Strong post play and four steals by Abby Ogle help KSU to 77-54 win at Central Michigan

Mikala Morris, Kent State’s graduate transfer from Quinnipiac, scored 16 points in KSU’s 77-54 win over Central Michigan. It was her second-highest total of the season. (File photo from Kent State Athletics.)

Mikala Morris’s father, Ben, drove five hours on his birthday to watch his daughter play against Central Michigan.

It was worth it.

Mikala, a graduate student transfer and post player, scored 16 points and grabbed six rebounds to help lead the Flashes past Central Michigan 77-54 on the road on Saturday.

Kent State is now 10-2 and still in third place in the Mid-American Conference, a game behind 11-1 Ball State (21-3) and 11-1 Toledo (19-4). The Flashes are 15-7 overall.

Central is 3-9 in the MAC and 5-18 overall.

Morris’s 16 points were her second-highest in a Kent State uniform.

“I came in with the mindset of aggressive attack,” she said in a postgame radio interview. “I felt good, I felt hot all day, and I wanted to perform very well for my dad.”

Unlike many post players, Morris scores as many points on short- and intermediate-range jump shots as she does under the basket.

“Even in high school, she had a nice face-up jump shot, and she makes those just as she does layups,” said coach Todd Starkey, who recruited Morris out of Kenton Ridge High School near Dayton, then again after she played four years at Quinnipiac University. “That puts a lot of pressure on the defense.”

Morris missed two games in January because of an ankle injury.

“She still isn’t 100%,” Starkey said, “but it was really nice to see her back in her true form. If we can get that type of productivity out of her, that’s going to be big for us moving forward.”‘

Morris splits time at the post with freshman Janae Tyler, who in 17 minutes matched Morris’s 12 points and six rebounds+. Tyler is from Holt, Michigan, about an hour from Central Michigan.

“She had a lot of family in the stands,” Starkey said, “and it was nice to see both her and Mikala do well.”

The coach said Tyler has had a “really nice progression through her freshman year.”

“There are always going to be ups and downs, but she’s done a nice job of playing through that and continuing to get better,” Starkey said.

Tyler is fourth on the KSU roster in scoring, averaging 9.1 points in 15 minutes a game.

Grad student guard Abby Ogle scored just two points but made a big contribution to the victory with five assists and four steals.

“She means a lot to us,” Starkey said. “She hadn’t played a lot (before this season) because she’s battled injuries. But her focus coming into this last year has been good. The energy that she provides on the bench and on the court has been really good. She’s turned into one of our best leaders.”

While Ogle was on the floor, Kent State outscored CMU by 23 points, the highest of any KSU player.

Kent State trailed 9-1 and 11-3 before the Flashes ran off 14 straight points in the first quarter. In the second half, Central cut Kent State’s lead to four after first three minutes, but the Flashes quickly pushed the lead back to 13. They outscored the Chippewas 22-7 in the fourth quarter.

“Other than the first three minutes of both halves, we were phenomenal defensively,” Starkey said. “We outrebounded the top team in the league by five on the road, and we only had seven turnovers in the whole game.”

Sophomore Dionna Gray started at point guard for the second game in a row and scored eight points, had three assists and had four rebounds. Gray was backed up by junior Elena Maier, who had two points and one assist. Gray and Maier have had to play substantially more after an apparent season-ending knee injury to Corynne Hauser, who started the first 19 games of the season.

Jenna Batsch led the Flashes with 17 points despite sitting out 20 minutes with foul trouble. Katie Shumate had 12 points and six rebounds.

NEXT: At Ohio at 7 p.m. Wednesday on ESPN+.

The Bobcats led first-place Ball State by as many as 15 points in the first half, but the Cardinals rallied in a big way in the second and won 75-60. Ohio is 4-8 in the MAC and in a three-way tie for eighth place. The top eight teams in the conference make the league tournament in March.

Kent State beat the Bobcats 92-63 in Kent in January.

