Kent State’s first home opponent, Youngstown State, won its Saturday opener against Niagara at home, 83-61.

The Penguins return three starters but only five players from last year’s team, which was 15-16 and finished third in the Horizon League at 10-6. The team has seven freshmen and a newly eligible transfer.

They’re led by 6-foot senior forward Heidi Schlegel, an all-Horizon player last year. She averaged 20 points and 8.0 rebounds last year, scoring more than 20 points 19 times and having 10 double-doubles. She had had 18 points, 14 rebounds and five assists in the YSU victory over Niagara Saturday.

The other big news out of the opener came from YSU freshman guard Nikki Arbanas, who scored 25 points and made all five of her three-point shots.

Youngstown sophomore guard Jenna Hirschm, who scored 11 points against Niagara, made the Horizon all-freshman team last year, averaging 7.3 points per game. She hit 37 three-point shots, second most by a freshman in YSU history. She hit three of her eight three-pointers Saturday.

All five of YSU’s starters scored in double figures against Niagara, but only two reserves played more than six minutes.

The Penguins forced only about 13 turnovers a game last year (18 against Niagara). That’s good news for Kent State, which lost its opener because of 27 turnovers.

Senior forward Latisha Walker, a transfer from Xavier, is YSU’s tallest starter at 6-2. She averaged six rebounds a game last year had had two agains. Niagara. Nobody but Schlegel had more than three rebounds.

6-foot-4 Kent center Cici Shannon, who had 17 points, 10 rebounds and six blocks in the team’s opening loss to North Dakota State, could give YSU problems on defense. But a player like Schlegel could give Shannon foul problems. Shannon had four fouls in the opener and played only 20 minutes. She averaged more than three fouls a game last year.

Kent forwards Montia Johnson and Jordan Korinek could match up well with YSU’s other post players. Kent’s more experienced guards will have to control Youngstown’s three-point shooters.

Kent State beat Niagara at home last year by about the same margin YSU beat it this year.

The teams look pretty evenly matched. The home court could make a difference for the Flashes.

The game starts at 5:30. Audiio is on Golden Flash Radio on IHeartRadio and Akron Fox sports 1350. Video is through through the Kent State Sports website. Live statistics are also on the KSU website.

The game is the first of a double header. The men plan Division 3 Malone in their home opener at about 8. KSU website men’s preview is here.

One ticket gets you in both games.

KSU women’s website preview is here.

For many years, Kent State was a major player in MAC women’s basktball. Four years ago it won 20 games. The next year it won six, long-time coach Bob Lindsay was fired, and Danny O’Banion was brought in to rebuild the program.

Here are my keys to her third season:

1. Cut down on turnovers. Before Friday’s opener, I had this at Key No. 2. Then the Flashes had 27, leading to 33 points — far more than their six-point margin of defeat.

The team averaged more than 20 turnovers per game last year, worst in the MAC, and their turnover margin was minus 4.83, second worst in the league. (Miami, which was tied with Ken tand Ohio for last place, was worst at  minus 5.23.)

The team has averaged more than 20 for three years, including Lindsay’s last season.

There are reasons things could be better this year. Kent’s two graduating seniors were first and third on the team in turnovers last year. Point guard Mikell Chinn is a far better ball handler than Ashley Evans, who started last year at point and alternated between point and shooting guard after Chinn moved into the starting line-up. Amber Dunlap, who played guard and wing, was third in turnovers and led the team in turnovers per minute. Larissa Lurken, the starter at wing this year and most of last year, is a much better ball handler than Dunlap. She had 50 (!) fewer in about as many minutes.

A key to the turnover question is 6-1 senior forward Montia Johnson, the Flashes’ leading returning scorer. She tied with with Evans for most turnovers with 75 last year. Johnson can be a very active player and tries to make things happen. But sometimes bad things happened. Johnson had six turnovers in the opener.

