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Kent State women's basketball

Blackford keeps dominating, Flashes keep hitting 3s to stay in 1st place in MAC

By on Saturday, January 2, 2021

In her first start of the year, sophomore Clare Kelly scored 12 points, hit both her of 3-point shots, had three assists and two steals. She played a career-high 33 minutes. (Photo by Scott Galvin from team website.)

In Kent State’s three games in the early MAC season, Nila Blackford has been playing like an all-conference selection.

The 6-2 sophomore had her third double-double in three league games to lead the Flashes to a 67-61 win at Eastern Michigan.

“She’s started to really feel it here in her sophomore year,” coach Todd Starkey said. “Her effort has been phenomenal. When she starts finishing more around the basket and making free throws, she’s going to be a difficult stop.

Blackford had 14 points — 12 in the second half — and 13 rebounds against Eastern. Over KSU’s last four games, she’s averaged 12.5 rebounds. For the season, she’s averaging a double-double — 14.5 points and 10.0 rebounds.

The Flashes are tied for first place in the MAC, with two of their wins coming on the road against winning teams. Overall Kent State is 4-2. Eastern Michigan is 4-4 and 1-2 in the conference.

The sharpshooting continues

For the third time in four games, KSU made more than 50% of its 3-point shots. The Flashes were 8 of 15. They lead the MAC in 3-point percentage at 39.4%; in their three league games, they’re making 44.4%.

“We’ve got a lot of good shooters,” Starkey said, “and we had some very timely 3s. Mariah (Modkins) had two back-to-back to get us out of a funk in the first half. Clare (Kelly) had a big one in the fourth quarter.”

Next step, according to Starkey: “We’ve got to get a little better on our inside-out game (where post players feed shooters on the perimeter).”

KSU’s best defense of the season

The Flashes held Eastern to 32% shooting, lowest of any opponent by 5 points, and 2 of 11 on 3-pointers, the fewest against them all season. Eastern had 19 turnovers, the most against KSU so far.

“We were solid,” Starkey said. “We missed some assignments on (Areanna) Combs on drives. But she’s really talented. Any given night she can be the best player in the league. Our philosophy topical has not been to try and shut down somebody’s leading scorer but to play solid all the way around.”

Combs, who is seventh in the MAC with a 19.5-point average, had 29 points. But it took her 25 shots to make her nine baskets.

Kent State’s best defense came when they needed it at the end. Eastern made three-of-11 shots over the last seven minutes.

“We dug in a little bit more defensively and got a little bit better focus,” Starkey said. “We did a little bit better of a better job of keeping Combs out of the paint and making them shoot tough shots.”

Another good game for Mariah Modkins

Modkins had a career-high 16 points, including her two 3-point baskets.

“She’s literally 5-foot-zero — probably the smallest Division I player in the country,” Starkey said, “and she just comes out and leads our team and makes tough plays. She gets banged around, and she just keeps playing.”

After the game, Starkey said, Modkins was “kind of down a little bit.”

“She’s thinking about the turnovers that she didn’t want to have down the stretch as opposed to the fact she had a career high,” the coach said. “That’s how she’s wired. She expects a lot out of herself, and that’s why she’s playing a lot better this year.”

Last season Modkins split the point guard role with Asiah Dingle and averaged three points and 15 minutes a game. This season she’s averaging 10.8 points and 33 minutes.

A successful start for Clare Kelly, a successful game for Linsey Marchese

Sophomore Clare Kelly started her first game for the season, scored 12 points, made all four of her shots and both her 3-point shots, had three assists and a steal. Her 33 minutes were a career-high. She also guarded Combs through most of the second half and “by and large, did a good job on her,” Starkey said.

Because Kelly started, Linsey Marchese did not. But the 6-4 transfer from Indiana still had her best game in a Kent State uniform. Marchese scored 10 points and had five rebounds in 20 minutes, making four-of-five field-goal attempts. The 10 points beat her career-high at Indiana.

“Her best game by far,” Starkey said. “Hopefully that will be a nice shot in the arm for her and give her some confidence.”