Box score

Flashes let third-quarter lead get away and fall to Old Dominion 82-76

Bridget Dunn had nine points on three 3-point baskets. One was the 100th of her Kent State career. (Photo by David Dermer for Kent State Athletics.)

Kent State led Old Dominion by 10 points with less than two minutes left in the third quarter but saw that lead slip away in the fourth to lose 82-76.

ODU outscored Kent State 31-19 in the fourth quarter, outshooting the Flashes 53% to 38% and outrebounding KSU 13-5. The Monarchs also made 12 free throws in the quarter to Kent’s five, though most of the shots came after KSU fouled to try to get the ball back.

Old Dominion is now 17-6 on the season; Kent State is 14-7.

“The game got more physical in the fourth quarter,” Kent State coach Todd Starkey said. “We have to be able to adjust to that.

“Their coaches were yelling at them, ‘Nothing soft, nothing soft, be physical, go hard.’ And that’s what they did.

“They also got a lot of crucial offensive rebounds. There were three that got them extra possessions. That just takes the wind out of your sails. You’re playing defense that long, get a stop, then they get a rebound and a kick-out 3. That’s tough to bounce back from.”

Also a struggle for the Flashes was playing without starting point Corynne Hauser, who is likely out for the season after injuring a knee in KSU’s victory over Western Michigan on Wednesday. While Starkey praised the play of Dionna Gray and Elena Maier, who replaced Hauser, he acknowledged her absence contributed to a lopsided points-off-turnovers statistic. Old Dominion scored 23 points off 18 Kent turnovers. Kent scored 12 off of 14 ODU turnovers.

“Your best ball control point guard — one of the best in the conference at assist-to-turnover ratio — is out,” Starkey said. “You’re asking players that haven’t played major minutes to handle the basketball more.”

Turning people over is what Old Dominion does. The Monarchs rank 27th in the country in steals per game. They had 10, just short of their average, against Kent State.

ODU leads the Sun Belt in points allowed per game at 58, but Kent State scored 18 above that average. Similarly, Kent State is second in the MAC defensively, allowing 61 points a game. Old Dominion scored 21 above that.

Gray, a former West Virginia high school player of the year, made her first college start and had 10 points, three assists and one turnover. Maier had averaged just six minutes a game in two seasons, mostly in mop-up action after contests were decided. She didn’t score but had three assists and no turnovers.

Kent’s turnovers came from its top scorers — Jenna Batsch, who had five, and Katie Shumate, who had four. Both were swarmed by ODU’s quick guards as they tried to make things happen.

Shumate led all scorers with 26 points and had 12 rebounds for her fourth double-double and fourth 20-point game of the season.

“She’s playing with kind of a relentless passion right now,” Starkey said. “She’s in her fifth year and sees it as the stretch run. She was playing like this the last four or five weeks of last year, and I think she is back to that or even exceeding it.”

Shumate is now eighth all-time for Kent State in points (1,671) and rebounds (748).

Batsch had 15 points on 6-of-12 shooting overall and 3-of-7 from 3-point distance.

Numbers:

  • Kent State made 46.6% of its shots, Old Dominion 45%.
  • The Flashes outrebounded the Monarchs 32-31.
  • ODU had the advantage over Kent State in second-chance points (14-5) and points from fast breaks (24-14).

The game matched the third-place teams in the Mid-American Conference and the Sun Belt Conference as part of the first MAC-SBC Challenge. MAC teams won six of 11 games Saturday, all of which were played on MAC home courts. First-place Ball State plays first-place James Madison on Sunday. In the first round of the Challenge, Sun Belt teams won 9-of-12, all on Sun Belt courts.

The view from Old Dominion

Coach Delisha Milton-Jones, quoted on the team’s website:

“Going into the fourth, we pushed the tempo more offensively to speed up the game and play pressure physically. Once that happened, we were able to find the rhythm that fit our style of play.”

