Senior guard Katie Shumate scored the 1,000th points of her career Thursday, but the Kent State women’s basketball team fell 80-59 at Arkansas.
The Flashes are 1-2 on the season. Arkansas, picked to finish fourth in the SEC, is 4-0.
Shumate led KSU with 12 points.
“Katie’s battled through a lot of injuries over the last few years, she’s worked really hard and I’m really proud of the body of work that she’s put together,” coach Todd Starkey said. “Anytime you’re a thousand-point scorer, you’re doing a lot of things right, and she’s done it through adversity. She’s meant a lot to our program and has a lot of big things yet to come.”
Shumate, a 5-11 senior guard from Newark, Ohio, has had trouble with her knees much of her time at KSU and had surgery after her freshman year. At one point, there was doubt whether she would play at all during her sophomore year. But she started 17 of 20 games that COVID season and averaged 28.9 minutes, third highest on the team
Last year Shumate led the Flashes in scoring; she had ranked second her first two years in Kent. She averaged 12 points a game each of those three years and leads the team at 14.3 points a game so far this season. She has twice been all-MAC honorable mention and made the league all-freshman team her first year.
In Thursday’s second half, Shumate scored 10 points on 4-of-6 shooting and made 2-of-2 three-point shots. She helped the Flashes play Arkansas almost evenly over the last 20 minutes.
But by halftime, Arkansas led KSU 46-29, having outshot the Flashes 54% to 43% and outrebounded them 21-15.
“Their size and athleticism were just too much for us to handle,” Starkey said. “They’re playing 6-3 to 6-6 out there at any given time. It’s hard to come up with rebounds against that kind of size.
“They’ve got two McDonalds all-Americans and the SEC freshman of the year returning, so they’re a very talented team.”
Freshman Corynne Hauser had 10 points, three assists and four rebounds. So far this season, she is tied for fourth on the team in scoring at 9.3 per game and leads the team in assists with nine. She’s averaged just 19 minutes a game.
Hauser, a two-time all-state player from Rochester, Pennsylvania, played most of her minutes against Arkansas at point guard.
“We’re going to move her around in different positions,” Starkey said. “Sometimes she’s going to play point, sometimes she’ll play off the ball. She’s a talented player.”
Hauser made four of her first five shots, all on drives to the basket.
Running the numbers
- Graduate student Annie Pavlansky scored nine points in 15 minutes, both career highs against a Division I opponent. She had two assists and two rebounds.
- For the game, Kent State made 36.7% of its shots and 30.8% of its 3-pointers. Arkansas shot 4.5% from the field and 37.5% from long distance.
- The Flashes had only four offensive rebounds and were outrebounded 45-35. Bridget Dunn led KSU with six.
- Ten Flashes played at least 13 minutes, led by senior guard Clare Kelly’s 27.
- Kent State blocked a season-high four shots. Shumate blocked two.
Next: Sunday afternoon at Oklahoma State
The Flashes play at Oklahoma State, their second straight Power 5 opponent, at 3 p.m. Sunday.
The Cowgirls are 4-0, having beaten Missouri State 73-54 on Thursday. Five Oklahoma State layers average in double figures. Lior Garzon, a 6-1 forward, has made 13 of her 25 three-point attempts. Forward Taylen Collins averages 11.8 points and 8.5 rebounds.