She and 6-4 center Cici Shannon were supposed to have worked a lot on their footwork in the off-season to cut down on the turnovers. Shannon had just one turnover in her 20 minutes Friday.

Unknown quantities are guards Melanie Stubbs, who missed last season with an injury, and Krista White, who averaged just 12 minutes a game. White had four turnovers, Stubbs one Friday. Very unknown are the freshmen — point Naddiyah Cross and guard-wing Madison Ridout. Cross is vital; there is no other logical point guard. She looked very good in Kent’s exhibition, much less so Friday. She was the point on a very good Centerville High School team that scored a lot of points.

North Dakota forced most of Friday’s turnovers. It is a quick, up-tempo team. It was also 6-24 last year.

2. Score more — a lot more. This was my top concern before Kent’s exhibition and opener. But it scored shot 58 percent in the exhibition and 48 percent against North Dakota. It averaged 38 percent last year. It scored more than 68 points only three times.

For the year, Kent averaged just 54.5 points last year, worst in the league by seven points. It’s average scoring margin was minus 14 last year — worst in the MAC.

3. Find a consistent scorer. No player has averaged in double figures in three years. The scorer could be Lurken, who had 22 points in the exhibition and 14 Friday. She averaged about 10 when she was healthy last year. It could be freshman Jordan Korinek, who led Kent State with 23 points in its exhibition. She averaged a double-double at Akron St. Vincent St. Mary’s and was the best post player in Ohio Division II. She had nine points at North Dakota State, but only two in the second half.

Or the dominant scorer could be a senior. Read on.

4. Get a good year from the seniors.

At 6-4, Shannon could be a dominating presence in the league. She led the MAC with 2.5 blocks a game last year. She could easily average more than 3.5. She blocked six blocked shots Friday while scoring 17 points and getting 10 rebounds (in just 20 minutes). Last year she averaged only 7.2 points a game and scored in double figures only about 10 times. She’s never been a huge scorer at any level — at Kent State, Southern Illinois (where she played for two years) and in high school. She worked a great deal on scoring and footwork in the off-season. But she has to stay on the court. Se played only 20 minutes Friday and averaged 3.2 fouls a game last year, fouling out three times.

Johnson, the 6-1 forward, had six double-doubles last year. She led the team in scoring (9.0, rebounding (7.1) and shooting percentage (48). And then, some games she would score six points and almost disappear. She absolutely has to cut down on turnovers.

Chinn, the point guard, won’t be a scorer. (She averaged 2.6 points a game last year.) But the team runs through her. She was sixth in the league in steals and can disrupt the other teams’ offense terribly  with pressure on their point guards.

5. Get 40 points a game from the post. That’s where Kent State’s scoring potential is. There’s Shannon. And all four forwards, including freshmen Korinek and McKenna Stephens, were 1,000-point scorers in high school. Stephens, a transfer from Michigan State who will be eligible second semester, was district player of the year at Uniontown Lake High School. Sophomore Janae Peterson averaged 20 points and 15 rebounds a game her senior year at Temescal Canyon High School in California. 

(The team, but the way, had 34 points in the post Friday.)

6. Make more three-point shots. Other teams collapsed into a tight two-three zone on Kent most of last season. Kent took only 10 three-point shots per game and averaged only 27 percent. Lurken is a proven shooter.  The rest of Kent’s roster has made a total of one three-point shot in college. That was by Chinn, who was 1 of 19 last year.

Freshman Madison Ridout, a 1,300-point scorer in high school, can shoot from distance. But it took Lurken half the season last year to get used to the speed of the college game. Freshmen Korinek and Cross are supposed to be able to shoot the three, but neither took a three-point shot in the exhibition and neither made the one shot they each took at North Dakota State.

SUMMARY: O’Banion went 3-27 her first year. She was 7-23 last year. My guess is that her team will either win four more games again for a total of 11. Or they could — like last year — slightly more than double the previous year’s win total. That would be 15 — or a .500 season.

