Kent State has won its first two games against solid mid-majors, showing good offense in one gave and very good defense in the other.

The Flashes’ third game is Thursday morning against Division III John Carroll. It’s “Education Day,” in which Kent State invites hundreds of public school students to a midday game.

The Flashes are strong favorites, even though John Carroll is a very good Division III program. The Blue Streaks are ranked eighth in the country in their division and are a unanimous choice to win the Ohio Athletic Conference for the third year in a row. They’re 2-0, having won their own tipoff tournament last weekend with wins over Case Western and Carnegie Mellon

But like all Division III schools, John Carroll offers no athletic scholarships. Division I programs like Kent State can offer 15. John Carroll’s best player — grad student wing Nicole Hefferington was honorable mention all-Ohio at Solon High School. KSU has seven first-team all-state players on its roster. Hefferington is still a good one; she was a Division III first-team All-American last season.

Kent State made 51% of its shots in its opening 80-73 win over Northern Kentucky, a higher percentage than they made in any game last season. The Flashes scored 80 points only twice last season.

In its second game, KSU beat Saint Francis of Pennsylvania 71-45. That was an opponent’s lowest point total since 2018.

Both Northern Kentucky and Saint Francis look to be solid mid-major teams this season; Northern Kentucky was picked to finish third in the Horizon League, Saint Francis third in the North East Conference.

“They were two good performances, two different types of wins,” coach Todd Starkey said. “It tells us early on that we have the ability to win in different ways.”

Junior guard Katie Shumate, sophomore guard Casey Santoro, Senior forward Lindsay Thall and junior forward Nila Blackford all average in double figures for the Flashes. Nine different players average more than 12 minutes a game.

“We have size off the bench that has ability,” Starkey said. “Our guard depth is good, and we have different types of guards. So we have the ability to do different types of lineups. If we need to get more aggressive, we can. If we need to play ball control and focus on where we’re trying to get the ball, we can play that way. It’s a nice luxury to have.”

The Flashes has scheduled a non-Division I team most years in Starkey’s time in Kent. This season, they also play Division II Clarion on Dec. 11. Why schedule them?

“We have to have some balance in there,” Starkey said. “We’ve got some really tough games in there. We’re playing in one of the toughest preseason non-conference tournaments in the country. We have Florida State (currently ranked 17th) coming in here (Dec. 21 at the M.A.C. Center).”

After Thursday’s game, the Flashes will have a week to prepare for that tournament, the Gulf Coast Showcase. The Flashes will open with No. 20 UCLA. Then they could play South Dakota, one of the top mid-major programs in the country, and could meet No. 14 Iowa State. The field also includes Penn State of the Big Ten, St. Johns of the Big East and Massachusetts of the Atlantic 10.

Kent State played stifling defense and got 33 points from last year’s two leading scorers to rout Saint Francis of Pennsylvania 71-45 Sunday.

Saint Francis’ point total was 13 points fewer than any allowed by the Flashes last season. Kent State forced 17 turnovers and held Saint Francis to 49 shots, again fewer than in any game last season. KSU’s defense hounded the Red Flash in the half court, rarely allowing them to run a full offensive play.

Saint Francis beat the Flashes 67-64 in Pennsylvania last season and is picked third in the North East Conference this season.

Kent State is 2-0 to start the season.

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Flashes’ 2022 recruiting class includes all-state guards from West Virginia and Pennsylvania, ‘rebound machine’ wing from Illinois.

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“I’m really pleased with the defensive effort from start to finish,” said coach Todd Starkey, who was a little unhappy when his team allowed 73 in Wednesday’s 80-73 win over Northern Kentucky.

Katie Shumate, KSU’s second-leading scorer last season, led the Flashes with 21 points, 19 in the first half.

“She was really attacking getting to the basket,” Starkey said. “She set the tone for us from the start, pushing the pace. Then she knocked down a couple of 3s. She’s really difficult to defend when she has that mindset.”

Shumate had just eight points in Wednesday’s victory.

Nila Blackford, last year’s leading scorer, had 12 points. She also was KSU’s leading rebounding last season but had only four for the second game in a row.

But the rest of the Flashes contributed mightily on the boards. KSU outrebounded Saint Francis 39-26 and had 15 offensive rebounds to the Red Flashes’ six. Kent outscored Saint Francis 10-3 on second-chance points.

