After Ohio had scored the last six points of the second quarter Wednesday and cut Kent State’s lead to 35-30, coach Todd Starkey had a message for his team at halftime
“Hey, you’re better than that,” he told them.
Then the Flashes scored the first nine points of the third quarter and added a 13-0 run late in the quarter.
Kent State went on to an 82-56 victory, their fourth Mid-American Conference win by more than 20 points.
The victory clinches fourth place and a fourth seed in the MAC Tournament, which starts March 8 at Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse in Cleveland. There’s a distant mathematical chance the Flashes could move up to third seed, but with three games to play, they trail Toledo, Ball State and Bowling Green (all 13-2) by three games.
Kent State is 10-5 in the conference and 18-8 overall. The Flashes have won four of their last five games. Ohio is 4-11 and tied for last place in the MAC. The Bobcats are 6-20 overall and headed toward their worst record since 1999.
That halftime talk
How stern was Starkey?
“Medium,” point guard Casey Santoro said. (Starkey later said he didn’t think it was even that harsh.)
“This is a veteran crew,” the coach said. “I don’t have to yell at them to get them to do the right thing at this point of the year. There has been so much coaching, so many practices, that at this point it comes down to the players and how they want their season to end. So far they’re responded.”
Kent State made 58.6% of its shots and 45.5% of its 3-pointers in the second half. Reserves played more than half the fourth quarter and scored 13 of the team’s 22 points. Every KSU player in uniform got in the game.
Shumate stays hot
Katie Shumate led the team with 16 points and nine rebounds. Over her last eight games, she has averaged 14 points and 8.8 rebounds.
“Katie’s been on a tear, just playing really good basketball, playing with great energy, getting tough rebounds and finishing in the paint.,” Starkey said. “The way that she has consistently been bringing that type of effort has really raised the level of our whole team.”
Shumate led four Flashes in double figures. Santoro had 14, Thall 13 and Corynne Hauser 10. Five other player had at least four points, led by seven each from Jenna Batsch and Tatiana Thomas.
Turnovers trend down
Kent State committed nine turnovers, four coming in the fourth quarter when the game was long decided. It was the third straight game the Flashes had committed fewer than 10. I can’t remember that happening in the 30+ years I’ve been following the team. It hasn’t in Starkey’s seven-year tenure.
“We’ve made a big emphasis on it during practice and it carries over into games,” Santoro said.
Sometimes in practice, she said, a turnover means extra running.
“That’s a big thing,” Santoro said. “You don’t want to run extra.”
Shumate, who has led the team in turnovers at times because she is so aggressive with the ball, said she has tried to adjust her mindset.
“For me, it’s been slowing the game down a little bit in my head,” she said. “I try to stay calm and see on the floor.”
Starkey said coaches really haven’t put more emphasis on curtailing turnovers.
“It’s like like we’re putting a note on the board before the game saying, ‘If you get single-digit turnovers, we’ll take you to Handel’s,'” he said with a laugh. “That’s just that’s the way you play good basketball — limit your turnovers and empty possessions. We had 16 more field-goal attempts tonight, and that’s because we’re taking care of the ball. And we have good guards — players who can handle the basketball.”
Kent State scored 21 points off of Ohio’s 18 turnovers. OU had six points off turnovers.
Numbers
- Ohio’s Yaya Felder, the MAC’s leading scorer, hit her average of 24 points. But after scoring 10 in the first quarter, she had only two in the second and two in the third. She made 8-of-21 shots. “24 points on 21 shots,” Starkey said. “We’ll take that all day.” KSU also forced Felder into seven turnovers.
- Kent State outrebounded Ohio 32-31 and had 12 offensive rebounds, which led to 13 second-chance points.
- Shumate drew eight fouls from Ohio players.
- Santoro, Hauser, Shumate and Thomas each had two steals. KSU totaled 10, its third highest in MAC play.
Next: Saturday at Eastern Michigan
The Flashes play at 1 p.m. Saturday at Eastern MIchigan, which is 5-9 (13-12 overall) and in a four-way fight for fifth place in the MAC. Whoever finishes fifth will play KSU in the first round of the tournament. Eastern was supposed to host Buffalo Wednesday, but the game was postponed to Thursday because of bad traveling conditions. That means just a day of rest for the Eagles before they play Kent State.