For the first 10 minutes of Kent State’s game at Toledo Saturday, the Flashes looked as if they could challenge the first-place Rockets. They were making more than half of their shots and led 23-16.
But for the last 45 minutes, Toledo looked like the team that has won 13 straight games, three straight conference championships and is the favorite to win the Mid-American Tournament next week.
Toledo’s 83-61 victory sends it into Wednesday’s quarterfinals with a 25-4 record (17-1 in the MAC.) The Rockets are the top seed in the tournament.
Kent State is the No. 3 seed, a position guaranteed even before Saturday. No matter whether the Flashes won or lost, they would have been the third seed. The Flashes end their regular season with an 18-10 record, 13-5 in the conference.
KSU will meet Northern Illinois in the quarterfinals sometime after 7 p.m. Wednesday. (Quarterfinals start at 11 a.m., then continue throughout the day, with each game starting a half hour after the previous one ends.)
The Flashes beat NIU 73-48 in Kent on Jan. 14 in the only meeting between the two teams in the regular season. Northern is 15-15 and 8-10 in the MAC. The Huskies came from behind in the fourth quarter on Saturday to edge Western Michigan 66-64.
After the first quarter in Toledo, the Rockets outscored KSU 67-38.
“We knew it was going to be a tough task on their Senior Night,” Kent coach Todd Starkey said. “They were playing for an outright championship. We were playing to stay in third place.”
And, he said, “If they play like they did in the second half today, nobody will beat them” in the tournament.
Toledo’s win kept it a game ahead of second-place Ball State, which won 71-50 at fourth-place Buffalo on Saturday.
In the first quarter Saturday, Kent State played as well as it has all season. The Flashes made 9-of-16 shots and 4-of-5 three-point attempts while holding Toledo to 5-of-14 shooting.
But after that, it was all Toledo. The Rockets outscored Kent State 17-9 in the second quarter and 50-29 in the second half.
Grad student transfer Mikala Morris led KSU in scoring with 18 points on 7-of-11 shooting, equaling her highest point total of the year.
“We’re going to need that same Mikala in the tournament, too, if we’re gonna make a run at this thing,” Starkey said. “We need everybody to be at their best and everybody to show up for all three games at the same time.”
Point guard Dionna Gray had 11 points on 4-of-6 shooting. Katie Shumate, KSU’s leading scorer, had eight points in the first quarter, two in the second and none in the second half.