Monique Smith: five rebounds in six minutes

Smith, a senior, had four rebounds in the last 2:29 of the first half when starting forwards Lindsey Thall and Blackford were on the bench with two fouls.

“She’s one of the key reasons why we won because we really needed her to help us close out the first half,” Starkey said. “Then she came in late in the game and played great defense. Some of the rebounds we got as a team were because she was doing a great job of boxing out. So her play probably led to more like 10 rebounds because of how hard she was playing.”

Less good: turnovers and foul shooting

Kent State committed 23 turnovers, its highest total of the season. Eastern Michigan, which has been known for years for high-pressure defense, scored 24 points off of them. Kent State scored 13 off of EMU’s 19 turnovers.

The Flashes missed 14 of their 31 foul shots. If they made half of those, the game isn’t close. Eastern was 21 of 26. But Modkins and Shumate made six of six free throws in the last 1:02.

“The nice thing about it is we’re finding ways to win games, but we’re not playing our best,” Starkey said. “There’s definitely a room for improvement, and the good thing is that the team recognizes that.”

Box score

Notes

  • Kent State made 45.7 of its field-goal attempts, its best percentage of the season. The Flashes outrebounded EMU 39-37
  • The game was both teams’ first since Dec. 21. So far Kent has had the beginning of its season delayed three weeks because of COVID-19, opened at Ohio State on three days notice, had seven days off, played three games in five days, had eight days off, played Duquesne at home, then had 12 games off before Saturday. “It’s really hard to get in a rhythm,” Starkey said.
  • Kent State has won four games in a row at Eastern and seven of eight overall since Starkey became head coach in 2017. Before then, the Flashes had lost 11 in a row.
  • Ce’Nara Skanes, who had 23 rebounds in Eastern’s previous game against Tarleton, had 14 Saturday. She leads the MAC with a 10.5 average. Blackford is second at 10.0.

Coming home

The Flashes have two home games next week, though fans aren’t allowed because of pandemic protocol. They will play Northern Illinois at 2 p.m. Wednesday. The Huskies are 1-2 in the MAC and 3-5 overall. They beat Western Michigan 73-56 at home Saturday.

On Saturday, KSU will play Ball State (1-1 in MAC, 3-3 overall) at noon. The Cardinals were playing a late Saturday game against Bowling Green.

Other MAC scores

  • Central Michigan (3-0 MAC, 5-2 overall) 90, Ohio (1-2, 3-3) 87 at Ohio.
  • Toledo (2-1, 6-1) 65, Akron (0-3, 3-3) 57 at Toledo
  • Buffalo (3-0, 6-2) 75, Miami (0-3, 1-6) 67 at Miami.
  • Northern Illinois (1-2, 3-5) 73, Western Michigan (0-3, 3-5) 56 at NIU.
  • Bowling Green (3-0, 7-1) 89, Ball State (1-2, 3-4) 55 at Ball State.

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Kent State women's basketball

This week’s instant game: Flashes at Saint Francis (Pa.) Wednesday

By on Monday, December 7, 2020

Sophomore forward Nila Blackford, who led KSU with nine points against Ohio State, in action against Buffalo last season. (Photo by David Dermer.)

The Kent State women have added a Wednesday game at Saint Francis University in Pennsylvania.

In this season of COVID-19, games are canceled on a day’s notice when virus problems break out on a team. And they’re added days before a game as coaches try to fill their schedules.

Kent State’s home game last Saturday against Ohio was postponed. Saint Francis had a game scheduled for Tuesday (Dec. 7) canceled.

Kent State’s game at Ohio State last week was scheduled on five day’s notice after both teams had a game canceled the previous weekend.

Saint Francis is 0-4, losing lopsided games to Michigan State (77-44) and Penn State (87-54) and close games to mid-majors Duquesne (69-67) and La Salle (76-68). Saint Francis, traditionally one of the best teams in the Northeast Conference, was 11-19 last season and tied for fourth in the league.

The game is at 5 p.m. and will be streamed on NEC Front Row. Audio will be Kent State’s Tune-In Radio channel, with the pregame show starting at 4:45. Like many college games so far this season, fans won’t be allowed at the game because of the pandemic.

