Point guard Asiah Dingle, who’s only 5-4, had eight rebounds against Ball State Saturday to go with three assists, two steals and seven points. (Photo from KSU Twitter feed.)

Eastern Michigan (6-6, 1-0 MAC) at Kent State (7-5, 0-1 MAC)

7 p.m. Wednesday at the M.A.C. Center. General admission tickets are a reduced price of $3. Students are free with Kent State ID.

What’s at stake

Kent State has a better overall record and higher RPI and was predicted to finish ahead of Eastern Michigan in preseason polls. It’s playing at home. It needs to win this game to stay competitive for a first-division finish in the MAC.

A win for Eastern Michigan would give the Eagles a big boost. They haven’t had a winning record in the MAC in five years.

It’s second Mid-American Conference game for both. Eastern won its first game at home against Bowling Green 78-61. Kent State lost 66-62 on the road to a good Ball State team.

Kent State has won six straight against Eastern since Todd Starkey became head coach.

Eastern has won four games in a row since before Christmas. But aside from Bowling Green (7-6), the teams had a combined record of 7-37. Eastern’s 17-point win over Bowling Green was its biggest margin of victory in the MAC since Fred Castro became coach four years ago.

What to watch

Flashes played some of its best defense of season at Ball State. But Flashes had only six assists and got only three points from its bench. They’ll need to do better in those categories.

Areanna Combs, a 5-10 transfer from Oklahoma State, has averaged 20.7 points a gamer Eastern Michigan  since she first played on Dec. 6. She had 32 against Bowling Green. In team statistics, Eastern is pretty much in the middle of the MAC in most things. The Eagles are the worst free-throw shooting team in the conference (56.9%).

Both teams use turnovers to feed their offense. Kent State is fourth in the league in turnover margin (plus 3.75). Eastern is fifth (plus-3.25). KSU has committing the fewest turnovers in the MAC. Eastern has forced the fourth most.

Team comparisons

• RPI: Kent State 87 of 351 Division I teams. Eastern Michigan 200.
• Power rankings: Kent State 154. Eastern 243.
• Kent State home record: 2-1. Eastern Michigan road record: 2-4.
• Scoring average: KSU sixth in MAC at 71.6. Eastern 10th at 66.3.
• Defensive average: KSU eighth at 67.9. Eastern fourth at 64.9.
• Field-goal percentage: KSU 39.5 (sixth on 3-pointers at 31.5%). Eastern 40.9 (eighth at 29.9).
• Field-goal defense: KSU 10th at 43.3 (eight on 3s at 33.8%). Eastern fourth at 40.3 (last on 3s at 34.7).
• Rebounding margin: KSU ninth at -0.9. Eastern fourth at +0.7.
• Turnover margin: KSU fourth at +3.75. Easter fifth at +3.25. KSU eighth in steals at 7/58. Eastern fourth at 9.33.

Top players

Kent State

• 6-2 freshman forward Nila Blackford (10th in MAC in scoring at 14.3, fourth in rebounding at 7.6).
• 5-7 senior guard Megan Carter (20th in scoring at 12.5).
• 6-2 sophomore forward Lindsey Thall (23rd in scoring at 12.2, fourth in 3-point percentage at 42.5, fourth in blocked shots at 1.3).
• 5-11 freshman guard Katie Shumate (13th in rebounding at 6.4, third in blocks at 1.4).
• 4-5 sophomore guard Asiah Dingle (seventh in assists at 3.9, 10th in steals at 2.0).

Eastern Michigan

• 5-10 junior guard Areanna Combs (20.7 points per game in scoring. Would be third in MAC but has played only six games.)
• 5-5 freshman guard Aaliyab Stanley (19th in scoring at 12.9).
• 6-5 junior center Autumn Hudson (17th in rebounding at 5.8).
• 5-5 sophomore guard Jenna Annecchiarico (eighth in assists at 3.8, 15th in steals at 1.8).

Following the game at home

Video stream on ESPN+ starts at game time at 7 p.m. Service costs $4.99 a month and includes about half of all MAC men’s and women’s games for all games. This link takes you to to the game, where you can sign up. David Wilson is the announcer.

Audio starts at about 6:45 p.m. on WHLO 640 and Golden Flash iHeart Radio.