NEXT: At Central Michigan next Saturday,

The Flashes have a bye week and play at Central Michigan at 1 p.m. Saturday on ESPN+. Central, which lost to Louisiana 54-51 Saturday, is 3-8 and in 11th place in the MAC and 5-16 overall. The Chippewas have been riddled with injuries and had to forfeit their game at Kent State last week because they didn’t have the seven active players required by NCAA rules.

Box score

Batsch’s 25 points, help from young post players lead KSU to 70-57 win over Western Michigan

Jenna Batsch scored a career-high 25 points and equaled career highs in blocked shots (3) and 3-point baskets (four). (Photo from Kent State Athletics.)

Kent State got a career-high 25 points from Jenna Batsch and good performances from two young post players as it beat Western Michigan 70-57 Wednesday at the M.A.C. Center.

The win leaves the Flashes in third place in the MId-American Conference with a 9-2 record (14-6 overall). First-place Ball State lost its first league game, 76-71 in overtime at Northern Illinois, and fell into a first-place tie with Toledo at 10-1. Toledo beat Central MIchigan 93-68.

Western Michigan is 4-6 in the MAC, tied for sixth in the MAC, and 9-11 overall. The Broncos had won four of their last five games going into its matchup with Kent State.

Batsch played one of her best games with 25 points on 9-of-14 shooting and 4-of-7 three-point shots. The four 3-pointrts equaled her career high, as did her three blocked shots.

“Our last game (a loss to Ball State last week) was a really hard one for me,” Batsch said. “So I wanted to come into this game really aggressive and attacking from the start.”

“She carried us in scoring when we weren’t getting much done,” coach Todd Starkey said. “Obviously her talent has been on showcase this year, and it’s good to see her confidence continue to grow. Everybody on the team knew she had a 25-point game in her.”

Backup post player Tatiana Thomas said watching Batsch achieve was “over the top.”

“I’m glad she’s on my team, and I don’t have to play against her,” she said.

Thomas, a 5-10 sophomore from Bolingbrook, Illinois, played a career-high 24 minutes, scored eight points, grabbed five rebounds and blocked two shots.

“Tatiana played a really good defensive game and did some nice things for us offensively,” Starkey said. “It’s a nice luxury to have somebody who can play and literally guard all five positions. Her versatility allows us to make adjustments in games like this.”

Thomas combined with freshman post Janae Tyler to score 18 points and produce 10 rebounds. Both played extended minutes after an ankle injury two weeks ago to starting forward Mikala Morris. Thomas and Tyler’s performance Wednesday was statistically almost identical to what Morris and Tyler were doing before Morris’s injury.

Katie Shumate, Kent’s leading scorer, had just five points but grabbed eight rebounds, had four assists and made four steals.

“She’s not a stat-watcher,” Starkey said. “If she was more selfish or more self-focused, she could have averaged 15 or 20 points in any given season here.” (She’s averaged about 12 in every season and 14 this year.)

“But this is the type of game that she shows who she is” the coach continued. “They’re taking (her scoring chances) away and she has a game like this and does a lot of the little things. That’s a sign of maturity. She’s been here for five years. We have a lot of trust in her to be able to figure out ways to win.”

Shumate and Batsch led a defense that held Western guard Kaitlyn Zarycki, the MAC’s second-leading scorer, to eight points on 3-of-12 shooting. She also committed eight turnovers.

“Our team defense took away her opportunities to score — her driving lanes and good looks at the basket,” Starkey said.

KSU point guard Corynne Hauser scored 13 points and had three 3-point baskets. But she went down with a leg injury in the fourth quarter, lying on the floor in pain before being helped to the bench. Hauser has fought knee problems for most of the last month and had surgery on her knee last summer. Starkey didn’t know yet how serious this injury was.

NEXT: Old Dominion in the MAC-Sun Belt Challenge at 1 p.m. Saturday at the M.A.C.C.

In the challenge, each MAC team plays two Sun Belt teams. Kent State beat Louisiana-Lafayette 64-55 on the road in the season opener. Louisiana-Lafayette is currently 9-12.

