Point guard Dionna Gray had a season-high 12 points and a career-high nine rebounds in Kent State’s 76-64 win over Eastern Michigan. (File photo by David Dermer for Kent State Athletics.)
When point guard Corynne Hauser was recovering from a knee injury last summer, sophomore Dionna Gray worked with the Kent State starters every day.
Now, with Hauser apparently out for the season with another knee injury, Gray is guiding the team on the floor in the regular season’s final weeks.
Gray and her teammates used a fast start and a strong third quarter to beat Eastern Michigan on Wednesday and run their record to 12-3 in the Mid-American Conference and 17-8 overall.
Eastern Michigan is 2-13 and in last place in the MAC. Overall, the Eagles are 5-20.
The Flashes have clinched a tie for third in the MAC but have to face the other top teams in the league in their final three teams. It starts with fourth-place Buffalo, which is three games behind KSU at 9-6, on Saturday at the M.A.C. Center. Then comes a home game against second-place Ball State (13-2 MAC, 24-4 overall) next Wednesday. The Flashes finish their regular season on Saturday, March 9, at first place Toledo (14-1, 22-4).
Then all those teams and the next best four will meet in the MAC Tournament in Cleveland March 13-16.
Gray, Katie Shumate (23 points) and Jenna Batsch (21 points) were the stars of Wednesday’s win.
“Dionna got valuable minutes with the starters last summer,” Starkey said, “and that was great preparation for what she’s doing now. She’s a different type of player than Corynne, but she’s a very good player.”
Gray was Gatorade West Virginia Player of the Year in 2022. Since entering the KSU starting lineup five games ago, she has averaged 4.8 assists a game. If she held that average for a full season, she would be tied for second in the MAC in assists.
“It’s not like Dionna’s a new player to the team,” Starkey said. “She was playing 12 to 15 minutes a game for us.”
Now she is playing closer to 35 minute every game.
“She’s our fastest player with the ball in the open court, so she really helps our transition game go,” Starkey said. “She can get downhill and score, and you have to guard her the 3-point line because she’s a very capable shooter.
“Defensively she’s solid all the way around. And she doesn’t let teams bully her because of her size (5-foot-4). To have nine rebounds against one of the top rebounding teams in the league shows you what her effort looks like.”
Shumate put up her usual big numbers with 23 points, nine rebounds and three steals. But she provided the biggest concern after the game. Shumate collided with an EMU player with about two minutes to play, lay on the floor for several minutes, then struggled to put weight on her ankle as she was helped off the floor. Trainers worked on her ankle for more minutes on the sideline.
Starkey said she will be evaluated Thursday after the team returned to Kent and didn’t know how badly she was hurt.
“She went down pretty hard,” Starkey said. “But for now, I’m going to remain optimistic.”
Batsch made 7-of-16 shots and 6-of-7 free throws. She had four assists and two steals.
“When she plays within herself, she’s a really tough player to defend,” Starkey said.
Kent State jumped to an 18-4 lead but managed only nine points in the second quarter as Eastern rallied to make the score 30-28 at halftime.
But Kent State shot 61% in the third quarter and outscored EMU 31-19. Eastern closed within four in the fourth quarter, but KSU went on a 13-1 run to put the game out of reach.
“I don’t like how up and down we played tonight,” Starkey said. “I love the way we started. Then we started changing the way we played for some reason and weren’t executing. We really struggled in the second quarter. When you give teams hope, they pick up their intensity.
“I thought we played great basketball in the third quarter — scored 31 points, got stuff into paint and really played within ourselves.”
NEXT: Buffalo at 1 p.m. Saturday at the M.A.C. Center and on ESPN+.
Starkey calls it the “toughest finish in the conference” — No. 4 Buffalo, No. 2 Ball State and No. 1 Toledo. Buffalo won at fifth-place Bowling Green 70-55 on Tuesday, Ball State routed Akron 75-41 and Toledo defeated Northern Illinois 74-61 in DeKalb.
Numbers:
- Kent State made 27-of-56 shots for 48.2%. Eastern Michigan was 35-for-54 for 39%.
- The Flashes outrebounded EMU 38-34.
- Each team had 16 turnovers. Eastern scored 23 points off of them, KSU 20.