Freshman forward Janae had the best game of her young career, scoring 14 points to lead the Flashes in their 64-54 loss to Chattanooga. (File photo from KSU ‘X’ — formerly Twitter — feed.)

In the second quarter of Kent State’s 64-54 loss to Chattanooga Friday, the Flashes scored only four points.

In the whole game, KSU managed only two 3-point baskets on 22 attempts.

That’s about all you need to know. The Flashes are now 2-2 on the season and play Missouri at 5:45 p.m. Saturday in the Daytona Beach Classic. Chattanooga, the preseason choice to win the Southern Conference is 5-1 and is off to its best start in 10 years. Missouri, of the Southeastern Conference, was 4-1 before its late game Friday with Tennessee Tech.

Kent State led 18-14 after the first quarter. But in the second, it didn’t score during the last seven minutes and trailed 29-22 at halftime. The Flashes made only 2-of-14 shots and 0-for-6 on 3s in the second quarter.

Chattanooga led by as many as 15 points in the second half. Kent State cut the score to 61-54 with three minutes to go, but the Flashes didn’t score again until a basket by Jenna Batsch with six seconds to go.

Freshman center Janae Tyler led Kent State with a career-high 14 points. She made 6-of-8 shots, and had three assists and two rebounds. Transfer grad student forward Mikala Moris had 12 points and redshirt senior Katie Shumate had 10. Shumate also had seven rebounds, three assists and two blocked shots.

Chattanooga’s Jada Godd had 26 points, and Jada Gunn had 20, both career highs.

Junior guard Jenna Batsch hit a career-high in scoring for the second game in a row, this time with 16 points. She had 15 against the University of Louisiana on Sunday. (Photo by David Dermer for the KSU athletic department.)

For 22 minutes, things couldn’t have gone any better for the Kent State women in their matchup against defending national champion Louisiana State. Behind 19 points from redshirt senior Katie Shumate, the Flashes led 42-41.

But then LSU showed why its athleticism and talent is as good as any team in the country. The Tigers shot 72% in the second half, stole the ball 13 times (20 total in the game) and scored 32 points off of Kent State turnovers. Freshman Mikayiah Williams — playing on a team with three all-Americans — scored 32 points in second half and 42 for the game.

Kent State is 1-1 on the season. LSU is 3-1.

“There’s a lot to gain from this experience,” coach Todd Starkey said. “We can certainly get confidence from the first 25 or 30 minutes of the game, from being able to mix it up with very talented players and really compete.”

Kent State hit seven 3-point baskets in the first half — four by Shumate and three by Bridget Dunn. LSU was 0-for-5 on 3-pointers.

Shumate and the Flashes played so well that on X (formerly Twitter), national commentator Rebecca Lobo called it a “highly entertaining matinee” and cited Shumate’s 17 first-half points.

In a reply, Starkey said Shumate was “an honor to coach.”

In a postgame interview, Starkey said:

“I can’t say that I was surprised, but I was definitely impressed” by Shumate’s performance.

“Katie’s very capable against anybody,” Starkey said. “She could play at any level and have success. And when she’s focused like that and determined, she’s a really, really talented player.”

Shumate’s statistical line for the game: 22 points (7-of-14 shooting, 4-of-7 on 3s), 11 rebounds (seven offensive and four defensive), two steals, an assist and a blocked shot.

Shumate was complimented by another good game by junior guard Jenna Batsch.

Batsch set a new career high with 15 points in Sunday’s 64-55 victory against the University of Louisiana. Against LSU, she scored 16. Fourteen on those game in the second half on 5-of-6 shooting and 2-of-3 three-pointers.

Dunn had 11 points and three 3-pointers for Kent. Corynne Hauser had seven points and four assists, and sophomore Dionna Gray and freshman Mya Babbitt had six points on two 3-pointers each.

LSU’s Williams, Starkey said, played “as good of a half of basketball offensively that I’ve ever seen from an individual player that I’ve coached  against.”

“We actually had a lot of possessions where we played great defense on her, and she was hitting contested, pull-up, fadeaway jump shots from 17 feet. She was hitting 25-foot 3-point shots with people with a hand in her face. When a player’s just playing like that, all you can say, ‘Congratulations.’

Wiliams line: 42 points (an LSU record for a freshman), seven rebounds, three assists and three steals.

Finally, some overpowering numbers in favor of LSU:

• Points off turnovers: LSU 42 off 28 Kent State errors. (KSU scored eight off 13 LSU turnovers).
• Points in the paint: 58. (Kent 14).
• Second-chance points: 24. (KSU 14).
• Fast break points: 32. (Kent 8).

Corynne Hauser was one of three KSU players scoring in double figures with 10 points. Mikala Morris also had 10 and Jenna Batsch 15.

Kent State held Louisiana to under 30% shooting when five players scored at least nine points as the Flashes won their season opener 64-55.

KSU led for all but eight minutes of the game.

Louisiana made only 16-of-54 shots and 2-of-12 three-pointers and had only four assists.

Kent State shot 37.5% overall and 22.7% from beyond the arc.

“In every season, our defense has to be good enough to travel when we don’t shoot the ball well,: coach Todd Starkey said. “And we did not have a great shooting night tonight. But our defense was pretty stout.”

Junior Jenna Batsch started her first college game and led the team with career highs in points (15) and minutes played (36). Corynne Hauser and Mikala Morris each had 10 points, and Katie Shumate and Janae Tyler each had nine. Shumate led the team in rebounds with nine; Morris, a graduate transfer from Quinnipiac, had seven rebounds.