This Saturday’s games are all home games for the MAC and pit comparable teams against each other. Kent State and Old Dominion, for example, each rank third in their conference in the NET, a ranking system used by the NCAA to help determine tournament eligibility and seedings. KSU currently ranks 111th of 360 dteams in Division I; Old Dominion (16-6) ranks 124th.

A win for either team would likely move them up five to 10 spots, which could make a difference about, for example, a WNIT bid.

The game will match two of the best defensive teams of their conferences. ODU allows just 58 points a game and ranks 27th natioinally in steals per game and 32nd nationally in 3-point percentage defense (27.0%).

Kent State allows 60.5 points a game, second in the MAC. Opponents make 29.0% of their 3-pointers.

Kent State has stronger offensive statistics — 72.3 points per game to ODU’s 62.5 and a 42.2 shooting percentage to Old Dominion’s 36.9%.

Both teams rely on balanced scoring, with neither having a player averaging more than 14 points a game.

The game is on ESPN+.

After Saturday’s game, Kent State has a bye week and plays at Central MIchigan on Saturday, Feb. 17.


No game Saturday: Injuries meant Central Michigan was down to just six players

Kent State’s game Saturday (Feb. 3) has been canceled because its scheduled opponent, Central Michigan, doesn’t have enough healthy players.

CMU played last Saturday’s game with Miami with seven players; one was injured. NCAA rules say a team has to have seven to play. (Central beat Miami 64-59 despite being shorthanded.)


Flashes fall to first-place Ball State 57-46


Mid-American Conference rules say that if a team can’t play, it forfeits the game. So Kent is in third place in the conference with an 8-2 record, a game-and-a-half behind first-place Ball State and a half game behind Toledo. Both of those teams play tomorrow. Somewhat strangely, the NCAA does not count a missed game as a forfeit. So Kent’s overall record remains at 13-6, as far as I can tell.

Here’s an explanation of how Central Michigan got down to six players from “northcoastrocket,” a mainstay of the main MAC bulletin board:

“CMU went into the year with only 12 players, but two of those fell off the roster before play even started. They decided to roll with 10. Fairly early in the year they lost two to serious injuries. They added a volleyball walk-on to get back up to 9, but in recent weeks lost a couple more to injuries of unknown seriousness. Played with seven against Miami, but another player got hurt during that game, leaving six. NCAA rules say you have to dress at least seven.

“CMU is not the only team to go through this so far this year. For example, TCU started with 14 players but had to forfeit two games after losing eight to injury. They recently added four walk-ons to the team so that they could continue playing games.”

Truly horrible night of shooting dooms Flashes at first-place Ball State 57-46

With starting forward Mikala Morris injured, sophomore Tatiana Thomas played 16 minutes, her most of the season. She scored six points and had eight rebounds. (Photo for KSU Athletics by Gracie Farrall.)

Wednesday’s 57-46 loss to Ball State was a nightmare in shooting for Kent State.

The Flashes missed their first 15 three-point attempts and didn’t make one until the fourth quarter. They took 17 foul shots and made only four. Yes, four.

“I haven’t seen free-throw shooting like that in my career — not from a team that’s a good shooting team,” coach Todd Starkey said.

Kent State had been making 73.1 percent of its free throws. In MAC play, it had been making 35% of its 3s. It ended up shooting 20% from 3-point distance, with all four of its baskets coming in the fourth quarter.

“If we shoot the ball well from the free throw line and from the floor, I think we have a really good chance of winning that game,” Starkey said. “We never gave up. I’m really proud of our team’s effort and toughness, especially in the second, third and fourth quarters.”

Ball State ends the first half of the MId-American Conference schedule undefeated for the first time in school history. The Cardinals are 19-2 overall and have won 13 straight games.

Kent State is 7-2 and in third place in the MAC. The Flashes are 13-6 overall.

Ball State jumped to a 20-11 first-quarter lead but never scored more than 14 in a quarter for the rest of the game. The Flashes closed the score to 34-30 in the third quarter, but Ally Becki, BSU’s star point guard, scored nine points in the last 90 seconds of the quarter to push Ball State’s lead to 11. Kent State never got within nine in the fourth quarter.