Live statistics will be on the Kent State website during the game.

Links

Preview from Kent State website, with links to roster, statistics schedule and more.

Preview from Eastern Michigan website, with links.

Detailed media game notes from Eastern Michigan.

MAC statistics.

MAC standings.

Former Kent State forward Jordan Korinek (back row, just left of mid-court line) stopped by practice Friday. Korinek, who graduated in 2018 as the fifth-leading scorer in KSU history, is playing professionally in Germany and played in Greece last season. (Photo from KSU Twitter feed.)

Kent State returns to action at 5:30 p.m. Monday at the M.A.C. Center against Hiram. For the Flashes, it’s:

1. A tuneup before conference play starts at Ball State on Saturday. Hiram, a below-average Division III team, shouldn’t be able to mount much of a challenge to the Flashes, who are 6-4 against Division I opposition.
2. Their first game in 10 days. They split two games at the Las Vegas Holiday Hoops Classic before Christmas, beating Georgia Southern 62-48 and losing to Troy 71-64.
3. Their first game in Kent since Dec. 3, when they beat St. Bonaventure 81-58.

The Hiram game gives Kent State a chance to work off Christmas rust and, almost certainly, a chance to give everyone on the roster extended minutes. The Flashes played Division II Clarion at this time last season and beat it by 54 points, the third largest margin of victory in KSU history.

Hiram is 3-8 and was picked seventh in the nine-member North Coast Athletic Conference. Kent State has never played the Terriers in a regular-season game but beat them by 28 in an exhibition in 2015, coach Danny O’Banion’s last season.

Coach Todd Starkey has said it’s hard to find a Division I team to play at this time of season. Many have already started conference play; others don’t want to play a strong team right before the league season. Ball State, Miami and Bowling Green all play Division II schools Monday and Tuesday.

All five KSU starters average in double figures, led by senior Megan Carter’s 13.7 points a game. Freshman Nila Blackford averages 13.4, sophomore Lindsey Thall 12.4, sophomore Asiah Dingle 11.7 and freshman Katie Shumate 11.5. All but Shumate have led the team in scoring in at least one game; she has led KSU in rebounding twice.

Hiram’s top player is 5-2 guard Tashauna Wright, who averages 19.5 points a game.

To follow the game

The game starts at 5:30 p.m. at the M.A.C. Center. General admission tickets are $5.

Video is on ESPN3, which is free if you get it through your cable or satellite service or the ESPN app. David Wilson is the announcer.

Audio starts about 5:15 p.m. on Golden Flashes iHeart Radio. Dan Griffin is the announcer.

Live statistics are available on the KSU website.

Freshman Katie Shumate (14) is third on the team in scoring (12.6 points per game), second in rebounding (5.2), first in steals (2.5) and tied for first in blocked shots (1.3).

Kent State’s women return to action against St. Bonaventure Tuesday in a game that’s unlike any they’ve played this season: a home game against a weaker opponent.

The game is at noon at the M.A.C. Center. The unusual starting time for “Kids Day Presented by PSI,” which, the KSU website site says, means more than 1,000 elementary school students are expected to attend. PSI is a Twinsburg-based company that provides support services to school districts.

So far five of the Flashes’ six games have been in two categories:

• A close victory against a decent mid-major team — Duquesne 77-75, Youngstown State 82-73 in overtime, Robert Morris 82-81 on a last-second basket.

Or…

• A sound defeat by a Big Ten team — 88-53 by Michigan at the Akron Classic and 75-65 by Ohio State in Kent in a game that wasn’t as close as the final score.

The one exception — a 75-67 win over Purdue Fort Wayne in Akron — is the most comparable to St. Bonaventure. Fort Wayne is 2-5 with wins over Division III Heidelberg and Division I University of Illinois at Chicago, which is 0-7.

St. Bonaventure is 1-6, though it hasn’t lost any game by more than 12 points. It lost 78-67 Wednesday to 7-0 Binghamton and 65-62 to 5-1 Cleveland State. Its only win is against 1-6 Niagara.

Kent State beat the Bonnies 76-64 on the road last season. 

