Kent State finished a brutal first six games of its season with a Thanksgiving tournament championship.
The Flashes beat Southern Illinois 72-66 Sunday to win the Christmas City Classic in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.
“If someone had told us at the beginning of the season that we’d be 4-2, the staff would have said, ‘We’ll take that right now,'” coach Todd Starkey said. “We were playing three Power 5s and three really good mid-majors. We could potentially have gone 0-6.”
Southern Illinois is 1-5 on the season. Quinnipiac, the team KSU beat 58-55 in the first game of the tournament, took third place with a 67-64 win over host Lehigh.
Five players played special roles in the victory.
LINDSEY THALL scored KSU’s first nine points on three 3-point baskets. She went on to score 20 points of 6-of-11 shooting and 4-of-7 three-pointers. Thall is the Flashes’ all-time leader in 3-point baskets with 231.
“Lindsey hasn’t been shooting the ball well until today,” Starkey said. “But with a player like that, you just keep going to them and let them shoot through it.”
Thall, who scored 18 points in KSU’s 58-55 win over Quinnipiac Saturday, was the tournament’s most valuable player.
CASEY SANTORO also made the all-tournament team. She scored 15 points and made 9-of-11 free throws, including eight in the fourth quarter.
“She played two really tough games,” Starkey said. “When you handle the ball as much as she does, you’re going to make some mistakes. But she did a really good job of playing through those mistakes. She did a really good job of handling pressure yesterday and today.”
Thall and Santoro drew 18 fouls between them against Quinnipiac. Against SIU, they drew 13 more.
CLARE KELLY played 37 minutes, a career high and the most for a Kent State player this season, and scored 12 points. She made 3-of-4 three-point shots.
“She was really dialed in today,’ Starkey said. “And her defensive effort was phenomenal.”
DIONNA GRAY had only played 16 minutes and scored six points through the first five games of her freshman year. On Sunday, she scored 10 points in 12 minutes.
“She gave us a big spark in the second quarter when Casey was in foul trouble and Corrynne Hauser rolled an ankle,” Starkey said.
HANNAH YOUNG had 10 rebounds, the most for any KSU player this season, and scored eight points.
Through the first 29 minutes, the Flashes held SIU to 24% shooting.
“We’ve learned that we can trust and rely on our defense,” Starkey said. “We’ve got a lot of players on the court with a lot of experience and who have played together. I think they have a lot more confidence in in each other.”
In the third period, Southern Illinois made only 1-of-14 shots as Kent State build a 49-29 lead.
But in the last minute of the quarter, in Starkey’s words, some “crazy things” happened.
“We got a no-call (of a foul) that I got an apology for,” Starkey said. “Then they scored on the next trip down. Then we had a missed shot, and they hit a 65- or 70-foot shot.
“I think it gave them just enough hope. Then they scored the first five in the fourth quarter.”
The run started the Salukis to their best — and Kent State’s worst — quarter of the year.
Southern outscored KSU 32-23 in the period and closed the margin to six points in the last minute.
Running the numbers
Better shooting: The Flashes made 10-of-22 three-point attempts. Their 45.5 percentage was 10 points higher than any other game this season.
Turnover trouble: Kent State committed nine turnovers in the first quarter and six more in the second against a high-pressure SIU defense. KSU was able to cut the number to seven in the second half.
Other statistical notes:
- Kent outrebounded a taller SIU team 40-39.
- The Flashes had eight steals, their most of the season. Hauser had three of them in the six minutes she played. SIU had 11 steals.
- Kent outscored the Salukis 20-8 on free throws.
- KSU’s bench was outscored for the first time this season (18-12).
- Southern Illinois outscored Kent off turnovers (20-17), in the paint (34-22) and on second changes (20-8).
Next: Home on Saturday
The Flashes are back in Kent for the first time in three weeks when they host St. Bonaventure at 2 p.m. Sunday. The Bonnies are 1-5 and lost three games at Cleveland State’s Thanksgiving tournament.