All 13 healthy KSU players got in the game, and 12 scored. Eight Flashes played at least 16 minutes. Freshmen Jenna Batsch and Lexy Linton saw their first collegiate action in the fourth quarter.

For the second-straight games, at least eight Flashes played at least 15 minutes. Junior transfer Abby Ogle played seven but made two-of-three baskets and had two steals. Blackford and Lindsey Thall played the most, just 26.

Thall led KSU in rebounding for the second straight game with seven. Hannah Young had six and freshman Bridget Dunn four. Dunn also had eight points, including two 3-pointers and a blocked shot.

Thall also had eight points, two 3-point baskets and three assists. Casey Santoro led KSU with five assists and had seven points. Clare Kelly had three steals.

KSU made 44.6% of its shots, including 55.5% in the second half.

Box score

The Kent State women’s basketball starts its new season Wednesday at Northern Kentucky of the Horizon League.

The game starts at 7 p.m. and will be streamed on ESPN+, which costs $6.99 per month. Almost all KSU games will be on the network, along with most games of other Mid-American Conference teams and those of many other mid-major conferences. Many of Kent State’s men’s games will also be streamed on ESPN+.

The audio of the game is also streamed on Kent State All-Access, starting about 6:45. During and after the game, statistics are available through the Northern Kentucky website.

NKU, 8-11 last year and 7-5 in Horizon play, returns four starters. One is redshirt senior guard Lindsey Duvall, a preseason all-conference guard who averaged 16.9 points and 7.8 rebounds last season. Junior guard Ivy Turner (11.2 points last season) was a second-team all Horizon choice.

Post player Grayson Rose, a 6-3 graduate student, made the league all-defensive team and averaged 7.7 points and 5.7 rebounds.

Kent State returns all five starters and top eight scorers from last year’s 11-9 team, which finished fifth in the MAC in a season often disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

KSU’s leading scorer was junior forward Nila Blackford, one of three players in the MAC last season who averaged a double-double (15.5 points and 10.6 rebounds). Blackford is 6-2.

Also back are second-leading scorer Katie Shumate, a 5-11 junior guard who averaged 12.2 points last season despite playing on an injured knee all year. Coach Todd Starkey says Shumate was never more than 80% healthy last season but is ready to go full speed.

Senior Lindsey Thall, a 6-2 forward who has started every game in her college career, has led the MAC in blocked shots all three years at KSU. She averaged 11 points a game last season and is one of the top 3-point shooters in the conference.

Both Thall and Shumate were honorable mention all-MAC last season and former members of the league all-freshman team. Thall made the league’s all-defensive team last season.

Senior Mariah Modkins and sophomore Casey Santoro again will split point guard duty this season. Modkins started every game last season and is a game manager who made 37.1% of her 3-point shots last season. Santoro is a driver and scorer who had more than 2,200 points in high school.

Junior Clare Kelly started 13 games last season. She made 36.5% of her 3s last season and took the second-most on the team after Thall.

Two experienced newcomers are junior Abby Ogle, a transfer from West Virginia who was a third-team junior college all-American for Hutchinson Community College in Kansas in 2020. Starkey says she’s the best passer on the team and gives the Flashes a ball-stealing ability that was lacking last season.

Bexley Wallace is a 6-3 junior transfer from Penn State who sat out last season with an Achilles tendon injury. Early in the season, she’s expected to play only in short stretches as she continues to recover. Wallace was a top-100 recruit out of Pickerington Central High School.

Other key returnees are 6-4 sophomore center Lexi Jackson, KSU’s top post reserve at the end of last season and senior guard Hannah Young, an important three-year reserve who had 15 rebounds in a game against Akron last season.

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

Preview from Northern Kentucky website, including links.

The Kent State women’s basketball team is loaded going into the new season.

But so is the rest of the Mid-American Conference.

The Flashes have all five starters and their top eight scorers returning from last season, when they finished fifth in the MAC with a 10-6 record.

But Ohio, Bowling Green, Buffalo and Eastern Michigan also have almost everyone back.

Add to that a non-conference schedule that includes at least two Top 25 teams, and we’re likely in for a most interesting season. (Link to KSU schedule.)