I’d take that.

Kent State led the MAC in turnovers last year. It’s been the big problem in Kent State’s struggles over the last three years.

It wasn’t any better Friday. That was especially true in the second half, when North Dakota State had 19 points off 13 Kent turnovers. Five of those turnovers came in a 15-0 NDSU run from 7:54 to 3:41 in the second half.

Was there any pattern? Point guard Mikell Chinn had some foul trouble and played just 28 minutes. There was a bigger drop-off between her and freshman Naddiyah Cross than we saw in Kent’s exhibition. Chinn had four turnovers and four assists. She did better last year. Montia Johnson, who led the team in turnovers last year, led them again with six. Krista White had four and Cross, sophomore Larissa Lurken and frreshman Jordan Korinek three.

A lot of the turnovers led to breakaway baskets when Kent coudlnt’ get back on defense. NDSU had 12 fast-break points; Kent had zero.

On coach Danny O’Banion’s post-game show on iHeart radio, the first thing she said was “free throws and turnovers.” North Dakota State shot 34 free throws, making 26. Kent hit 13 of 18. But what the fouls did to the team on the floor was as bad as the points. Korinek, White and Cici Shannon had four fouls. Chinn fouled out in the last minute. Lurken and key reserves Johnson and Melanie Stubbs had three. This team has only nine healthy scholarship players right now. It doesn’t have the depth for 26 fouls.

But there’s a lot good to take from the game.

• Until those last eight minutes, Kent State was clearly the better team. During a first-half timeout when Kent was on a run, O’Banion told her team, “See, basketball can be really fun.”
• Kent shot 48 percent from the field. It averaged 38 percent last year. It shot 53 percent in the first half.
• The 67 points were 12 more than Kent averaged per game last year. It scored more than 68 only four times.
• Kent out-rebounded NDSU, 43-28. It rebound margin was -0.7 last year.
• Cici Shannon had 17 points and 10 rebounds. She was 7 of 12 and did miss some shots in the last minutes. And she played only 20 minutes because of foul trouble.
• The team ran its offense really nicely in the first half, with 11 assists on 16 baskets. (In the second half, it was five on 10 baskets.) For the game, Chinn and Korinek led the team with four assists each.
• White had four steals. She had 18 all last year. Chinn, who led the team in steals last year, had three.

Other thougths.

• The starting lineup was Chinn, White, Korinek, Lurken and Shannon. Korinek started ahead of Johnson, last year’s leading scorer. Stubbs had started ahead of White at guard in the exhibition.
• Lurken scored 14 points, including Kent’s only three three-pointers. Madison Ridout, a freshman who the team hopes will add a second three-point three, missed her only shot. She played only five minutes
• Shannon’s six blocks equalled a career high.
• Korinek, the freshman who led the team with 23 points and 10 rebounds in its exhibition, looked in the first half as if she was starting where she left off. She had seven points and five rebounds. In the second half, she had two points and two rebounds in the same number of minutes. O’Banion said she thought “the physicality of the college game” caught up with Korinek. But the coach emphasized that she thought all-stater from Akron St. Vincent St. Mary would be “very good for us.”
• Johnson did not have a good game with eight ponts, six turnovers, three fouls and three rebounds in 23 minutes. They’ll need more from her to have a good season.
• O’Banion’s final impression: “A tough one, but we know we have the potential to be a good basketball team.”

Box score

Kentstatesports.com website story

Kent State’s women’s basketball team led North Dakota State in by nine points with 7:54 to go in its season opener Friday, but North Dakota State scored 15 straight points over the next four minutes and went on to a 74-68 victory.

Kent State had 27 turnovers, leading to 33 North Dakota points. Five of those turnovers came in the 15-0 run.

Senior center Cici Shannon led Kent State with 17 points and 10 rebounds. Sophomore guard Larissa Lurken had 14 points, including Kent’s only three three-point baskets.