St. Bonaventure was picked 13th in the 14-team Atlantic 10 Conference. Its top players are four guards — 5-foot-8 sophomore Asianae Johnson (12.9 points and 5.9 rebounds per game), 5-11 senior Dajah Logan (12.1 points per game) and 5-7 sophomore Deja Francis (6.9 points), who made the Atlantic 10 all-freshman team last season. 5-8 freshman freshman Olivia Brown has made 50% of her 18 three-point attempts and scored 20 points against Binghamton.

The Bonnies have only three players 6-foot or taller and only 6-1 junior Emily Calabrese has played significant minutes. She averages 8.4 points and 7.0 rebounds.

St. Bonaventure averages 64 points a game and gives up about 70. The Bonnies average eight 3-point baskets per game and have made 36% of their 3-point shots. They hit 10 of 17 against Binghamton.

It’s the kind of team that Kent State ought to beat by 15 or 20 points at home. It’s the kind of team Kent State ought to hold below 40% shooting.

But so far the Flashes haven’t beaten anyone by more than nine points and have held only one team — Fort Wayne — below 45% shooting.

The Flashes are scoring a lot of points —72.3 a game, almost seven more than last season. But they’re giving up a lot — 76.5, almost 14 more than last season.

All five KSU starters average in double figures, led by sophomore forward Lindsey Thall at 15.3 and freshman forward Nila Blackford at 14.8. But KSU’s entire bench is averaging 5.9 points a game, and half of that comes from two games by sophomore guard Hannah Young.

Senior Megan Carter would become Kent State’s 22nd 1,000-point scorer if she scores seven points against St. Bonaventure. (Here’s a nice feature on Carter by Kent Stater sports editor Gina Butkovich.)

Kent State season statistics

To follow the game

Tipoff is at noon Tuesday at the M.A.C. Center. General admission tickets are $5. Students get in free with their ID.

Video is on ESPN+, which costs $4.99 a month. Link will take you to game page, which will explain how to pay when you try to watch. About half of MAC men’s and women’s games are on ESPN+; most of the rest are on other ESPN channels (free if you get ESPN) or other broadcast outlets. ESPN+ also streams some wrestling and gymnastics matches and other others during their season, along with games from a number of other mid-major conferences. David Wilson and Ben Pagani are announcers. Most ESPN+ games are archived, so you should be able to see replay after work Tuesday if you can’t attend.

Audio starts at about 11:45 a.m. on Golden Flash iHeart Radio. Dan Griffin is the announcer.

Live statistics during the game will be on the KSU website.

Preview from Kent State team website, including links to rosters, schedule and more.

Preview from St. Bonaventure website, including links.

Lindsey Thall’s 32 points were the most scored by KSU player in two years and take her season average to 16.2 per game. (Photo from KSU Twitter feed.)

Lindsey Thall had just set a Kent State record with eight 3-point baskets. She made five-of-six of them in a fourth-quarter rally by the Flashes and seemed as if she couldn’t miss.

“It feels good,” she told reporters. “But losing feels worse.”

Kent State’s women fell to Ohio State 75-65 at the M.A.C. Center Thursday in the first game between the two schools in 38 years. The game was played in front an announced crowd of 4.272, perhaps the biggest crowd ever to see a KSU women’s game. (More on that in game notes below.)

The Buckeyes controlled the game for the first three quarters. They shot very well — 57% over that time. The score was 63-40 going into the fourth quarter, when the Flashes found their offense.

“Obviously we were a little bit over matched,” coach Todd Starkey said after the game. “Ohio State’s got a lot of talent. Their size is a lot to deal with. And they didn’t miss. It’s just like they hit every mid-range jump shot, contested or otherwise. There were knocking down 3s. So we have to get better defensively.

“But I was really proud of our fight all the way through. I told our team after the game, ‘We’re not OK with losing — I don’t care who it is. But I was really proud of the way they played from start to finish.”

Starkey said Thall came back after struggling in the third quarter.

“She got a little bit frustrated there in the third quarter because she missed a couple of layups,” the coach said. “I just told her, ‘Listen, I’m not even worried about that. You got to keep playing through that. You’re an incredible offensive player. If you’re shot is there, keep taking it. Have a short term memory.’

“She did. She’ll remember the rest of her life that she set a school record against Ohio State.”

Thall finished 32 points, 10 above her previous career high. It was the most points any current player on the team has scored and KSU’s first 30-point game since Jordan Korinek’s 36 in 2018.