The Flashes were predicted to finish fourth in the MAC preseason coaches’ poll last week. The top three teams were (in order):

• Ohio, which returns conference player of the year Cece Hooks and first-team all-MAC selection Erica Johnson.
• Bowling Green, which won last year’s MAC regular season title and returns freshman of the year Lexi Fleming.
• Buffalo, which beat Kent State in last year’s tournament quarterfinals and returns guard Dyaisha Fair, who ranked sixth in the country last year in scoring at 24.4 points per game.

Eastern Michigan, picked fifth in the coaches’ poll, also has all of its starters back. (Link to poll and preseason all-MAC teams.)

Central Michigan, which won last year’s tournament, lost three starters, including 2020 MAC player of the team Micaela Kelly. Coaches picked the Chippewas sixth.

The Flashes open play at Northern Kentucky Wednesday. The Norse were 8-11 last season and are picked to finish fourth in the Horizon League.

Returning KSU starters are:

• Junior forward Nila Blackford, a second-team all-MAC player last year and again in this year’s preseason selections. She averaged 15.5 points and 10.6 rebounds a game last season.
• Senior forward Lindsey Thall, a member of the MAC’s all-defense team the last two years. She has led the league in blocked shots the last two seasons and is one of the MAC’s best 3-point shooters.
• Junior guard Katie Shumate, who was all-conference honorable mention last year despite season-long knee problems. She averaged 12.2 points a game.
• Senior point guard Mariah Modkins, who started every game and led the team in assists and made 37.1% of her 3-point shots.
• Junior guard Clare Kelly, a top 3-point shooter who was fourth on the team in scoring at 8.8 points per game.

Behind them are five experienced players who could give KSU its first 10-player rotation in coach Todd Starkey’s six years in Kent. They are:

• Sophomore point guard Casey Santoro, a 2,200-point scorer in high school who averaged 21 minutes a game last season.
• Senior guard Hannah Young, a key backup for three seasons who had 15 rebounds in a game last season.
• Sophomore center Lexi Jackson, the tallest player on the team at 6-4. She was the first post player off the bench at the end of the 2021-22 season.
• Junior center Bexley Wallace, a 6-3 transfer from Penn State who missed last season with an Achilles tendon injury.
• Junior guard Abby Ogle, a third-team all-American junior college player in 2020. She played five games for West Virginia last season.

Starkey said freshmen Bridget Dunn, a 6-3 all-State player from Indiana, and Jenna Batsch, a 6-1 guard from Loveland, Ohio, had looked good in practice.

Starkey said he sees major potential in his team.

“We have significant room for growth,” he said. “But I feel like we should be more prepared going into this season just about any season that we’ve had.

“When we’re shooting the ball well, we have a chance of being really good. If we’re not, we’re going to have to make sure that our defense isn’t our Achilles heel.

“I think we’re going to be able to score the ball. We’ve got shooters everywhere. We’ve got versatility. I like our chemistry. 

“The biggest improvements need to happen defensively. I think our transition defense, and our defensive rebounding needs to get better.”

(It should be noted that Starkey worries about his defense at the start of every season, and it usually comes around.)

Before the opener, I hope to do detailed posts on the roster, more on the schedule, Starkey’s contract extension, new staff and the 2022 recruiting class, which will be announced this week.

KSU coach Todd Starkey is back at work after missing time with COVID-19. His team got back to practice this week.

For a while today, it looked as if the Kent State women’s basketball team would get to play its first game in 17 days.

The Flashes returned to practice Wednesday after COVID-19 issues had forced postponement of five straight games. They were preparing to play Eastern Michigan Saturday.

But at about 4:30 p.m., that game was postponed because of COVID problems at Eastern.

The Mid-American Conference, as it always does, says it hopes to reschedule the game.

“It’s disappointing,” coach Todd Starkey said. “But we do have team back when we can play.”

Multiple KSU players — and Starkey — have had COVID-19 infections. Others have been sidelined by contact tracing.

The team returned to practice Wednesday with only four players available, Starkey said. Thursday’s practice had five, Friday’s eight — the minimum required to play in times of COVID-19.

Starkey said more players might have been active Saturday.

“There’s no manual for this,” the coach said. “It’s the first time in my career I’ve never been through anything even remotely like it.”

This week’s practices, Starkey said, were the first time he and the team had been together in person since the Flashes beat Eastern Michigan Jan. 2. He missed the team’s next game after he tested positive for the virus. At that point, no other coach or player had tested positive.