Kent State opened the 2020-21 season last week with a 103-57 loss at No. 19 Ohio State.

Saint Francis’s nickname is the Red Flash. So the game will be the Golden Flashes versus the Red Flash.

The Red Flash are in some ways an ideal opponent for Kent State at this point. Saint Francis is a solid mid-major program, but nowhere near the level of Ohio State.

It should give the Flashes a competitive game under their belt before they open MAC play. KSU also will have had another week of practice. Against Ohio State, the Flashes had had just three full practices after a 10-day “pause” because of COVID issues on the team.

The Flashes return four starters from a team that went 19-12 last year and won the MAC East title: junior forward Lindsey Thall (11.7-point average last season) and junior point guard Mariah Modkins (3.0), and sophomore guard Katie Shumate (12.3) and sophomore forward Nila Blackford (12.4 points and 8.0 rebounds in 2019-20). Against Ohio State, Blackford led KSU with nine points, and Modkins had eight.

Joining the returning starters in the lineup is 6-4 Indiana transfer Linsey Marchese, who had six points and five rebounds against OSU.

Saint Francis has a 6-4 post player of its own in sophomore Katie Dettwiller, who is averaging 4 points, 3 rebounds and 1.5 blocks. She’s from Portsmouth, Ohio, near the West Virginia border.

No other starter is taller than 5-11. For Kent State, Thall and Blackford are 6-2; Shumate is 5-11.

The Red Flash’s leading scorer is 5-8 senior guard Karson Swogger, who is averaging 14.3 points a game. Their second-leading scorer is 5-7 guard Lili Benson at 9.0. Kaitlyn Maxwell, a 5-7 freshman averaging 3.5 points a game, scored 2,125 points in high school. (Kent State freshman Casey Santoro scored 2,156, the most ever for a KSU recruit.)

Kent State and Saint Francis have played three times. St. Francis won in 2012 and 2010; Kent State won in 2006.

Saint Francis and Robert Morris dominated the NEC over the last 25 years, with Saint Francis winning 12 league championships during that time. Kent State played hard-fought games with Robert Morris over the last four years, winning last year 82-81 on a steal and a basket at the buzzer. Robert Morris left the NEC for the Horizon League this season.

Saint Francis is located not far from Altoona, about 80 miles east of Pittsburgh.

  • Preview from Kent State website, including links to roster, schedule, statistics and more.
  • Preview from Saint Francis website.
  • Live statistics will be available during the game on the St. Francis website.
  • Kent State’s game against Ohio has been rescheduled for 2 p.m. Friday at the M.A.C. Center, the MAC announced Tuesday. On Sunday, KSU is scheduled to play at Toledo at 2 p.m. Both games are on ESPN+; no fans will be allowed at either.
  • The Flashes were originally scheduled to play No. 24 DePaul at the M.A.C.C. on Thursday. That game was canceled so DePaul could play Louisville in the Jimmy V Classic in Connecticut. The nationally televised game raises money for the V Foundation for Cancer Research. Jimmy Valvano, a broadcaster and coach, died of cancer in 1993. DePaul lost to No. 2 Louisville 116-75.

Kent State’s second-worst loss ever

I dug around in the Kent State record book this week. It seems that the 56-point loss to Ohio State was the second-worst in team history. In 1976 — the second year of varsity play for KSU, the Flashes lost to Pittsburgh 98-38. Here’s link to OSU game story if you’re a glutton for punishment.

MAC scores

Dec. 8

  • Miami (1-1) 67, Valparaiso (2-2) 49 at Miami. Valparaiso has lost to two MAC teams (the other was 70-60 to Bowling Green 70-60 in its opener). But it has beaten two Big Ten teams — Illinois (62-59) and Purdue (52-47).

Dec. 6

  • Bowling Green (3-0) 64, Milwaukee (3-1) 62 at BG.
  • Buffalo (2-1) 87, Canisius (0-1) 45 at Canisius.
  • Akron (3-0) 77, Dayton (1-1) 74 at Dayton.
  • Eastern Michigan (3-1) 63, Southeast Missouri State (1-2) 49 at Southeast Missouri.

