Bowling Green, Ball State and Toledo have dominated Mid-American Conference women’s basketball this season.
Kent State sits alone in fourth place but hasn’t been able to beat the top of the league.
The Flashes came their closest Saturday but lost to first-place Bowling Green 75-69 at the M.A.C. Center.
KSU had lost to the Falcons by nine in BG (11-1, 22-2 overall ), lost by nine at co-leader Ball State (11-1, 21-4) and lost by nine to third-place Toledo (10-2, 19-4).
The Flashes are 7-1 against the rest of the league and 15-8 overall. They’re two games ahead of fifth-place Western Michigan and Akron.
“We’ve played with the best teams in the league,” coach Todd Starkey said. “We want to beat the best teams in the league. It takes a little bit more. We’re right there. We still haven’t played our best basketball yet. We have an opportunity, but the window’s closing. The time is now for us to flip that switch and get to that next gear I know we still have.”
Everything is aimed at the MAC Tournament, which starts March 8.
“If we continue to keep our heads right and play our best basketball in Cleveland, we can beat Bowling Green, we can beat Ball State, we can beat anybody in the league,” Starkey said. “I thought our team played well enough to win today. We just had to put a few more possessions together on the offensive end.”
The Flashes and Bowling Green were never separated by more than eight points, though BG led for 35 minutes. Kent State had a one-point lead at the end of the first quarter, trailed by six at halftime and got within three in the third quarter and two in the fourth. A 3-point basket by Casey Santoro cut the lead to 72-69 with 36 seconds left, but then BG hit four-straight free throws.
“It was super frustrating because it only takes a couple plays to get past them,” said graduate student Lindsey Thall, who led the team with 15 points. “We were within two and three points multiple times, and we couldn’t capitalize on any of their mistakes. So we just have to learn from that and go play better next time.”
Kent State scored only 11 points in the fourth quarter, making 3-of-11 shots and 1-of-5 three-point attempts.
“We were finding pretty good looks,” said freshman Corynne Hauser, who had 13 points and seven assists in the game. “We just weren’t knocking down our shots. And the defense they were playing kept us out of the paint, so we were relying on 3s to get us into the game.”
Both teams shot very well in the first half. Bowling Green, led by Alissa Brett’s 5-of-5 shooting from 3-point range, made 7 of 13 three-pointers (53.6%) and 16-of 28 overall from the field (57.1%). Kent State was 44.8% from the field and 28.6% on 3-pointers.
But in the second half, BG was 0-for-6 on 3-pointers and 32.1% overall. KSU shot 50% in the third quarter but 27.3% in the fourth.
Numbers
- Casey Santoro had three 3-pointers and scored 11 points for the Flashes.
- Bowling Green, which ranks second in the country in turnover margin, scored 18 points off 19 KSU turnovers. Kent scored 11 off of nine BG turnovers.
- Kent State outrebounded the Falcons 36-30. Katie Shumate led KSU with eight rebounds, the third-straight game she has led the Flashes. The Flashes had 11 offensive rebounds and outscored BG 11-2 on second-chance points.
- The Falcons outscored Kent State in the paint 36-26.
- Brett led BG in scoring with 20 points but had only three in the second half. Alison Day scored 17 and Nyla Hampton 15 for the Falcons.
The view from BG
“It was a great basketball game. Kent State’s a really good team,” Bowling Green coach Robin Fralick was quoted on the BG website. “It was a very back-and-forth game, and I thought we did a great job of getting timely stops and timely scores.”
“We showed some grit today. Defensively, we were able to withstand some stretches when we were not scoring. And then, later in the fourth quarter, we were able to come up with some really timely baskets.”
Next: Wednesday at Buffalo
The Flashes play at Buffalo at 7 pm. Wednesday. The game will be on ESPN+ or ESPN3. Buffalo (4-8 MAC, 9-12 overall) lost to last-place Central Michigan 72-71 at home on Saturday. Kent State beat the Bulls 64-63 in Kent in its MAC opener on Jan. 4.
MAC standings
| MAC W-L | Pct. | MAC Home | MAC Away | All games | |
| BGSU | 11-1 | .917 | 7-0 | 4-1 | 22-2 |
| Ball St | 11-1 | .917 | 6-0 | 5-1 | 20-4 |
| Toledo | 10-2 | .833 | 5-0 | 5-2 | 19-4 |
| Kent St | 7-5 | .583 | 4-2 | 3-3 | 15-8 |
| Akron | 5-7 | .417 | 3-3 | 2-4 | 14-9 |
| WMU | 5-7 | .417 | 3-2 | 2-5 | 10-13 |
| EMU | 5-7 | .417 | 3-3 | 2-4 | 13-11 |
| Buffalo | 4-8 | .333 | 2-3 | 2-3 | 9-12 |
| NIU | 4-8 | .333 | 3-3 | 1-5 | 12-11 |
| Miami | 4-8 | .333 | 3-4 | 1-4 | 9-16 |
| CMU | 3-9 | .250 | 3-4 | 0-5 | 5-18 |
| Ohio | 3-9 | .250 | 1-5 | 2-4 | 5-18 |
Saturday MAC scores
- Bowling Green 75, Kent State 69 at Kent.
- Ball State 61, Akron 56 at Akron.
- Central Michigan 72, Buffalo 71 at Central.
- Ohio 72, Northern Illinois 71 at Ohio.
- Toledo 71, Miami 586 at Miami.
- Eastern Michigan 68, Western Michigan 58 at Eastern.