At practice, he said “they were just happy to be back together.”

“There was good spark, and they were in good spirits,” he said. “But like you would expect, things were a little out of rhythm, and people were treating a little heavier than they normally do.”

Starkey had been back in the office after he recovered.

“I had a rough couple of days, but overall I feel blessed that it wasn’t any worse,” he said.

Starkey said the virus hits people differently.

“We’ve had some players who have had heavy symptoms, and others who went through their 10-day isolation and came out pretty good,” he said.

Through the postponements, Starkey said, he’s been watching a lot of basketball, especially MAC basketball.

Every other team in the league has played at least twice as many games as Kent State, which has the MAC’s only undefeated record at 4-0. Three teams have played 10 games.

Every other team in the conference has lost at least two games.

“It’s been as turbulent and unpredictable as it’s been in the five years I’ve been here,” Starkey said.

Starkey said he hadn’t heard from the MAC on how standings and tournament seedings would be decided if teams don’t play the same number of games.

In football, the conference went by winning percentage (a 5-0 team was ahead of a 6-1 team) if the teams played a minimum of four games.

The NCAA is requiring teams to play at least 13 games — half of the maximum schedule — to quality for its March tournament.

If the MAC did that for conference play, it would require 10 games.

Kent State’s next scheduled game is at 6 p.m. Wednesday at Ohio, which is 6-4 in the MAC and 8-5 overall.

MAC Standings

Updated with games from Saturday, Jan. 30

	MAC W-L	Pct.	Home	Away	All
KSU	4-0	1.000	2-0	2-0	5-2
BGSU	9-2	.817	5-1	4-1	13-3
CMU	8-3	,727	4-2	4-1	10-5
Buff	6-3	.667	4-1	2-2	9-5
BSU	6-3	.667	2-2	4-1	8-5
NIU	6-3	.667	3-2	3-1	8-6
Ohio	7-4	.636	3-2	4-2	9-5
EMU	6-4	.600	2-3	4-1	9-6
Toledo	4-7	.364	3-3	1-4	8-7
Akron	1-9	.100	1-3	0-6	4-9
WMU	1-9	.100	1-4	0-5	2-10
Miami	0-11	.000	0-5	0-6	1-14

Saturday scores

• Ohio 85, Eastern Michigan 55 at Ohio.
• Bowling Green 76, Toledo 59 at BG.
• Central Michigan 66, Buffalo 62 at Central.
• Ball Sate 78, Western Michigan 71 at Western.
• Northern Illinois 66, Miami 62 at NIU.

Kent State has postponed this week’s two women’s basketball games and paused practice and other team activities.

The Flashes had been scheduled to play at Akron Wednesday and to host Western Michigan on Saturday.

It’s KSU’s third game in the last two weeks postponed because of COVID-19. Last week’s game in Kent against Northern Illinois wasn’t played after coach Todd Starkey tested positive for COVID. No other players or coaches had tested positive at that time. The team played and beat Ball State Saturday.

The KSU statement said team activities had been postponed “following COVID-19 protocols.” It didn’t say whether any individual had the virus. (Kent State never has named individuals for any team.) But teams have generally continued to play if several players had to sit out because of contact tracing.

The statement said the Mid-American Conference was working to reschedule the games.

Kent State has one scheduled bye date for the rest of the season. Otherwise, games would have to be made up by playing three times in a week.

So far this season, only the Flashes have had women’s MAC games postponed because of COVID. Multiple men’s games have been postponed, including one for Kent State.

The Kent State women are 4-0 and in second place in the MAC behind Central Michigan, which is 5-0. I don’t remember any formal announcement from the MAC on how basketball standings would be determined with a reduced schedule. In football, the league went by winning percentage. For example, a team was a 4-0 record would rank ahead of a 5-1 team.

Kent State had a previous pause in team activity just before the season started in December. That led to the cancellation of the Flashes’ first two games. A pause usually last seven to 14 days.

Many Division I teams have had such pauses this season, including No. 4 Connecticut and No. 6 Baylor.

KSU women’s basketball coach Todd Starkey has COVID-19, and Kent State’s Wednesday game against Northern Illinois is postponed.

The Mid-American Conference announced the postponement at midday Tuesday.