Thall is making it RAIN! Her program record EIGHTH three gives her 30 on the night!#GoFlashes pic.twitter.com/d96K7qtY34

— Kent State Women’s Basketball (@KentStWBB) November 22, 2019

Thall’s eight 3-pointers broke a record shared by five different players, most recently by Larissa Lurken in 2016. (Lurken and six other former players were at the game for the team’s alumni day.) Thall made eight-of-13 three-point attempts. A year ago she made 40% of her 3-point attempts in the regular season, third in the MAC, and 47% of attempts during the conference season, first by more than 3 percentage points.

Senior guard Megan Carter, who had three 3-pointers and 13 points herself, shook her head as she thought over Thall’s shooting in the fourth quarter. The team’s strategy in a situation like that?

“Just get her the ball,” she said.

Thall also made all six of her foul shots and shared the team lead with five rebounds. She played all by two minutes, the second most she’s ever played. Her 39-minute game came against Youngstown State two weeks ago when overtime pushed the game to 45 minutes.

Until the fourth quarter. Kent State’s shooting had been pretty weak. The Flashes were three for 18 in the first quarter and missed six of their first eight free throws (“a little bit of jitters there,” Starkey said).

“Gosh, how many layups did we miss?” the coach asked. “If we would have made some  and defended a little bit better, I think we could have made this game more interesting. But you have to finish plays, and that’s one of the things that we struggled with a little bit early in the season.”

Some of KSU’s best shooters struggled. Freshman Katie Shumate went into the game making 50% of her shots and was KSU’s second-leading scorer. She was one of 15 Thursday. Leading scorer Asiah Dingle was zero for five and made three free throws (along with three assists and two steals). It was only the second time in her career she hadn’t made a basket.

Some of the offensive problems were because of Ohio State’s height and length. The Buckeyes have seven players 6-1 or taller. Kent State has two.

“They’re in the Big Ten,” Carter said. “So of course they’re going to be big and be strong. The first thing I think is like, ‘Box out and fight like hell.'”

On playing Ohio State?

“That’s all I heard about growing up,” said Thall, who is from Strongsville. “There’re the big school here. So playing against them was honestly just really surreal and really a great opportunity. We just have to play a full game from start to finish.”

Box score

About the 4,272 attendance

Jay Fiorello is the very capable assistant sports communication director for women’s basketball. He said the the biggest previous crowd he could find was 3,516 against Miami in February 2003. If I remember that game correctly, it was a “10 tickets for $10 promotion.” There don’t seem to be records before 2000. I’ve been going to games since 1989 and been on campus since 1985, and they certainly didn’t draw more than 1,500 during games then.

Judy Devine, Kent State’s first women’s basketball coach and a longtime administration in the athletic department, told me there had been crowds in the 3,000-plus range in the early days of women’s basketball — “another era,” she said.

Ohio State must have brought more than 300 fans to the game. Kierstan Bell, the OSU freshman who is a former Ohio Ms. Basketball from Canton McKinley, told a Columbus reporter she was bringing 40 friends and family herself. Bell scored seven points on 3-of-13 shooting.

KSU freshman Clare Kelly’s entire Olmsted Fall High School team was there. So were a bunch of other high school, middle school and youth teams.

Notes

• Kent State is 3-2 so far this season. Ohio State is 3-1, its loss being 74-68 to MAC favorite Ohio University on Sunday
• Kent State had only 10 turnovers and had no trouble against an occasional Ohio State press. The Buckeyes had 16 turnovers. Each team had 10 points off of turnovers.
• KSU had 12 assists on 20 baskets, by far its best performance of the year.
• Ohio State outrebounded the Flashes 43-30 and outscored them 38-12 in the paint. Kent State actually had more offensive rebounds — 12 to 10 — but the Flashes were missing a lot more shots than OSU and had a lot more chances. Kent State senior Sydney Brinlee had five rebounds, a career high, in 10 minutes.
• Nine Ohio State players got in the game. All played at least 17 minutes. Kent State played its entire roster, though its starting five all played at least 19 minutes. Sophomore Hannah Young played a season-high 17 minutes.
• Junior guard Braxtin Miller led OSU with 14 points. Sophomore guard Janai Crooms had 11 points, 11 rebounds, seven assists and two steals.
• The Flashes got only three points from their bench — a 3-point basket by Mariah Modkins in the last minute. Ohio State got 33 bench points.
• Dorka Juhasz, Ohio State’s 6-4 forward and a preseason all-Big Ten selection, didn’t play. She was fighting a leg injury.

