Kent State women’s basketball coaches push their guards to attack the basket aggressively.
Freshman Corynne Hauser and senior Katie Shumate executed that lesson well Sunday and led the Flashes to a 64-49 victory over St. Bonaventure in the M.A.C. Center.
It was the fourth-straight win for the Flashes, who are 5-2 and ranked 11th in the most recent Mid-Major Top 25. St. Bonaventure is 2-7.
Hauser scored a career-high 18 points on 5-of-8 shooting and 2-of-3 from 3-point distance, and 6-of-6 from the foul line. She also had two steals. Shumate had 15 points on 6-of-11 shooting, six rebounds and two steals.
“Being aggressive really does open up things for us and for the rest of our teammates, too,” Shumate said.
“When Katie wants to be aggressive, she could drop 30 a night,” Hauser said.
Hauser said she had been working with associate head coach Fran Recchia on being more aggressive in her 3-point shooting. Hauser had two 3s for the first time Sunday.
“She’s been stressing to shoot more 3s to get more opportunities, not just for myself but for other players,” Hauser said.
Coach Todd Starkey Hauser had bee “passive coming off of ball screens.”
“We tell her, ‘When you come off the other side of the screen and you’re not guarded, you have to shoot the basketball,'” he said. “She averaged 26 a game in high school, so she knows how to score. I just want her to look for hers. Her teammates have encouragted her to do so because they know how talented she is.”
Sunday was the fourth time that Kent State had held an opponent below 60 points.
“We’re playing on defense first,” Shumate said. “We’re locking in on what we need to do and not looking forward to the offensive end. I’s just, ‘We’re on defense, and we’re going to be here until we get a stop. And the better we play on defense, the sooner we’re gonna get back on the offense.”
Every member of the team played, and 12 of the 13 on the roster played at least seven minutes.
Graduate student guard Abby Ogle had career highs with three steals and three assists and scored six points. Freshman Tatiana Thomas scored her first collegiate basket with a putback in the third quarter and had two rebounds. Freshman Dionna Gray made a 3-pointer for the second game in a row.
Running the numbers
- Lindsey Thall had six assists, a career-high for her and a season-high for the team.
- Shumate and Hannah Young each had six rebounds to lead KSU to a 37-33 advantage on the boards.
- Both teams were perfect from the foul line. Kent State was 14-of-14; St. Bonaventure 10-of-10. It was the first time Kent State had made all of its free throws (taking 10 or more) in a game since 1999.
- The Flashes had 10 steals, their best so far this season. Its 13 assists ranked second.
- KSU equaled its season high with four blocked shots.
- Kent State made 36.2% of its field goals and 32% of its 3-pointers. St. Bonaventure’s numbers were 30.2% from the field and 30.4% from 3.
- Kent State held l’yanna Lops, the 6-3 forward who was the Bonnies’ leading scorer, to 0-for-10 from the field and two rebounds.
Next: Wedneday at Duquesne
The Flashes visits Pittsburgh to play Duquesne at 6 p.m. Wednesday on ESPN+. The Dukes are 6-2 with losses to PIttsburgh and Tulsa. Their best wins are over 6-3 Brown and 5-2 Deleware.