Soon after 8 p.m., the Record-Courier’s Allen Moff said that Starkey had confirmed that he had COVID.

Moff’s story said that no other coach or team member had tested positive, and Kent State’s Saturday game against Ball State was expected to be played at the M.A.C. Center. Link to Record-Courier story.

Associate head coach Fran Recchia will run the team while Starkey is in quarantine. Saturday’s game between Kent State (4-2, 3-0 in MAC) and Ball State (3-4, 1-2) starts at noon. No fans are allowed; the game will be streamed on ESPN+.

The women’s team had to suspend activities just before the start of the season and several non-conference games were canceled.

Current reading of ESPN’s daily listings of women’s games shows as many as a fourth of all women’s games are being canceled or rescheduled.

No. 5 Baylor’s game against No. 3 Connecticut was canceled Tuesday when Baylor coach Kim Mulkey announced she had tested positive for the virus. Dixie State, a member of the Western Athletic Conference, canceled the rest of its season Tuesday. Duke had done so in December.

For a happy moment, the Kent State women’s basketball team ranks in the top 25 in the country in the RPI, a widely used ratings system.

The Flashes are ranked 17th of the nation’s 329 Division I teams by WarrenNolan.com and 21st by RealTimeRPI.com.

RPI is based on a team’s record, its opponents’ record and opponents’ opponents’ record. Road wins are rated about double of home wins; home wins and road losses count less.

Kent State’s rankings — the highest I can remember in 30 years of following the team — come after the Flashes won three games in a row against Ohio, Toledo and Duquesne. Those three teams have a combined record of 12-5. Ohio (4-2 with a 65 RPI) and Duquesne (2-3 and 73) rank in the top 100 RPI, as do earlier opponents Ohio State (4-0 and 23) and Saint Francis (4-4 with a 61 RPI). Ohio State beat the Flashes 103-47 in KSU’s opener and Saint Francis won 67-64 at home.

Toledo is 5-1 with a 147 RPI.

The big reason behind KSU’s ranking is strength of schedule. RealTimeRPI ranks the Flashes’ schedule 16th toughest in the country; WarrenNolan ranks it eighth. Kent’s five opponents have a combined record of 16-7.

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Kent State is hot on 3-pointers, rebounds well at the end to beat Duquesne 73-66.

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You’re starting the see the problems with early-season RPIs.

How can Ohio State, a team that beat Kent by 56 points, rank behind the Flashes? How can Toledo rank 86 spots behind Saint Francis when Saint Francis has lost three more games?

RPIs are like this at the beginning of every season. They have usually started to settle down by New Year’s, but this season of COVID is crazier than most.

(A quick attempt at explanations: All four of Ohio State’s games have been at home, and its opponents’ records total 10-10. Toledo won four of its games at home, and its opponents are 10-22. Saint Francis opponents are 28-14.)

At one time, a top-50 RPI was a likely ticket to the NCAA Tournament. In recent years, the ratings system has been less in favor. The weakness in the RPI is that it rewards playing good teams more than it rewards beating good teams.

As of this season, the NCAA has dropped the RPI as part of its tournament selection criteria. Instead it’s using something called the NET, which emphasizes something called “adjusted net efficiency.” That measure’s key components are points per possession and opponents’ points per possession. It’s adjusted for strength of schedule and whether victories were at home or on the road.

The NCAA hasn’t released its first NET rankings yet. Kent State isn’t likely to fare as well in it as in the RPI, especially this season. First, the lopsided Ohio State game will haunt KSU statistically all season. Second, as the Power conferences get into league play, their strength of schedules (and rankings) will go up.

Still, it’s something to talk about it as we wait for teams to get back on the court. For the MAC, that’s Saturday, when the Flashes play at Eastern Michigan. EMU’s record is 4-3; its RPI is 140.

KSU center Linsey Marchese has averaged 3.8 points and 5 points and has started every game so far.

The Kent State women return to the court Monday against Duquesne for what likely is their last game of 2020.

AN EARLIER VERSION OF THIS POST — THANKFULLY POSTED ONLY A SHORT TIIME — SAID THE GAME WAS ON SUNDAY. WRONG. GAME IS AT 1 P.M. MONDAY.