Kent State scored six more baskets than North Dakota State and outshot the Bison, 48 percent to 38 percent. But North Dakota State outscored Kent 26-13 in free throws. Shannon, freshman forward Jordan Korinek and sophomore guard Krista White had four fouls each. Senior point guard Mikelll Chinn fouled out in the last minute.

We’ll be updating the game story over the next hour.

The Flashes and North Dakota State, Kent’s first-game opponent Friday, look well matched.

The game is at 1 p.m. Kent time. Details on that, including the reason for the weird time, are at the end of this article.

Kent was 7-23 last year and returns four starters. North Dakota State was 6-24 and returns three starters.

Kent returns its leaders in scoring, rebounding and assists. So does North Dakota State.

Both teams were picked last in their leagues.

Kent State won its exhibition against Ohio Christian University of the National Christian College Athletic Association, 100-45. North Dakota State won its exhibition again Division 2 Bemidji State, 100-47.

The Bison’s best player is 5-6 senior guard Brooke LeMar, who was Summit League Newcomer of the Year last season as a transfer. She averaged 15.1 points and 5.3 assists per game. She’s a transfer from Southern Illinois and played there with Kent State center Cici Shannon, who also transferred after her sophomore year. LeMar was a second-team all-league selection.

Marena Whittle, a 5-foot-11 junior forward, was the Summit League’s second-leading rebounder (7.1 per game) and led the team in blocked with 27 and steals with 45.

Six-foot forward Holly Johnson was second-leading scorer (13.5 per game) and best three-point shooter (39 of 118 for 33 percent).

South Dakota had 546 three-point shot attempts last year, making 32 percent. Seven players took more than 30 three-point shots.

Kent State shot just 326 three-pointers, making 27 percent. Only four players took more than 30. Kent’s opponents made 33 percent of their 541 attempts.

Coach Danny O’Banion said at the team’s media day this week that North Dakota played a “one-in, four-out” up-tempo offense that emphasized the three pointer.

Other statistical comparisons from last year:

Kent averaged 55 points a game, North Dakota 67. Kent’s shooting percentage was 38, North Dakota’s 39.

Kent gave up 68 points a game, North Dakota 74. Kent’s opponents; shooting was 41 percent, North Dakota’s 42.

Kent”s rebounding margin was -0.7. North Dakota’s was -3.5.

Kent averaged 20.3 turnovers pet game and had a -4.9 turnover margin. North Dakota mad 13.1 turnovers per game and had a -0.7 margin.

In its exhibition, the Flashes started 6-4 center Shannon, 6-2 freshman forward Jordan Korinek, redshirt junior guard Melanie Stubbs, sophomore guard Larissa Lurken and senior point guard Mikell Chinn at Friday’s exhibition. Their leading returning scorer, 6-1 senior forward Montia Johnson, was first off the bench but played almost as many minutes as Korinek.

Korinek, an all-state center from Akron St. Vincent St. Mary, scored 23 points and had 10 rebounds Friday. Lurken had 22 points, including three three-pointers. Shannon had 16 points, eight rebounds and three blocks. Johnson had 14 points and freshman Madison Ridout 13.

Kent State had been plagued with turnovers and bad shooting and shooting for three years. The key to game is simple: do better in both.

The 1 p.m. (Kent time) starting time happened because North Dakota State’s main arena is undergoing renovation. The basketball teams have to share a facility with the volleyball team, which has a Friday night game.

The game is on Kent State’s iHeart radio channel, which is at http://www.iheart.com/live/Golden-Flashes-Radio-6068/ Pre-game broadcast usually starts about 10 minutes before the game. Apps for Apple and Android phones and tablets are available free. It’s also on Akron Fox Sports Radio at 1350 am.

You can watch video through North Dakota State’s feed at http://www.gobison.com/watch/?Live=360. It will cost $6.99. You’ll get North Dakota announcers.