Dec. 5

  • Toledo (2-0) 75, Detroit Mercy (0-4) 65 at Toledo.
  • Northern Illinois (2-1) 79, Western Illinois (0-2) 67 at Northern.
  • Ball State (1-3) 58, Western Kentucky (0-2) 54 at Western Kentucky.
  • Western Michigan (1-0) 80, Illinois-Chicago (1-2) 76 at Western.

Dec. 4

  • Northern Illinois (1-1) 82, Eastern Illinois (1-2) 72 at Eastern.
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Kent State women's basketball

Flashes play 2-0 Ohio Saturday in early MAC opener

By on Friday, December 4, 2020
Mariah Modkins controls the ball in Kent State’s 81-77 win over Ohio at the M.A.C. Center last March. The win clinched tie for the MAC East title for the Flashes. (Photo by Savannah Monk of KentWired.)

SATURDAY’S KENT STATE-OHIO GAME HAS BEEN POSTPONED. SEE THIS LATER POST

In their week of Ohio competition, the Kent State women Saturday take on Ohio University, which has two very good wins in its first games.

The Flashes are coming off of a 103-47 loss to No. 19 Ohio State on Wednesday in their first game of the season.

Saturday they’ll host the Bobcats, who got votes of their own in the polls after beating then-No. 22 Notre Dame 86-85 in Athens last Friday. OU had opened with another home win, 76-72 over Liberty, a team picked second in the Atlantic Sun Conference.

The game is at 2 p.m. at the M.A.C. Center, but no fans are allowed because of COVID-19 protocols. The game will be streamed on the Kent State website, starting at 1:55 p.m.

The game is one of the earliest Mid-American Conference games in KSU history. In recent years, league play hasn’t started until January, but the MAC moved two games for each team before Christmas to allow scheduling flexibility in a season of COVID.

Ohio was picked second in the MAC this season. Its two wins are the most impressive in the league in the early season. Central Michigan, the conference favorite, lost its opener to Michigan by 18 points. (Michigan beat Notre Dame 76-66 Wednesday.)

Two all-MAC players lead the Bobcats. Senior guard Cece Hooks was the first 2020-21 MAC player of the week after scoring 50 points and getting 15 rebounds in OU’s first games. She scored 33 against Notre Dame. Hooks is also returning two-time MAC defensive player of the year.

Junior guard-forward Erica Johnson had 55 points last week, scoring 31 against Liberty and 24 against Notre Dame.

“They’re two of the more dynamic scorers in the conference, if not the country,” KSU coach Todd Starkey said. “Either one of them could be conference player of the year.”

The Bobcats play a very different style of play than Ohio State.

Ohio University traditionally scores a lot of points (second in the MAC in scoring so far), shoots a lot of 3-point baskets (55 in their first two games) and forces a lot of turnovers (18 against Notre Dame).

No Ohio starter stands taller than 5-11, and that sets up the most interesting matchup on Saturday.

Kent State starts 6-4 Indiana transfer Linsey Marchese, 6-2 Nila Blackford and 6-2 Lindsay Thall. None of them put up fancy numbers at Ohio State, but the Buckeyes were every bit as tall and more athletic.

Starkey said the Ohio State game, played with just three days of practice after a 10-day “pause” because of COVID, is the “kind of a game where you almost throw away the tape and start over.“

“We’ll be a better basketball team moving forward,” he said. “There’s no question in my mind.”

Likely starting lineups

KENT STATE

  • Point guard Mariah Modkins, a 5-1 junior from Solon. She had eight points and two 3-point baskets against Ohio State.
  • Guard Katie Shumate, a 5-11 sophomore from Newark. She’s coming off off-season knee surgery and played only 15 minutes in Columbus. She was second on the team in rebounding, blocked shots and steals and third in scoring average and assists last season. She was all-MAC honorable mention and made the MAC all-freshman team.
  • Forward Lindsey Thall, a 6-2 junior from Strongsville. She led the MAC in blocked shots the last two years and made the all-MAC defensive team. She is also one of the best 3-point shooters in Kent history, already ranking fifth in the record book after two seasons.
  • Forward Nila Blackford, a 6-2 sophomore from Louisville, Kentucky. She led the team in rebounding and was second in scoring last season, making the MAC all-freshman team.
  • Center Linsey Marchese, a 6-4 Georgia native and transfer from Indiana. She was a top 100 recruit in high school when she was recruited by Starkey, then an assistant coach at Indiana. Marchese had six points and five rebounds against Ohio State.

