Mikala Morris muscles her way to one of her five baskets against Northern Illinois. The graduate student forward took only six shots. She also tied Bridget Dunn for a team-high six rebounds. (Photo by Scott Galvin for Kent State Athletics.)
A 16-0 run in the second quarter propelled the Kent State women to a 73-48 pounding of Northern Illinois on Sunday, setting up an early-season Mid-American Conference clash with Toledo later this week.
Both Toledo and Kent State are 4-0 and tied for first place with Ball State in the early conference season. Overall Kent State is 10-4 and has won six games in a row. Toledo is 11-3 and has won five straight, and Ball State is 14-2 and has won eight straight. BSU won at home against Bowling Green (3-1 MAC, 9-5 overall) 76-61 on Saturday.
Kent State and Toledo will play at 7 p.m. Wednesday at the M.A.C. Center. The Rockets beat KSU three times last season, including knocking them out of the MAC Tournament in the semifinals.
The Flashes made 48.4% of their shots against Northern, tying for their second-best of the season. (Best was 50% against Ohio last Saturday.) In the second quarter against NIU, they were 9-of-14 for 64.3% and made 4-of-5 three-pointers. Junior forward Bridget Dunn made three of the 3-pointers and added a layup for 11 of her 15 points.
“When we start making threes, it really puts the other team on their heels,” coach Todd Starkey said. “That’s what spurred the 25-point quarter.”
Redshirt senior guard Katie Shumate led the Flashes with 16 points, a career-high five assists, and five rebounds. Jenna Batsch also had 15 points on 7-of-14 shooting.