Live stats are available through North Dakota State at http://stats.statbroadcast.com/broadcast/?id=68546

Kent State added its official announcement of its five fall commitments this morning, so we know quite a bit more than we did yesterday.
The new Flashes are:
Savannnah Neace is a 6-3 forward from St. Henry High School in Hebron, Ky.. which is across the river from Cincinnati. She was her team’s leading scorer (10.5 points per game) and rebounder (8.8 per game) and averaged 4.4 blocks per game. She had three triple-doubles. Kent State coach Danny O’Banion praised her versatility, saying she could score inside and outside.Her team had a 20-12 record last year.
Merissa Barber-Smith is a 6-3 center from La Follette High School in Madison, Wisc. She averaged 15 points and 15 rebounds per game last year was selected as one of the top 50 basketball players in Wisconsin. Her team reached the Wisconsin regional finals. O’Banion said her length and athleticism were reminiscent of current 6-4 senior Cici Shannon. Barber-Smith’s team team was 12-12 last season.
Taylor Parker is a 5-7 point guard from Cass Technical High School in Detroit. Last season she averaged 15.2 points, 6.5 steals, 3.4 assists 3.5 steals and 2.1 rebounds per game. Her team was 14-3 and runner-up in the Detroit City Championship the last two years. She was a third-team all-city selection.
Alexa Goiden is a 5-9 guard from Chartiers Valley High School in Pittsburgh. She missed her junior year with a knee injury. As a sophomore, she averaged 8.9 points, 3.9 assets, 3.8 steals, 2.6 blocks and 7/9 rebounds and was considered one of the best sophomores in the area. O’Banion praised her “defensive tenacity” and “high basketball IQ” and called her a “prototypical ‘glue player.'”
Megan Carter is a 5-7 point guard from North Farmington High School outside Detroit. She averaged 16.7 points, six rebounds, five steals and four assists per game as a junior. Her AAU coach called her “definitely one of the top two guards in the state in that class.”Her team was 10-10 and district runner-up last year. Like Golden, she has had knee problems; she tore an ACL twice. She was the Oakland Press 2013-14 Comeback Player of the Year.

Here’s the kentstatesports.com story.

Other MAC schools are announcing their recruiting classes. I’ve retweeted the ones I’ve seen (@wbbflashes) and will to do a wrap-up.

The team’s pre-season Media Day was today, and coach Danny O’Banion and her tri-captains were pretty optimistic. Highlights:

1. It’s O’Banion’s team and system now. She’s recruited everyone on the team except guard Mel Stubbs, who missed last season with an injury, and says she has the pieces in place to play the kind of up-tempo pressure defense she’s wanted to since the beginning.

2. She says the team has more depth and a more diverse skill set than it has had in her three years. Example: Nine of the 11 scholarship players played more than 15 minutes, seven more than 20 minutes. One of the other two, forward Janae Peterson, is still recovering from some off-season physical problems. The 11th is redshirt freshman forward McKenna Stephens, who transferred from Michigan State and will be eligible second semester.

3. Mikell Chinn, the starting point guard and one of three seniors, said the coach had “pushed us every day since we lost” in the MAC Tournanment last March, saying, “This is the year.” All of the players and O’Banion said the team was closer and, one player said, they “trust each other more — a big difference.” That was the most interesting thing I heard.

4. O’Banion said the team had spent “hours and hours” on footwork, which she said was key to shooting and scoring. (The team hasn’t averaged more than 60 points a game for three years – last in the MAC.) She said Chinn and freshman point guard Naddiyah Cross had spent hours watching film to improve ball handling. Kent had averaged more than 20 turnovers — sometimes over 30 — the last three years.

5. O’Banion said 6-4 center Cici Shannon had “simplified her game” and would be more of a scoring threat. (She’s always been a stronger rebounder and shot blocker.) One thing Shannon is doing, O’Banion said, is not dribbling when she gets the ball in the low post.