Katie Shumate led KSU with 22 points, her second-straight 20-point game.

Starting forward Mikala Morris missed the game with a foot injury suffered against Bowling Green on Saturday. Freshman Janae Tyler started in her place, scored six points on 3-of-3 shooting and grabbed eight rebounds. Sophomore Tatiana Thomas was Tyler’s primary backup, also having six points and eight rebounds in a season-high 16 minutes.

“Janae came in for her first start against the toughest team in the league and did a nice job,” Starkey said. “Janae and Tatiana stepped up and played very well.”

Kent State outrebounded Ball State 46-38 and had 17 offensive rebounds. The Flashes outscored BSU 16-7 on second-chance points.

More numbers:

  • Ball State made 37.5% of its shots, Kent State 32.9%.
  • Ball State scored 18 points off of 15 KSU turnovers; Kent scored 10 off 10 Cardinal turnovers.
  • Ball State also struggled on 3-point shooting, making only 5-of-27.
  • The two teams entered the game as the top-scoring teams in the MAC. Ball State scored 17 below its average, and Kent State scored 28 below its.

NEXT: Home for three games, starting with Central Michigan at 1 p.m. Saturday. The Chippewas are 3-6 in the MAC and 5-14 overall. They’re tied for eighth in the league.

Next week the Flashes will host Western Michigan (4-5, 9-10) on Wednesday and Old Dominion (15-5) on Saturday. The Old Dominion game is the second of KSU’s two games in the MAC-Sun Belt Challenge.

Box score

Flashes, off to their best MAC start in 23 years, prepare to play at first-place Ball State

Standings are from WarrenNolan.com, an analytics site. NET is the statistical measure the NCAA uses to help rank teams and determine seeds for tournaments. 

Kent State’s women won a tough game on the road at Bowling Green on Saturday.

Now they face an even tougher game on the road at Ball State on Wednesday. The game is at 6:30 p.m. and is on ESPN+.

Ball State is undefeated and in first place in the Mid-American Conference at 7-1. The Cardinals are 18-2 overall, with the losses coming only to national powers Notre Dame and Connecticut. They have won 12 games in a row, a school record.

“They have great talent,” KSU coach Todd Starkey said after his team’s 82-74 win at Bowling Green on Saturday. “They play the way they want to play. They try to dictate what you’re going to be able to do. They press defensively, and they scramble you and get you out of your stuff. Offensively they play with great pace and tempo and have a lot of different people who can score the basketball.

“We’ll have to play close to our best four quarters of the year, especially at their place.”

Starkey said he thought the Flashes were moving in that direction.

“This team still has a lot of their best basketball ahead of them,” he said. “They know we’ve been basketball games, but we haven’t been playing quite our best, and they’re confident that we can continue to improve.”

Starkey downplayed the idea that Wednesday was a critical game.

“There’s no championship attached to this game,” he said. “It’s just another conference game that gives us an opportunity to continue to get better. And quite frankly, I’m glad we’re playing a really good opponent because we need to face that to get us ready for the end of the season.”

Kent State played four good quarters against Bowling Green, which was picked fourth in the conference but has been hurt by injuries. Against BG, Kent State made 7-of-15 three-point shots for its highest percentage of the year (46.7%). It shot 45.5% overall, its sixth-highest of the season.

The Flashes are off to their best conference start since 2000-01, when they won the MAC championship. They have won three games in a row, led by Katie Shumate (19 points a game over KSU’s last five games) and Jenna Batsch (17.2 over the same period).

KSU is 7-1 in the conference, tied with Toledo for second place, and 13-5 overall.

