With 4.7 seconds left, freshman Corrynne Hauser made the biggest play of her young career to win Kent State’s game against Oklahoma State Sunday.
With 1.3 seconds left, graduate student Hannah Young made a critical defensive play to preserve the victory.
In two minutes around the beginning of the fourth quarter, grad student Lindsey Thall scored 10 straight points —the biggest scoring run of her five-year career — to keep Kent State in the game.
And for 34 minutes, senior Katie Shumate played big-time basketball against a big-time opponent, scoring 23 points to lead the Kent State women’s basketball team past Oklahoma State of the Big 12 59-56.
It was the Flashes’ third win against a Power 5 opponent in two years (they beat UCLA and Penn State last year) and evens their record at 2-2. Both of KSU’s losses this season have been to Power 5 teams — 80-71 to Florida State in this season’s opener in Kent and 80-59 at Arkansas on Thursday.
Oklahoma State is 4-1. Before the Kent State game, the Cowgirls had averaged 90 points a game.
“It’s a big, big win for our program,” coach Todd Starkey said. “These are the type of games we want to play. They prepare us for a tough conference schedule.
“It’s great for our players. These are memories that they’ll remember for their lifetimes.”
Starkey said a key to the game was Kent State controlling the pace.
“We knew they wanted to run and they wanted to play fast,” he said. “We needed to try to control that. And we did a really good job of controlling the tempo, making them have to defend multiple sets.
“We wanted to execute an offense that made them guard multiple screening actions. So we were making them defend 20 or 25 seconds of a shot clock. If you do that enough times in a game, it reduces the number of possessions the other team gets.”
Hauser’s winning shot
Here is a look at Corynne Hauser’s game-winner.#GoFlashes⚡️ pic.twitter.com/qx0W9sDhEj
— Kent State Women’s Basketball (@KentStWBB) November 20, 2022
Oklahoma State had just missed two free throws when Kent State called timeout with 11 seconds to go and advanced the ball to its front court.
Hauser took the inbounds pass and moved to the left elbow, spun and drove to the basket. Leaning far to the left, she put the layup in with her left hand, and the Flashes were in the lead.
“We wanted the ball in her hands,” Starkey said. “We were trying to get a ball screen set with Lindsey involved, and Corynne saw a little opening there.
“She’s a player who likes the ball in her hands and wants big shots. She didn’t have a particularly great shooting day, but she made that one when counted. You want players who want to take the big shot. She’s certainly one of them.”
Young’s leaping defense
After Hauser scored, Oklahoma State called timeout and advanced the ball.
From the sideline, OSU’s Terryn Milton sent a looping pass to the right of the basket, where Taylen Collins was cutting toward the net. Young, who is 5-10, leaped into the air and batted the ball to Shumate, who was fouled. Shumate made both shots with a second to go.
“It was a great, great play,” Starkey said. “Hannah got banged around quite a bit in that game, but she kept playing tough. It’s great when a fifth-year senior can make a play like that down the stretch, when it really matters.”
Thall’s 10-point run
Thall, KSU’s second-leading scorer, hadn’t scored Sunday until she hit a short jump shot with four seconds to go in the third quarter.
Then she took over the game.
She scored on a layup 57 seconds into the fourth period, then made a jumper, a free throw and a 3-point basket in the next 90 seconds. She single-handedly had taken the Flashes from a six-point deficit to a 49-48 lead.
The first and last baskets of Thall’s streak:
10 straight for Lindsey Thall 🔥
KSU 48, OSU 47 pic.twitter.com/8o6wBi1AFt
— Kent State Women’s Basketball (@KentStWBB) November 20, 2022
From there on, the teams played within three points of each other.
“We started to play through Lindsey, and that was huge,” Starkey said. “I sometimes think that gets overshadowed in the box score. The timeliness of those 10 points was really big.”
Shumate’s big game
Shumate, 5-11 guard, has led Kent State in scoring in three of the team’s four games. (She was one behind the leader in the other.)
At Oklahoma State, she scored at least four points in every quarter, finishing with nine in the fourth. She led the Flashes with 23 points, eight rebounds and three steals.
“Katie was really good at being aggressive,” Starkey said, “and when she’s aggressive like that, she’s a tough matchup for anybody.
“Early in the game, we felt we had a bit of a mismatch and were trying to play through her.”
Running the numbers
- In Oklahoma State’s four first games, the Cowgirls had averaged 49% shooting and 44% from 3-point distance. Against Kent State, OSU shot 31% and 22% on 3-pointers.
- Kent State made 36% of its shots and 21% of its 3-point attempts.
- The Flashes outrebounded Oklahoma State 43-41. Shumate led with eight. Thall, Young and sophomore Bridget Dunn had six.
- Kent State’s bench outscored OSU’s 17-9. KSU reserves have outscored their opponents in every game this season.
- The lead changed hands 17 times, and the score was tied seven times.
- Ten Flashes played at least eight minutes, with nine playing at least 10. Nine scored.
Next: A holiday tournament in Bethlehem
The Flashes play Quinnipiac, a consistently strong mid-major, at 2:30 p.m. Saturday in the first round of the Christmas City Classic in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Quinnipiac is 2-2, with 30-point losses to No. 10 North Carolina State and No. 12 Indiana. The Bobcats have beat Hartford by 55 and Central Connecticut by 28.
In the tournament’s second game on Sunday, the Flashes will play Leheigh (2-2) or Southern Illinois (0-3).