Close all the way
The teams were within five points of each other almost the entire game. The game was tied nine times and the lead changed hands six.
Buffalo led going into the fourth quarter, but Casey Santoro and Thall started the quarter with 3-point baskets, then the Flashes found success feeding Thall and forward Nila Blackford close to the basket for layups.
A Thall basket with 4:11 to go gave KSU a 60-53 lead, but that was pretty much the end of the Flashes’ scoring.
Both of the forwards missed close-in shots in subsequent possessions.
“We ran good stuff,” Starkey said. “We got good looks low. We just needed one or two more of those to go in.”
Foul shots by Fair made it 61-60 Kent with 1:05 to go. Buffalo pressed applied a full-court press, and forward Summer Hemphill forced the inbounds pass to go wide and out of bounds. Seven second later, Hemphill scored on a jump shot in the foul lane to give Buffalo the lead.
“I probably should have called time out” when KSU looked in trouble on the inbounds pass, Starkey said. And on Hemphill’s go-ahead basket, “They ran an action that we knew about, and we didn’t guard it.”
The Flashes missed good looks on 3-pointers on their next two possessions, and Fair made three free throws in the last minute to end the scoring.
How the starting lineup played
BLACKFORD had 11 points and nine rebounds, but foul trouble limited her to just 21 minutes. She also had an assist and a steal and blocked a shot.
THALL, in her second game back from COVID, had 11 points, seven rebounds, four assists and a steal in 35 minutes.
SANTORO had 11 points, including three 3-point baskets. For the first time this season, she had no assists. She also had no turnovers.
BRIDGET DUNN led KSU in scoring for the third-straight game with 13 points, including three 3-pointers
KATIE SHUMATE had eight points and three assists.
HANNAH YOUNG was among KSU’s leaders with five points and four rebounds when she went to the ground fighting for a rebound. After lying on the floor, she walked gingerly to the bench and spent the rest of the game with an ice pack on her ankle. “She’s hurting,” Starkey said, but he didn’t have a further update on her condition.
Young has started every game this season and is KSU’s third-leading rebounder. She also averages 7.6 points per game. Junior Clare Kelly, senior Mariah Modkins and freshman Jenna Batsch filled in at her guard spot for the rest of the game.
Running the numbers
- Despite trying to attack Buffalo’s defense inside, the Flashes drew only 11 fouls and made 8-of-12 free throws. “There was a lot of contact down there,” Starkey said. “We didn’t get a single call in the fourth quarter.”
- Buffalo scored 14 points off Kent turnovers; the Flashes had eight off of 11 UB turnovers.
- Kent State made more than 40% of its shots (23-of-557) for the second game in a row after not reaching that mark for its first five MAC games. Buffalo made 42% of its shots.
- KSU had eight 3-pointers to Buffalo’s seven. But the Flashes missed 17 shots behind the arc. Buffalo was 7-of-16.
- Kent State outrebounded Buffalo 39-30, marking the 15th time in 16 games the Flashes have outrebounded their opponent. KSU had 14 offensive rebounds but managed only eight second-chance ponts Buffalo had six second-chance point after eight offensive rebounds.
- KSU led Buffalo 12-4 in points in the point at halftime. But Buffalo made a concerted effort to go inside to the 6-2 Hemphill in the third quarter, when she had nine points. Fighting foul trouble, Hemphill had zero in the first half. In the end, points in the paint were 26-26.
- Fair led all scorers with 26 points, two point above than her MAC-leading average of 23.8. But it took her 23 shots to reach that total, and Kent’s defense helped force her to miss 16. Fair also had seven rebounds and five assists.
Monday’s other MAC game
Miami (1-2 MAC, 5-7 overall) upset preseason-favorite Ohio (2-2, 8-5) in Miami 63-60. Ohio was 1-for-17 from 3-point distance. Sophomore Katie Davidson had 17 points for Miami, 11 above her average.