Here are some selected MAC team stats (conference games only):

Points per game

  1. Ball State 75.3.
  2. Kent State 75.0.
  3. Toledo 67.5.

Points against per game

  1. Ball State 55.0.
  2. Toledo 56.0.
  3. Kent State 61.4,

Shooting percentage

  1. Ball State 44.8%.
  2. Kent State 43.8%.
  3. Bowling Green 41.7%.

3-point percentage

  1. Ball State 39.2%.
  2. Kent State 34.1%.
  3. Toledo 33.3%.

Opponents shooting percentage

  1. Northern Illinois 38.0%.
  2. Toledo 38.4%.
  3. Central Michigan 39.3%.

5. Kent State 39.9%.

7. Ball State 40.1%.

Rebounding margin

  1. Toledo +9.6.
  2. Central Michigian +6.3
  3. Kent State +5.3.
  4. Ball State +3.1.

Turnover margin

  1. Ball State +6.0.
  2. Kent State +4.25.
  3. Ohio +4.13.

Katie Shumate’s 23-point second half helps send Flashes past Bowling Green 82-74

Despite losing 11 minutes to foul trouble, Katie Shumate scored 26 points, one off her career high. She made 8-of-11 field goals. (File photo from Kent State Athletics.)

Kent State got 23 second-half points from Katie Shumate and big help from bench players Janae Tyler and Dionna Gray to help it beat Bowling Green 82-74 on the road Saturday.

The win moves Kent State to its best Mid-American Conference season start since 2000-01 and keeps KSU in a tie for second in the MAC with Toledo with a 7-1 record.

Toledo held off Buffalo 67-63 on Saturday night.

Overall Kent State is 13-5 and plays at first-place Ball State (8-0 MAC, 18-2 overall) at 7 p.m. Wednesday on ESPN+.

Bowling Green lost its third-straight game to fall to 4-4 and a fourth-place tie. The Falcons have struggled since losing leading scorer Lexi Fleming to a knee injury before Christmas.

Shumate made 8-of-11 shots, including 2-of-3 from 3-point distance, and 8-of-8 free throws for the game. She scored 16 points in the fourth quarter alone.

Shumate sat out 15 minutes of the first half with foul trouble.

“She was frustrated with having to sit and watch,” coach Todd Starkey said. “She really wanted to win, and when she gets focused like she was in the second half, she’s as good as there is in the league.”

Shumate’s foul trouble and other injuries gave major playing time to Gray and Tyler.

Gray, KSU’s backup point guard, and starting point Corynne Hauser played multiple minutes together with Shumate on the bench. Gray was the playmaker much of the time as Hauser’s knee was bumped and injured.

“It’s great to be able to have her come off the bench and play big minutes for us and make some great plays,” Starkey said.

Gray had six assists against one turnover and scored seven points, including a 3-point basket.

Tyler, a freshman, scored 14 points and had six rebounds in 21 minutes, making 6-of-9 shots. She finished the game after starting post player Mikala Morris was injured in the fourth quarter.

“We needed her in big minutes down the stretch,” Starkey said, “and she had a couple of tough catches and finishes late.”

Much of Tyler and Morris’s work came against Erika Porter, a BG transfer from Baylor.

“For Janae to go back and forth with her was really good,” Starkey said. “Janae continues to learn and get better game by game. It’s fun to watch.”

Jenna Batsch scored 16 points and is averaging 17.2 over her last five games.

Bridget Dunn grabbed eight rebounds and is averaging 7.6 over the same five games.

Biggest statistical advantage was Kent State’s 40-27 margin in rebounding and 14-4 margin on the offensive boards. The Flashes led 16-6 on second-chance points.

The victory was Starkey’s 300th in his career at Kent State and Division II Lenoir-Ryne in North Carolina. It was his 135th win at Kent State, which ties him for second among women’s coaches with Laurel Wartluft. First place is Bob Lindsay’s 418 over 23 seasons.

A locker room celebration made Starkey slow to his postgame phone interview.

“I had to get the silly string out of my hair,” he said.

Box score

Jenna Batsch’s 12-point third quarter, career-high 20, leads Flashes past Eastern Michigan 66-57

Jenna Batsch had a career-high 20 points, including 12 critical points in the third quarter. (File photo from Kent State Athletics.)