Quotes in story are a mixture of postgame media interviews and broadcaster Ty Linder’s on-air interview with coach Todd Starkey after game.

Freshman Nila Blackford had 19 rebounds and 25 points in two games last week. (Photo from KSU website.)

NEW:

We’re No. 8.

Want a crazy number? Kent State is eighth in the country in super-early RPI rankings, according to RealTimeRPI, the service I use most. That’s out of 353 Division I teams.

Of course RPIs based on two games don’t mean much of anything. But, heck, it’s fun to see it. Kent State got its ranking by winning two games on the road against decent opponents. Road wins count heavily toward a good ranking.

RPI is based on a team’s record, its opponents record and opponents’ opponents’ record. Home wins count 0.6. Road wins count 1.4. Neutral site games — like KSU’s game against Michigan at the Akron Classic this Friday — count 1.0. RPI is used to some extent for  seedings in postseason tournaments and as fodder for fan discussions.

According to the RealTimeRPI rankings, No. 1 is TCU. Princeton is second and Navy third. Oregon, the top-ranked team in both the Associated Press and coaches’ poll, isn’t even ranked yet because it hasn’t played a regular season game. It only beat the U.S. National team in an exhibition game Sunday.

RealTimeRPI also does Power Rankings, which also take into account a team’s record last season, margin of victory and other factors. Kent State is 180th in that one. And so early-season rankings go.

If you follow the link, the rankings may well have changed. ReadTimeRPI updates them constantly.

About the freshmen and the defense

It’s Michigan week — featuring the first of three games against Big Ten teams — for the Kent State women’s basketball team.

The Flashes face the No. 24 Wolverines at 2 p.m. Friday in the Akron Classic at the James A. Rhodes Arena. Later in the preseason, they face Ohio State in Kent and Purdue in West Lafayette.

Michigan is 2-0, with wins in Ann Arbor over Western Michigan (76-55) and Bradley (77-57). We’ll be writing a lot more about the Wolverines this week, but first let’s take stock of Kent State, which is 2-0 with road wins against Duquesne and Youngstown State.

Freshman punch

First-year players Nila Blackford and Katie Shumate played key roles in the Flashes’ wins. Shumate scored 17 points against Duquesne and 16 against YSU and leads the Flashes in scoring at 16.5 points a game. Blackford led KSU in rebounding in both games (nine against the Dukes, 10 against the Penguins). She also averages 12.5 points a game.

“It’s a nice thing to have those two,” coach Todd Starkey said, “and they’re just learning as they go. They’ll continue to get better and better. I’ve just told them, ‘You two just play hard, and we’ll make corrections as you go. I don’t want you to play passive.'”

Blackford worked very hard under the basket in both games. She had six offensive rebounds in the first half against YSU. Against Duquesne, she grabbed a rebound in traffic in the last minute to keep the score tied.

“She’s a lot to handle,” Starkey said. “She got really frustrated (against Youngstown) when she struggled to finish. If she makes some of those layups, she’s probably got 25 points instead of 14.”

Blackford is a 6-2 forward from Louisville. She was all-state first team, regional player of the year and a finalist for Kentucky Miss Basketball. She comes from an athletic family. Her mother played basketball and her father played football at the University of Louisville.

Shumate, a 5-11 guard from Newark, is from another family of athletes. Her father, JR, was her high school coach and leads one of the most successful programs in the state. Her sister, Emma, just verbally committed to West Virginia. Her brother was a sophomore at Walsh University and was freshman of the year in the Division II Great Midwest Athletic Conference. Katie was second team all-state and district player of the year in high school.

Shumate is second on the team in rebounding to Blackford, averaging six per game. She’s also second on the team in steals and tied for second in assists and blocked shots. She’s probably been KSU’s best defender in both games. Saturday she held Youngstown point guard Chelsea Olson, who had a triple-double in YSU’s opener, to five points, three assists and six rebounds.