OHIO

  • Guard Cece Hooks, a 5-8 senior from Dayton. Averaged 25 points and 7.5 rebounds in OU’s first two games. All-MAC first two and MAC defensive player of the year the last two seasons.
  • Guard Erica Johnson, a 5-11 redshirt junior from Mansfield. Averaged 27.5 points and 7 rebounds in first two games. All-MAC first team last season, MAC freshman of the year in 2018-19.
  • Guard Caitlyn Knoll, a 5-10 redshirt junior from Bridgeport. Averages 4 points a game (4.4 last season).
  • Forward Gabby Burris, a 5-11 senior from Baltimore, Ohio. Averages 9.5 points and 6 rebounds. Averaged 10.4 points through first three seasons.
  • Forward Edecia Beck, a 5-9 junior from Grand Rapids, Mich. Averages 4.5 points and 2.5 rebounds. (3.3 points last season.)

This assumes players are healthy and available, never a guarantee this season.

Notes

  • Game will also be streamed on Kent State’s Tune-In Radio channel.
  • Live game statistics will be on the KSU website.

The view from Ohio State

OSU coach Kevin McGuff after the Kent State game:

“We obviously started with really good defensive energy. We were playing really well on that end of the floor, Kent State wasn’t shooting well, and so that led to a perfect storm.” (OSU led 26-0 during the first quarter.)

 “With Covid-19, teams are just at different levels right now. I don’t know if the score would be what it was today a month from now.” 

MAC scores catchup

Dec. 3

  • Bowling Green (2-0) 63, Northern Kentucky (0-3) 49 at Northern Kentucky. Freshman guard Lexi Fleming is averaging 17.5 points a game for BG.
  • VCU (2-2) 61, Buffalo (1-1) 55 at VCU. Buffalo’s Dyaisha Fair, last year’s MAC freshman of the year, is averaging 28 points a game.

Dec. 2

  • Eastern Michigan (2-1) 77, Ball State (0-3) 58 at Ball State. Eastern’s Aereanna Combs is averaging 21 points a game and Ce’Nara Skanes 20.3. had 20. Ball State was without all-MAC forward Oshlynn Brown for the third straight game.

Dec. 1

  • Akron (2-0) 70, Northern Kentucky (0-3) 60 at Akron. Jordyn Dawson averages 18 points a game for the Zips.

Nov. 30

  • Buffalo 80, James Madison 64 at James Madison
  • IUPUI 73, Ball State 49 at Ball State.

Nov. 29

  • Notre Dame 88, Miami (0-1) 68 at Notre Dame.
  • Illinois-Chicago 66, Eastern Michigan 62 at Eastern.
  • Toledo (1-0) 71, Oakland 69 at Toledo.
  • Bowling Green 70, Valparaiso 60 at BG.
  • Akron 95, Bluefield State 61 at Akron.
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Kent State women's basketball

Suddenly, Flashes are opening Wednesday at Ohio State

By on Tuesday, December 1, 2020

Lindsey Thall takes aim at the basket against Ohio State last season. She scored 32 points in KSU’s75-65 loss.

As fast as games can disappear in this COVID-19 basketball season, a new one can appear.

Kent State announced Monday morning that it would play its first game of the year 48 hours later.

So the Flashes will open their 2020-21 season at noon Wednesday against Ohio State in Columbus. The game will be on BTN+, the Big Ten’s paid streaming service. Here’s link to broadcast. Details on how to sign up are in the “Notes” section below.

“We are excited about finally playing,” Kent State coach Todd Starkey told Allen Moff of the Record-Courier. “I’m not sure what we’ll look like on only three days of practice. Ohio State is a very talented team. I think they have a chance to win the Big Ten this year.”

Junior point guard Mariah Modkins put it like this in an interview: “We’re just excited to touch the ball, honestly, and get up and down the floor.”