The game starts at 1 p.m. at the M.A.C. Center. No fans are allowed because of COVID-19 protocol. The game will be live streamed on ESPN+ and on the Kent State Radio Network. ESPN cost $4.99 a month and will include most games — men’s and women’s — in the MAC season. Click on the link to get instructions to sign up.

Kent State (2-2) isn’t scheduled to play another game before returning to MAC play at Eastern Michigan on Saturday, Jan. 2. In an interview after KSU’s 61-57 win over Toledo Sunday, coach Todd Starkey didn’t think it was likely the Flashes would add another game before then.

Duquesne (2-2) and Kent State have played almost identical schedules this season. Both lost by big margins at Ohio State. Kent State lost by three points at Saint Francis; Duquesne beat Saint Francis by two. On Friday, Duquqesne lost 77-74 at Toledo, a team Kent State beat on the road 61-57. The Dukes also beat St. Bonaventure, a school originally on Kent State’s schedule until it was wiped out by COVID problems.

I think we can conclude from those scores that the teams should be very well matched.

They were last year. The Flashes and Duquesne met in the first game of the season with Kent State pulling out a 67-65 victory on a shot at the buzzer by Megan Carter.

Duquesne has averaged almost 22 wins a year over the last seven seasons.

The Dukes return three starters from last year’s 20-11 team, though the best of them — senior guard Libby Bazelak — has missed every game so far with an injury. Bazelak led the Dukes in scoring last season and was selected for the preseason All-Atlantic 10 team. Laia Sole, a 6-2 forward, made the All-Atlantic 10 preseason second team. she averages 10 points and 8.5 rebounds a game.

Current leading scorer is 5-8 guard Amanda Kalin, who averages 17.5 points a game. She scored 32 points and hit 5-of-6 3-point shots against Toledo. The Dukes also start 6-4 center Precious Johnson, who is averaging 2.5 blocks so far this season.

Duquesne’s front line is the same size as that of Kent State, which starts 6-4 Linsey Marchese, 6-2 Nila Blackford and 6-2 Lindsey Thall.

Marchese, a junior transfer from Indiana, has averaged only 11 minutes a game so far, partly because Kent State has played three teams with smaller lineups. She has averaged 3.8 points and 5.0 rebounds.

“She’ll definitely come around and be a big, big contributor for us,” coach Todd Starkey said after KSU’s win over Toledo. “She hasn’t played much basketball the last two years. (Until this season, transfers had to sit out a year).

“I think it’s just a matter of shaking off some of the rust and getting in a little bit of a flow. She has looked good in practice.”

After her 21-point, 15-rebound performance against Toledo, Blackford leads Kent State in scoring (13.8 points per game) and rebounding (9.5). Her rebounding average is best in the MAC.

Thall is third on the team at 9.5 points per game and leads the MAC in blocked shots at 1.5 a game. She has led the league in blocks the last two seasons.

Starkey said his team has shown progress but still has more to do.

“It’s a great sign that we were able to be two tough conference opponents and still have a pretty large margin for improvement.”

Notes

• Toledo outrebounded Duquesne 43-29. Kent State had outrebounded the Rockets 48-28 five days earlier.
• KSU point guard Mariah Modkins is second on the team in scoring at 10.5 points per game. She’s making 50% of her 3-point shots, which is tied for seventh in the MAC. She’s also eighth in the league with 3.8 assists per game.
• Live statistics for the Duquesne game can be found on the KSU website.

MAC scores

Saturday

• Buffalo (4-2) 71, St. Bonaventure (1-2, 0-2) 52 at Buffalo.
• Bowling Green (5-1) 76, Morehead State (1-5) 61 at Morehead State.
• Evansville (3-1) 66, Miami (1-4) 60 at Evansville.

Friday

• Michigan State (5-0) 79, Central Michigan (3-2) 70 at Michigan State.
• Toledo (4-1) 77 Duquesne (2-2) 74 at Toledo.

Wedneday

• Ohio (3-1) 77, Northern Illinois (2-4) 67 at NIU.

THE KENT STATE WOMEN PLAY AT TOLEDO AT 2 P.M. SUNDAY. PREVIEW AND LINK TO ESPN+ BROADCAST IS HERE.

Katie Shumate led Kent State in scoring with 18 points. The sophomore guard is battling back from knee surgery and had only 10 points total in KSU’s first two games. She also played twice as many minutes as she had in both of the team’s first two games. (Photo from team’s website.)

