Katie Shumate (14) charges down the court, following teammate Bridget Dunn. Shumate scored a team-high 17 points. Dunn ranked second with 13 and made 3-of-3 three-point attempts. (Photo by David Dermer for Kent State Athletics.)
After splitting its first eight preseason games against Division I competition, Kent State feasted on lower-division opponents in its last two.
The Flashes set a school record for scoring margin Saturday against Division III La Roche with a 109-31 victory Saturday. Last week they beat Division II Lake Erie 84-20, allowing the fewest points in KSU history.
Kent State is 6-4 and opens Mid-American Conference play Wednesday at Buffalo. LaRoche is 8-3 and leads the Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference with a 4-0 record. Lake Erie is 1-7.
Kent State scored the first 19 points of the game and held La Roche, a 1,800-student college outside Pittsburgh, to fewer than 10 points in all four quarters. The 78-point margin beat KSU’s previous high of 72 against Hiram in 2022.
Coach Todd Starkey said scheduling teams like La Roche is part of a plan.
“You have to have some level of balance in a schedule,” the coach said. And scheduling the game right before conference season, “we get the opportunity to get on the court and to play against somebody else. In these situations, it gives you the opportunity to play your whole bench.”
All 14 players on the roster played at least four minutes and scored at least three points. No one played more than 25 minutes; only two played more than 20.
The games against Lake Erie and La Roche, both at home, also somewhat balance the rest of KSU’s preseason schedule, which was rated 148th of 360 teams in the country by WarrenNolan.com, an analytics website. Kent also played only one of its first eight games at home.
Fifth-year guard Katie Shumate led the Flashes wtih 17 points. Junior forward Bridget Dunn had 13, freshman Janae Tyler 12, and graduate transfer Mikala Morris 10.
Guard Dionna Gray led KSU nine rebounds.
Point guard Corynne Hauser had a career-high nine assists as the Flashes put up 36 assists on 44 baskets. That was the team’s most assists in a game since 1990. Gray and Abby Ogle had five each and Jenna Batsch and Mya Babbitt four each. (There are games when no KSU player had more than three assists.)
Starkey also said the team was trying to work on its transition game. The result: a 30-0 advantage on fast-break points.