Championship team, championship trophy: Coach Todd Starkey celebrates with his team after a 78-60 win over Buffalo. (Photo by David Dermer for Kent State Athletics.)
Every preseason, Kent State coaches and players will tell you their goal: Win the MId-American Conference title and go to the NCAA championship.
After eight years under coach Todd Starkey, it’s finally happened.
The Flashes used an overwhelming second half to beat Buffalo on Saturday in the MAC Tournament championship game 78-60.
They’ll play Friday or Saturday against an opponent to be announced on ESPN at 8 p.m. Sunday. The playing site will be announced then, too. It’s Kent State’s fifth appearance in the NCAA Tournament. They’ve won one game — against Texas A&M in 1996.
“Winning is hard,” Starkey said in the postgame press conference. “And championships are even harder. Even if you have a good team, you’re not guaranteed that.
“This group from the beginning had a belief that they could get to this point. We played a really tough non-conference schedule — the places we went on the road, not everybody’s willing to do that.
“I wanted to put them in those settings so that if we were able to get in these types of moments, the moment wasn’t too big for them.”
Kent State made its own big moment in the third quarter against Buffalo.
A calm halftime talk
The Flashes trailed 34-30 at halftime after a buzzer-beating 3-point shot by Chellia Watson, the MAC’s leading scorer.
But the locker room was calm, Starkey and players said.
“We looked at each other,” redshirt senior Katie Shumate said, “and we said, ‘We believe in each other and we’re not losing this game.’
And then we went out and, and we took care of business.”
Starkey said the player the look on players’ faces was, “Like, okay coach, give us what we need to know. We’ll make the adjustments.”
And he told them:
“Let’s get back to playing the type of basketball that got us here, playing through the paint, getting the ball inside out. Take 3s that are there. Don’t pass up good shots, but let’s play through the paint.”
And then, he said, “Players have to execute and they have to make plays and they did over and over and again.”
A 29-point quarter
The Flashes outscored Buffalo 29-13, including an 11-point run midway through the quarter.
Shumate, later named MVP of the tournament, had eight points in the quarter. Point guard Dionna Gray, who came into the game shooting less than 25% from 3-point distance, made three 3-pointers in the quarter.
“I wasn’t proud of my first half,” Gray said. “I knew if we needed to win this game,, I needed to step up and do my part as well.
“We’ve talked all season about doing this for our seniors, and I looked at Katie and knew I needed to do it.”
Starkey: “She stepped up today and hit big shots when we needed her.”
Gray scored 14 points, made 4-of-6 three-point shots and had four assists and two steals.
Kent State outscored Buffalo 28-26 in the second half.
The scorers
Shumate, as she’s done 14 times this season, led KSU in scoring with 21 points.
Jenna Batsch joined Gray with 14 points, and Mikala Morris had 11.
Bridget Dunn had 11 rebounds. In the games of the tournament, she averaged 13 rebounds a game. She joined Shumate on the all-tournament team.