Kent State’s 84-80 win over Ohio Friday had lots of important pieces:

• After two disappointing losses, the Flashes (1-2) beat one of the favorites for the MAC championship. Ohio (2-1), which is led by two all-conference players, had beaten Notre Dame two weeks ago.

• Kent State made a school-record 16 3-points baskets.

• Six players scored in double figures.

• The Flashes had 22 assists on 25 baskets.

• And a key moment came when KSU scored eight points in one trip down the court. Nila Blackford made a layup and converted on a 3-point play. Ohio was called for a technical foul, and Lindsey Thall made both shots. After Kent put the ball inbounds, Clare Kelly hit a 3-point basket. That took KSU from a 63-61 deficit to a 69-63 lead with 8:10 to go in the game. Kent State led for the rest of the game.

“I didn’t know whether we were quite ready for a performance like this based on how things have gone over the last couple of months,” coach Todd Starkey said. “I’m really proud of their resilience. They really responded to things that we talked about after the St Francis game (a 67-64 Wednesday loss). They were coachable and swallowed their pride and came out and competed.”

In this season of COVID-19, the Flashes lost 10 days of late preseason practice because of the virus and saw their opener canceled. They have had five other games canceled or postponed. They played their first game three days after returning to practice and were run off the court by No. 18 Ohio State 103-47. They lost a disappointing game at 1-4 Saint Francis Wednesday.

KSU’s Super Six

KATIE SHUMATE: 18 points, 3 of 5 three-pointers, 3 assists and a block.

54.1 2Q | Kent State 38, Ohio 33

Pavlansky finds Shumate off the turnover for a 3-point play! pic.twitter.com/y8mSmWoC3Y

— Kent State Women’s Basketball (@KentStWBB) December 11, 2020

Shumate, Kent State’s second-leading scorer and rebounder last season, had off-season knee surgery. She played only 15 minutes in each of KSU’s first two games and wasn’t much of a factor. Against Ohio, she played 30 minutes.

“She’s been working hard all year coming back,” Modkins said in a postgame interview. “It was a good boost of confidence for Katie and just what she needed.

“Now, I think, she’s going to get into a groove, and it’s going to be really hard to stop her.”

Starkey also praised Shumate’s defense against all-MAC wing Erica Johnson.

“She just needed to shake off some rust,” the coach said. “She’s not quite 100%; she’s still working on getting some strength back.’

MARIAH MODKINS: 15 points, 3 of 3 three-pointers, 6 of 6 free throws, 7 assist in 37 minutes.

9:38 1Q | Kent State 3, Ohio 0

Flashes win the tip and Mariah Modkins cashes in from long range on the first possession of the day! pic.twitter.com/2gpyZSemjP

— Kent State Women’s Basketball (@KentStWBB) December 11, 2020

“I just kind of do what I have to do every night,” she said. “Some nights it’s going to be different — whether it’s making shots or distributing the ball. Today I think it was a little bit of both. And I was able to step up to the plate and connect.”

Modkins, who averaged three points in 14 minutes a game her first two year, leads the team in minutes at 32 per game and is third on the team with a 10.7 point average.

NILA BLACKFORD: 11 points, 13 rebounds, two assists and two blocks.

Starkey had called out Blackford’s rebounding against Saint Francis. (She had only five boards against players three and four inches shorter).

“We’ve been pretty hard on her, to be honest,” Starkey said, “and she’s responded. That’s a great thing as a coach to see — when you present the truth to someone and then they respond to it. That’s being coachable.

“And she did a really good job of letting the game come to her instead of forcing drives into three or four players like Ohio wants you to do.”

CLARE KELLY: 14 points, 4 of 8 three-point shooting, an assist and a steal.

Clare Kelly’s triple capped the possession, which also included a 3-point play by Nila Blackford and 2 technical foul shots by Lindsey Thall. pic.twitter.com/AqqjVzYYJv

— Kent State Women’s Basketball (@KentStWBB) December 11, 2020

Kelly’s 14 points and four 3-pointers were her highest by far against a Division I team. (She had 20 against Division III Hiram last season.)

“It was a great boost for her,” Starkey said. “Clare is a talented player, and her freshman year she was trying to figure out what college basketball was going to look like.