6. Lurken said she had spent a lot of time working on her three-point shot (she already was Kent’s leader last season), and she said she had developed a move to fake the three-pointer and drive for a pull-up jumper. Lurken had 22 points, including three three-pointers, in Friday’s 100-45 exhibition win against Ohio Christian. O’Banion said freshman guard Madison Ridout gives Kent a second three-point threat it didn’t have last season. Ridout scored 1,300 points in high school.

7. Stubbs said she was at 100 percent after missing all of last season with a knee injury. She started 10 games as a sophomore, O’Banion’s first year. O’Banion said the plan was to have her and guard Krista White get to the foul line more this year.

8. She said the upperclassmen had welcomed a strong freshman class, recognizing they were teammates ahead of competitors for playing time. She said the team needed major contributions from freshman Jordan Korinek, who led the team with 23 points and 10 rebounds Friday, and Cross, the back-up point guard.

9. Another freshman, Tyra James, injured her knee late in fall practice and will miss the season. So will Rachel Mendelsohn, the only freshman recruit from O’Banion’s first year. Mendelsohn played both guard positions as a sophomore reserve last year.

The Flashes beat Ohio Christian University, a Division 3 school that had an 18-14 record last year, 100-45, Friday. Last year they lost their exhibition to Division 3 Walsh by 10. So while we can’t draw any great conclusions, we can be a lot happier than last November. Highlights:

1. Jordan Korinek, the 6-2 freshman from Akron St. Vincent-St. Mary had 23 points on 10 of 11 shooting and also had 10 rebounds. She started ahead of the team’s leading returning scorer, Montia Johnson. (Johnson still played 20 minutes and had 14 points on 6 of 7 shooting.)

2. Larissa Lurken, who probably was the team’s most consistent player as a freshman last year, looked as if she had taken her game up a level. She had 22 points, including three three-pointers.

3. The team had 29 assists on 39 baskets (19 on 24 baskets in the first half). They knew their offense.

4. They shot 58 percent. For three years. teams have struggled shooting so much you’d wonder if they could shoot 58 percent in practice.

5. 6-4 center Cici Shannon had 16 points and eight rebounds. Her footwork is supposed to be much improved. I’m not sophisticated enough to pick that ought, but she had zero turnovers in 24 minutes.

6. Freshman Madison Ridout had 13 points and three three-pointers.

7. Kent State guards had 21 assists and one turnover.

8. All nine players who went more than 15 minutes looked as if they could contribute legitimate minutes this season.

9. There were about 550 people there, including a large, loud pep band and more students than I’m used to seeing.

Box score

KSU website story

Welcome to wwbFlashes, a new blog on Kent State women’s basketball.
Why a blog on women’s basketball? Well, I’ve been a fan for about 25 years — since Bob Lindsay’s first freshman class. I’ve always followed the team close and liked to talk about basketball, andI haven’t found a lot of fans like me to talk to. I’m a retired journalism professor, so I’ve got plenty of time and like to write. (I got into journalism as a 14-year-old sportswriter on my hometown paper.)

I’ve got no great illusions of having thousands of followers. But maybe a couple of dozen of us talk about Flash women’s basketball. Maybe a few more will become more interested.

Carl Schierhorn

Kent, Ohio

Coach Danny O’Banion announced an interesting trio of captains:
MIKELL CHINN — the team’s senior point guard. Clearly the floor leader but not at all a scorer. A junior college transfer who started last season as a reserve.
MELANIE STUBBS — a redshirt junior who missed all of last season because of a knee injury. Started 10 games as a sophomore but didn’t play a major role. Is the last player on the team recruited by former coach Bob Lindsay.
LARISSA LURKEN — Just a sophomore but the team’s third leading scorer (7.8 points per game) last year. Started every game until she was hurt and missed five games at mid-season.
The three had to apply in written, interview with the coaches and staff, then were chosen by the coaches and players.
They have a combined 3.46 cumulative GPA.