After scoring just three points in the first half, Jenna Batsch had 12 in the third quarter and a career-high 20 for the game to lead Kent State past Eastern Michigan 66-57 Wednesday at the M.A.C. Center.

The win gives Kent State a 7-1 Mid-American Conference record (12-5 overall) and keeps them in a tie for second place in the league. Eastern is 2-5 in the conference and 5-12 overall.

“I think a lot of times when I have a good second half, I’m just frustrated with my first half,” Batsch said. “I think I play better when I’m angry, honestly. I just come out and be aggressive and focus.”

Batsch scored KSU’s final 10 points in the third quarter to give the Flashes a 45-43 going into the final period.

“She’s a big spark for us,” point guard Corynne Hauser said. “We want to get a stop and come back and watch Jenna get another bucket. Every time she’s able to go on a run by herself, it really gets the whole team going.”

The Flashes outscored Eastern Michigan 21-14 in the fourth quarter and took the lead for good after a 3-point basket by Hauser with 6:28 to go.

“I thought we executed really well in the fourth quarter,” coach Todd Starkey said. “But somehow we have to get to a point where we’re playing four solid quarters instead of allowing one or two quarters to affect us in a negative way.”

For the second game in a row, 6-3 forward Bridget Dunn had a big impact on the game without scoring a lot of points. Dunn had 11 rebounds and her defense helped hold a big, strong EMU front line in check.

Hauser and Katie Shumate each had 13 points for the Flashes, and Mikala Morris had 10.

Numbers:

  • Kent State had a season-low six turnovers. EMU had 14, which Kent turned into 14 points.
  • Eastern outrebounded the Flashes 43-38.
  • KSU made 24-of-61 shots for 39.3%; Eastern was 23-of-61 for 37.7%.

NEXT: Bowling Green and Ball State, two of the MAC’s best. The Flashes play at BG at 4 p.m. Saturday on ESPN+. Bowling Green is 4-3 in the league and 10-7 overall. The Falcons have struggled somewhat since Lexi Fleming, their leading scorer, went down with a knee injury before Christmas. BG lost at Buffalo (also 4-3, 10-7) 82-72 on Wednesday.

Ball State, whom the Flashes play next Wednesday, leads the MAC at 7-0, is 16-2 overall and has won 11 straight games. Its losses came to No. 14 Notre Dame and No. 17 Connecticut.

MAC standings

Standings are from WarrenNolan.com, an analytics site. NET is the statistical measure the NCAA uses to help rank teams and determine seeds for tournaments. It includes things like strength of schedule, scoring margin, points per possession on offense and defense, and the quality of wins and losses, based on the opponent and whether a game was home or away.

Flashes beat Akron 69-60 behind tag-team scorers of Batsch and Shumate

Jenna Batsch missed equaling her career-high of 19 by a point but did set a career-best in steals with five and 3-point baskets with four.. (Photo from KSU ‘X’ feed — former Twitter.)

Jenna Batsch and Katie Shumate combined for 24 for Kent State’s 40 second-half points as the Flashes beat Akron 69-60 at the James A. Rhodes Arena on Saturday.

The victory moves KSU’s Mid-American Conference record to 5-1 and overall to 11-5. The Flashes are third in the league behind Ball State and Toledo, who play Sunday. Bowling Green, which had been tied with Kent State, lost at Miami 56-47 on Saturday.

Akron is 1-5 in the MAC and 6-10 overall.

Kent State fell behind 19-10 early in the second quarter but finished the first half on a 19-6 run and led for the rest of the game. Akron got within three points with 3:21 to go, but Shumate answered with a 3-point basket 30 seconds later. Akron never challenged over the last two minutes.

Batsch and Shumate have been Kent State’s top scorers all season. Shumate currently averages 13 points a game, and Batsch 12.4. On Saturday, Batsch scored seven of KSU’s points in the third quarter, and Shumate had eight of the team’s 21 points in the fourth. At one point, Batsch scored 11 straight KSU points.

