Corynne Hauser has 31 assists in her last four games and has helped Kent State lead the conference team in assists per game. (Photo by David Dermer for Kent State Athletics.)
This is the first of what I hope will be weekly analyses of the Kent State women’s basketball team. I’ve cut back individual game stories to six or eight paragraphs, emphasizing the score and brief highlights. I’ll write longer pieces like this one on weekends, wrapping up where the team stands going forward. As wbbFlashes has been from the start, it’s a mixture of news and commentary, with the emphasis being on news and opinion I can back up with facts.
For Kent State, it’s so far, so good in Mid-American Conference play.
The Flashes were never really challenged in winning their first two games, 73-64 at Buffalo and 92-63 at home against Ohio. KSU is tied with Ball State, Toledo and Bowling Green for first place in the infant MAC season.
Overall, the team is 8-4 and has won four games.
“I really like how we’re looking right now,” point guard Corynne Hauser said after the Buffalo game. “We have a lot of really good spurts when we look like a top team in the MAC. But our consistency isn’t there yet. I think once we get to playing to our full potential for a full 40 minutes, that’s when we’ll be rolling.”
Coach Todd Starkey: “In the first two games, I think we performed well. But this team still has a lot of room for improvement, and I think we have the potential to be one of the best teams in the league.”
Links to game stories
Scoring with assistance
Kent State leads the MAC in scoring by a hair over Ball State, 74.5 points per game to 74.2.
The Flashes have had assists on almost 60% of their baskets. In the last three years, the percentage was closer to 50%.
“We’re scoring at a good clip in the paint, which are high percentage shots,” Starkey said. “So we have people that can finish plays and a point guard like Corin, who is a very unselfish player and likes setting her teammates up. So it’s having a talented point guard with a lot of talented players around her.”
It’s not just Hauser passing the ball. Against Buffalo, Katie Shumate had five assists and forward Jenna Batsch three. Backup point guard Dionna Gray had four against Ohio.
Hauser is tied for second in the MAC in assists per game at 5.3 and second in assist/turnover ratio at 2.0. As a team, Kent leads the league with 16.4 assists per game.
The elusive 3-pointer
The Flashes still haven’t found their accuracy from long distance, where they are making just 29.3% of their 3-point attempts. That ranks seventh in the MAC. They did make 10-of-26 at Buffalo for 38.5%, which is KSU’s third-best of the season. Against Ohio, though, it was 9-of-34 for 26.5%.
Kent State is holding its opponents to an even worse percentage. The Flashes lead the league in 3-point defense, limiting opponents to just 26.8%.
A look down the roster
- Katie Shumate leads the Flashes in scoring at 11.8 points a game and rebounding at 6.8. “Katie’s really a player that’s focused on doing whatever it takes to win,” Starkey said. “So today (Saturday) we needed her to rebound.” Shumate had 10 rebounds to go with 10 points for the 11th double-double of her five-year career. Against Buffalo, she led KSU with 18 points and seven rebounds.
- Graduate transfer MIkala Morris and freshman Janae Tyler, who share the low post for the Flashes, continue to combine for about 17 points and eight rebounds a game. Tyler made seven of her 10 shots for the week and is making 52% of her shots for the season.
- Junior forward Jenna Batsch has started all of Kent’s 12 games and scored 137 points. In her first two years, she never started and scored a total of 125 points. Asked whether she ever expected to be one of the team’s leading scorers, she laughed. “Definitely not,” she said. “My biggest focus has been defense and rebounding. A lot of times I’m guarding the other team’s best player, so my focus is on that. I’ve tried to just let the offense come to me.”
Around the MAC
Standings from WarrenNolan.com, an analytics site that I use. NET is the statistical measure the NCAA uses to help rank teams and determine seeds for tournaments. It includes things like strength of schedule, scoring margin, points per possession on offense and defense, and the quality of wins and losses, based on the opponent and whether a game was home or away.
The top four teams start to play each other this week, when Bowling Green plays at Ball State on Saturday. On Wednesday, Jan. 17, Kent hosts Toledo, the team that knocked Kent out of the MAC Tournament last year, won the MAC title, and is predicted to win it again.