Modkins said the fall on campus has been tough, but the key has been “just being able to go with the flow.“

“Everything is up in the air,” she said. “You never know from day to day, honestly from hour to hour. So just being ready to do whatever is one of the most important things.”

Modkins the team’s pause in practice because of COVID “kind of sucked.“

“We were so close,” she said (just 10 days before their first game after having been able to practice all fall). “We’re ready to go now. Everybody’s excited.”

It will be the second game between KSU and Ohio State in two years and the second in 39 years. The Buckeyes beat the Flashes 75-65 at the M.A.C. Center last season before the biggest women’s crowd (4,272) in Kent State history. Before then, the teams hadn’t met since 1981.

Like Kent State, OSU had its first game — against Akron — canceled last week because of COVID-related issues (on the Zips team). The Flashes had their first game — at Northern Kentucky — canceled after COVID issues in Kent.

The Buckeyes played their first game Sunday, beating Duquesne 82-47. The Flashes are scheduled to play Duquesne of the Atlantic 10 on Dec. 21.

Ohio State started the season ranked 20th in the country and moved up to 19th with the Duquesne win. The Buckeyes have five starters back from last season’s team, which went 21-12 and tied for fifth in the Big Ten.

Top starter is 6-4 senior forward Dorka Juhasz, an all-Big Ten selection last season. She averaged 13.2 points and 9.4 rebounds last season and made 40 three-point shots last season. She had 10 points and 12 rebounds in 23 minutes against Duquesne.

Guard Jacy Sheldon led the Buckeyes in that game with 20 points on 8-of-13 shooting. Guard Braxtin Miller had 16 points, including two of OSU’s three 3-point baskets.

Ohio State outrebounded Duquesne 52-37 even though the Dukes have a 6-4 center and two other 6-2 starters.

Duquesne coach Dan Burt after the game said his team had been able to have only six or seven full practices all fall while Ohio State hadn’t had any kind of shutdown. “It was like lions waiting for their meat, and unfortunately today we were that meat,” he told pittsburghsportsnow.com.

Kent State also likely will start a 6-4, 6-2, 6-2 front line. The 6-4 center is Linsey Marchese, a transfer from Indiana who will be playing her first game for KSU. She would have played against Ohio State two years ago.

Kent’s 6-2 forwards are junior Lindsey Thall, who set a school record by making eight 3-point baskets against Ohio State last season, and Nila Blackford, an all-MAC freshman team member last season who led the Flashes in rebounding.

Kent State will look different at guard, where starter Megan Carter graduated, leading scorer Asiah Dingle transferred, and second-leading scorer Katie Shumate is injured.

Kent State’s pregame media notes list Marchese, Thall, Blackford, Modkins and Hannah Young as probable starters.

Modkins started 13 games at point guard last season; Young started four and guard. Also expect sophomore guard Clare Kelly and sophomore wing Annie Pavlansky, along with 5-4 freshman guard Casey Santoro and 6-4 freshman center Lexi Jackson, to see considerable action.

That’s if everyone is healthy, and this year, that’s never guaranteed for any team.

Notes

• The game will at the Covelli Center, the new 3,700-seat home of Ohio State’s volleyball, gymnastics, wrestling and fencing teams. No fans will be allowed; Columbus and Franklin County are under the state’s highest “purple” COVID rating.

• Best price to watch the game on BTN+ is to buy a $7.95 monthly pass for Ohio State games only. It will be renewed automatically every month, so cancel after the game if you don’t want to watch more Buckeye sports. You can buy a season pass for OSU events for $79.95. You’ll get Ohio State men’s and women’s basketball games that aren’t shown on the Big Ten Network, plus sports like gymnastics, baseball and softball. You can also subscribe to get all sports from all Big Ten Schools or all of the Big Ten’s games in a single sport like women’s basketball.

Other key links

KSU’s home opener is Saturday vs. Ohio U.

Kent State’s second game, assuming no COVID problems, will be Saturday against Ohio University at the M.A.C. Center. Tipoff is at 2 p.m., but no fans will be allowed. Game will be streamed on the KSU website.

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