“Katie always takes on the difficult tasks,” senior guard Megan Carter, KSU’s leading scorer last season, said after the Youngstown game. ” and I think that starts in practice. She guards  me every day. So Megan, I’ll be there. We go at it pretty much every day.”

Unsettled defense

Still, Starkey thinks the Flashes need the most work on defense. In both games, Kent had one terrible quarter and was solidly behind after the first half.

“The defense right now is a little bit of our Achilles heel,” the coach said. “We’ve got to get better at communication and shore things up, especially against Michigan on Friday.”

Opponents shot better than 50% in the first half of both games. But the Flashes allowed Duquesne to 13 in the fourth quarter and YSU to 12 in the fourth quarter and seven in overtime.

“Much better defense down the stretch,” Starker said after both games.

The view from Youngstown State

Coach John Barnes, as quoted in the Jambar, YSU’s student newspaper:

““I think it was a hard fought game against a good team. [We were] in a position to win the game. They did either a good job of taking it away from us, or we did a good job of giving it to them.”

“We just were very soft. I think our toughness was not there when it came down the stretch. Throughout the game, we played hard and we were pretty tough, but when it came to crunch time, we had a lot of bad turnovers and mental mistakes.”

““Turnovers (YSU 22, KSU 10) and offensive rebounds (KSU 18, YSU 9) were the difference.”

Notes

• Kent State averaged 79.5 points in its first two games and gave up 74.0. That’s well above both numbers last year, when KSU averaged 65.5 and allowed 63.2. KSU’s shooting percentage is 39.0, slightly better than last year’s 37.2. Its defensive percentage is 46.3, way above last season’s 38.4. Three-point defense is about the same, so opponents are doing much better inside the arc, where the new lineup struggling some with team defense.
• Kent State’s turnover margin averaged plus-9.5 in the two games. They averaged 14.5 more points off turnovers than their opponents. Last season the turnover margin was plus-5.2 and points-off-turnover margin was plus-2.7. Starkey has made it a point of emphasis this season to score more off the other team’s mistakes.
• All five Kent State starters average in double figures. But all five average more than 34 minutes a game. Shumate played all but one minute against Duquesne; Blackford played all but one minute against Youngstown. Next highest is another freshman, Clare Kelly, who played seven minutes in both games.
• Sophomore guard Hannah Young saw her first action of the season Saturday, playing three minutes. She was one of the team’s top reserves last season.
• Sophomore Annie Pavlansky, just about the last person off the bench last year, played minutes in a close game for the second straight time. She’s from Cortland, about 17 miles from Youngstown. She has filled in for Blackford and Lindsay Thall at forward.
• KSU has averaged just 8.5 assists in the two games. Last season the Flashes averaged 10.6 assists, which was 311th of 351 Division I teams.

Around the MAC

• Ohio (1-1) 81, American (0-1) 69 at Ohio. Ohio, which lost its opener to No. 21 Syracuse, is the MAC favorite. American was picked fifth in the Patriot League. Ohio’s Erica Johnson had the team’s first triple-double in history — 24 points, 13 rebounds, 11 assists.
• Northern Illinois (1-1) 74, North Dakota State (0-2) 68 in overtime at North Dakota State. NIU was picked second in the MAC West. North Dakota State was picked seventh in the Summit League.
• Bowling Green (2-0) 79, Morehead State (0-1) 65 at Bowling Green. BG was picked last in the MAC East. Morehead State made the WNIT last season and was picked fourth in the Ohio Valley Conference.
• Dayton (2-0) 60, Toledo (1-1) 42 in Toledo. Dayton was picked second in the Atlantic 10. Toledo was picked third in the MAC East.
• Buffalo (2-0) 81, Niagara (0-2) 67 at Niagara. Buffalo is picked second in the MAC East. Niagara was picked seventh in the Metro Atlantic.
• Akron (1-0) 63, St. Bonaventure (1-2) 65 at St. Bonaventure. Akron was picked fifth in the MAC East. St. Bonaventure, which plays at Kent Dec. 3, was picked 13th in the Atlantic 10.
• No. 18 DePaul 98 (1-0), Miami (0-1) 79 in preseason WNIT at DePaul. Miami was picked fourth in the MAC East.
• No. 24 Michigan 76 (2-0), West Michigan (0-1) 55 at Michigan. Kent State plays Michigan Friday. Western was picked fifth in the MAC East.