“It’s almost like Katie handed it to Jenna, and Jenna ran her lap and handed the baton back off to Katie,” coach Todd Starkey said “When you have those two doing that type of thing…we have two players and if you can take one away, the other one’s gonna step up. Then if you try and take that away, the other one steps back up.”

Batsch finished with 18 points, one off her career-high, and career-highs of four 3-point baskets and five steals. Shumate had 14 points, three assists, two assists, two steals and two blocked shots.

Kent State kept Akron’s Reagan Bass, who leads the MAC in rebounding and is second in scoring, in relative check. Bass scored 15 points, three below her average, and made 6-of-16 shots, well below the 45% rate at which she had been shooting. Bass also had six rebounds, five below her average. Starkey credited Kent’s 6-3 forward, Bridget Dunn.

“A heckuva defensive game,” Starkey said. “That’s a really good player she did a good job on. She did a good job of crowding her.”

Bass committeed five turnovers.

Akron became the first MAC team to outrebound Kent State this season 33-25. The Zips had 10 offensive rebounds in the first half and added four more in the second. But Akron only managed four second-chance points.

Kent State made 51.2% of its shots, a season-high against a Division I team.

Other numbers:

  • Blocked shots: Kent State 5, Akron 0.
  • Points off turnovers: Kent State 17 on 16 Akron turnovers. Akron 13 off 14 KSU turnovers.
  • Fast-break points: Kent State 19, Akron 3.
  • Free throws: KSU 17-of-19, Akron 8-of-12.

NEXT: Kent State hosts Eastern Michigan at 7 p.m. Wednesday in the M.A.C. Center. Eastern is 2-4 in the MAC and 5-11 overall. The Eagles lost at Ohio 72-62 on Saturday.

Box score

Disappointing defense, 40-point effort from Toledo guard, send KSU to 87-76 defeat

Katie Shumate’s 26 points were the most by a Kent State player this season and one off her career high. She made 8-of-15 shots and had four 3-point baskets. (File photo from Kent State Athletics.)

Statistically, Kent State game into its Wednesday’s game against Toledo as the best defensive team in the Mid-American Conference.

Toledo scored 87 points, 29 above Kent State’s defensive average.

Rocket guard Sophia Wiard came into the game averaging 15.3 points, fifth in the MAC. She scored 40.

That’s about all you need to know about KSU’s 87-76 loss to Toledo. The Flashes drop to a tie for third place in the MAC with Bowling Green with a 4-1 conference record. Kent is 10-5 overall.

Toledo (12-3) is tied for first with Ball State at 5-0. Those teams play Sunday at Ball State (15-2 overall).

Against Kent State, the Rockets made 50.8% of their shots — second highest only to No. 10 LSU against the Flashes this season.

“The defensive side let us down,” coach Todd Starkey said. “Toledo did a really good job of executing what they wanted and getting what they wanted.”

Wiard scored every way she wanted. She made 12-of-17 shots, 3-of-4 three-pointers and 13-of-14 free throws.

“Wiard’s obviously a great point guard,” Starkey said. “But we can’t give up 40 points to her. I was more concerned about her effortless scoring opportunities than (anything else Toledo did offensively).”

Kent State got its best offensive performance of the season from redshirt senior guard Katie Shumate. She had 26 points, one off her career high, and made four 4-pointers and 6-of-6 foul shots.

Junior forward Jenna Batsch had 17 points, 13 coming in the fourth quarter when Kent State cut a 19-point Toledo lead to nine. Batsch also blocked three shots.

Freshman forward Janae Tyler had 10 points in 14 minutes for the Flashes.

Toledo committed only five turnovers, six fewer than any other team has against KSU this season. Kent State committed only 10, but the Rockets outscored KSU off turnovers 12-2, about the final margin of the game.

NEXT: Kent State plays at Akron at 2 p.m. Saturday on ESPN+. Akron, 1-4 in the MAC and 6-9 overall, lost at Bowling Green 70-59 on Wednesday.

Box score