“Some of these kids are a confident performance away from being the kind of player that they’re capable of being. I’m hoping that’s the case with Clare.”

LINDSEY THALL: 11 points, 4 rebounds, 4 assists, 4 blocks and a steal.

4:34 3Q | Kent State 49, Ohio 47

Modkins throws over the defense to Thall for the lay-in and the lead! pic.twitter.com/TfmrLVLPyR

— Kent State Women’s Basketball (@KentStWBB) December 11, 2020

All of Thall’s points came in the second half.

“Lindsey was a big reason we won this game,” Starkey told David Wilson on the team’s postgame radio interview. “She didn’t get frustrated and did a really good job of being a screener that opened up 3-point shots behind her.”

CASEY SANTORO: 14 points, 5 of 8 shooting, 3 of 5 on 3-pointers, 5 rebounds, 2 assists and a steal.

2:28 4Q | Kent State 76, Ohio 72

Santoro puts the Flashes ahead by 4 to give her a career-high 14 points. pic.twitter.com/3oXKOs3CDS

— Kent State Women’s Basketball (@KentStWBB) December 11, 2020

Santoro, who scored 2,156 points at Bellevue High School, had her highest-scoring game in her brief college career.

“We got great productivity out of Casey,” Starkey said. “As a freshman, she showed some really high-level toughness and knocked down three big 3s for us.”

During almost all of her 25 minutes, Santoro played alongside fellow point guard Modkins.

All those 3-pointers

The 16 three-point baskets broke the 26-year-old record of 15 set against Eastern Michigan.

“It’s the kind of a shooting performance we’ve been waiting on,” Starkey said. “For a couple of years, I’ve known we’ve had good shooters, and it was nice to finally have a breakout shooting game.”

Assists on 88% of their baskets

Kent State’s 22 assists were the most since Starkey’s first year in 2016-17.

Assists on 88% of KSU baskets has to be close to the best in school history. Last season the Flashes’ assist rate was 46%, which ranked 332nd of 349 Division I teams.

“This team is built a little bit differently than the teams we’ve had in the past,” Starkey said. “We’ve had players that can really create their own shot. We’re not built quite that way anymore. We have some people that can do that, but this is going to be a team that plays better as it gets better at screening and passing and moving.“

The 8-point possession

Neither Starkey nor Modkins had ever seen a sequence like Kent State’s eight points in 22 seconds, sandwiched around an Ohio technical.

“But if we can get that again, I’ll be really happy,” Modkins said.

“That was huge for us,” Starkey said. “They had put on a good run on us, and we found a way to take advantage.”

Ohio’s dynamic duo

Ohio guards Cece Hooks and Erica Johnson went into the game as the nation’s top-scoring pair. That’s not likely to change.

Johnson played all 40 minutes and scored 29 points, made six 3-point baskets, 9 free throws, and had 6 assists and four rebounds. Hooks had 23 points and, at 5-foot-8, led her team in rebounding with 9. The rest of the team scored 28 points.

Ohio, which always shoots a lot of 3-pointers, took 34 and made 13.

Box score

Notes

• Ohio coach Bob Boldon tweeted Friday morning that he would miss the game because he had had COVID-19 for about 10 days. So now we know why the Ohio-Kent State game was postponed last Saturday. Associate head coach Tavares Jackson ran the Ohio bench.
• It was the ninth straight game between Ohio and Kent State that has been decided by fewer than eight points. Six of them were decided by four or fewer. Over the last four years, Ohio has won two MAC East titles and Kent has won two.
• Kent State made 25 of its 56 shots for 44.6%. Ohio was 23 of 56 for 36.5% and was only 3 of 15 in the fourth quarter.
• Kent State outrebounded Ohio 39-33, the first time the Flashes have had an edge on the boards in their three games.
• Ohio scored 19 points off of Kent’s 19 turnovers. Kent State scored 11 off of Ohio’s 13.
• Kent State’s bench outscored Ohio’s 28-6.

Next: Sunday in Toledo

The Flashes play their second MAC game and third game in five days at 2 p.m. Sunday in Toledo.

The Rockets are 3-0 and coming off an 82-79 victory at Northern Illinois on Thursday. Sophia Wiard, a 5-7 sophomore guard who averaged 3.8 points a game last season, tied Toledo’s school record with 42 points against NIU.