Louisiana is 1-2 on the season. It lost to Auburn 60-54 on Thursday.

Kent State is 1-0 and plays at defending national champion Louisiana State on Tuesday.

Box Score

Katie Shumate (14) led Kent State in points, rebounds and assists last season.

The KSU women’s basketball team will open this season without four of its top six scorers from last year. 

But nobody is calling 2023-24 a rebuilding year.

Mid-American Conference coaches have picked the Flashes to finish third in the league this season, the highest Kent State has ranked in the preseason in coach Todd Starkey’s eight seasons. The Flashes are ranked 16^th in the preseason Mid-Major Poll. 0

Kent State opens its regular season Sunday at Louisiana, then plays defending national champion Louisiana State Tuesday. In an exhibition game last Sunday, the Flashes overwhelmed Division III Muskingham 106-35. 

Last season the Flashes went 21-11, their best record since 2005-06.

KSU lost forward Lindsey Thall, guard Hannah Young and guard Clare Kelly to graduation and point guard Casey Santoro through a transfer to Florida Gulf Coast. The four combined for 3,654 points in their time in Kent.

But Starkey has a lot of accomplished players to step into the lineup. 

Katie Shumate: All-MAC, past and present

The new season’s roster begins with grad student Katie Shumate, a four-year starter who averaged 17.7 points and 9.7 rebounds her final 12 games last season. Coaches voted her preseason first-team all-conference. She has received post-season all-MAC honors in three of her four years in Kent.

“Her versatility is her biggest strength,” Starkey said. “She’s a phenomenal 3-point shooter and can score in the mid-range. We can post her up against smaller guards or spread the floor and take bigger players off the dribble.

“Based on how she finished last year and how she’s been playing through the summer, she is going to be on a short list of potential player-of-the-year candidates.”

If Shumate represents continuity for the Flashes, the team’s post players show the biggest change.

Punch in the post

For the first time in years, Kent State will have two players whose focus will be on inside, back-to-the-basket scoring and rebounding.

6-foot-2 Mikala Morris is a transfer from Quinnipiac, a traditional mid-major power. In all four years of her years there, she made the first or second all-league team of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference. 

When Morris graduated from Kenton Ridge High School (near Springfield, Ohio) in 2019, she was the all-time leading rebounder (girls or boys) in Ohio high school basketball history. At Kenton Ridge, she scored 2,052 points and blocked 383 shots. In KSU’s exkibition against Muskingham, she led KSU with 11 rebounds in 19 minutes

6-1 Janae Tyler averaged 18.1 points and 12.5 rebounds in a first-team all-state season at Holt High School in Michigan. Both Starkey and her high school coach said she plays three or four inches taller than her actual height.

Starkey said Morris and Taylor will give the KSU offense a different look.

“I think we have the ability to be much more of a physical and imposing team than we’ve been in the past,” the coach said.

Senior guard Abby Ogle said the Flashes will have “an inside presence that will be able to match up with bigger kids a lot better.”

Point guard Corynne Hauser said bigger point players are good for guards.

“Because we can shoot over a zone, they can’t collapse on the inside,” she said. “And that opens up the drivers.”

‘The perfect post complement’

Junior forward Bridget Dunn was leading the team in rebounding when she went down with an ACL injury in February. She’s the tallest player on the team at 6-3, but she’s not the inside presence Morris and Tyler are.

Instead, she’s one of the best 3-point shooters on the team, much like Thall was in her five years as a starter.       

“When we were recruit Mikala, we told her, ‘You’re going to play with somebody opposite you who perfectly complements your game,” Starkey said. “Bridget stretches the floor. Do they guard her with a post player or guard her with a guard. So they can’t help off of anybody on the court. We have the ability for a lot more high-low game (when a tall player passes from the foul line to another tall player close to the basket.)”

An all-freshman guard who played hurt last season returns

5-foot-7 Corynne Hauser had surgery early this summer to repair a hip injury suffered in the first month of practice last year. 

She still played in every game, was fourth among KSU scorers and led the team in assists. She made the MAC all-freshman team.

A two-time all-stater from Rochester, Pennsylvania, Hauser can play point or shooting guard.

When Hauser is not playing point, sophomore Dionna Gray will run the team on the floor. Gray, player of the year in West Virginia as a high school senior, got extra minutes at the point most of the summer while Hauser recovered from her surgery.

Gray and Hauser combined for 13 assists in last week’s exhibition game.

A junior moves into the lineup

Janna Batsch, a 6-foot-1 guard/forward, started her first college game against Muskingham. She and Tyler led the Flashes in scoring with 14 points each.

Batsch, who said she had worked hard on her 3-point shot, hit two in the exhibition and had two steals.

A wealth of depth in the middle of the rotation

The Flashes have at least four other players who could see significant minutes at guard and forward. 5-10 Tatiana Thomas was a primary substitute after Dunn was hurt last season, Abby Ogle is a defensive specialist who worked on her outside shooting during the off-season (she hit 2-of-2 three-pointers and had two steals against Muskingham.)

Freshman Mya Babbitt was one of the best 3-point shooters in Nebraska last year. She hit eight 3-pointers in the state semifinals, then hit three more in the fourth quarter of her team’s championship victory. Bianca Juzzo is a 5-10 player from Brazil who had five rebounds against Muskingham.

“We have a really deep bench,” Starkey said. “We want to make sure that we’re taxing the other team up and down the floor so that they’re getting fatigued.

The coach said the team is ready for the season.

“I think we’re in a pretty good spot,” he said. “This team definitely has a few more gears, and we’ve going to be able to continue to progress as we go through the season. I like what I’m seeing early.”