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Kent State women's basketball

4 in a row! Flashes are moving up MAC standings after 78-67 win at Central Michigan

By on Wednesday, February 9, 2022
Senior Mariah Modkins has scored 28 points in KSU’s winning streak. That’s as many as she scored in the Flashes’ first 17 games. She had 15 points, including three 3-pointers, against Central Michigan. (File photo by Ryan Moore/KSU Athletic Communications.)

We could be in for quite a stretch run in the Mid-American Conference.

Kent State beat Central Michigan 78-67 Wednesday for its fourth-straight victory. After a start of the MAC season that saw KSU go 2-6, the Flashes are 6-6 and in a three-way tie for sixth in the conference.

Only two games separate third-place Ball State (7-4) and ninth-place Northern Illinois (6-7). Akron is in fourth at 7-5 and Bowling Green fifth at 6-5. Kent State and Western Michigan are 6-6, and Ohio is 5-5.

Kent State plays six of its eight final regular-season games against those six teams. The top eight teams make the MAC Tournament in March.

“I’m not really concerned about the standings yet,” coach Todd Starkey said. “There’s a lot of basketball to play. All of our losses are by nine points or less, and they came when we weren’t at our best health-wise.

“So we’ll see how things develop. We just have to stay focused on the next game. That’s what’s got us to this point.”

4 quarters, 4 stars

The Flashes led for 38 minutes of the game, but each quarter had its own star.

Quarter 1: Nila Blackford and KSU’s defense

Blackford had four points, four rebounds and a steal as the Flashes jumped to a 15-7 lead. She and the Flashes held Central Michigan to 3-of-15 shooting and scored nine points off of five CMU turnovers.

The 6-2 forward from Louisville, Kentucky has regained her all-conference form of last season over KSU’s last seven games. She scored steadily against CMU and finished with 15 points and 9 rebounds, which is slightly below her averages for the MAC season. She also had an assist, two steals and a blocked shot, and drew five fouls on Miami players.

Quarter 2: Bridget Dunn scores 11

Dunn, a 6-3 freshman from Carmel, Indiana, scored 11 of her 16 points in the second quarter, making 4-of-5 shots and both her 3-point attempts. She had three steals in the quarter. She finished with 16 point, making 3-of-5 three-pointers and 3-of-4 foul shots. Dunn averages 12.5 points in MAC play and leads the team in 3-point percentage and 3-point baskets made.

“She’s done a really good job,” Starkey said. “With freshmen, you not sure how well they’ll adapt to the college game. She’s playing within what we thought she was capable of doing.”

Quarter 3: Casey Santoro scored 9 in 11-0 run

Central Michigan had closed KSU’s nine-point halftime lead to 46-43 when Santoro, a sophomore guard from Bellevue, hit two foul shots. Then Katie Shumate scored on a pass from Lindsey Thall. In the last 1:39 of the quarter, Santoro hit a 3-point shot, then, on the next two possessions, blew by the Central defense for two layups. Kent State led 57-43.

“She’s our quickest player,” Starkey said. “She was being guarded by multiple players that were in foul trouble. So we really wanted to attack that and get her going downhill.” 

Santoro finished with 11 points and four assists.

Quarter 4: Mariah Modkins caps season-high 15 points

When Kent State’s winning streak starter, Modkins, a senior guard from Solon, had scored 28 points in KSU’s first 17 games. In the winning streak, she has scored another 28. She scored 15 against CMU, her best this season by six points and one off of her career-high. In Wednesday’s fourth quarter, she hit two three-point baskets.

“She’s kind of got a renewed focus, just like everybody else has,” Starkey said. “The big thing for her was finally seeing the ball go through the basket. In the Eastern Michigan game, she went 3-for-4 from 3, and that kind of broke some things loose for her. She’s playing with a lot of confidence.”

Four wins in eight days

The Flashes’ win streak started last Wednesday with a 68-57 victory over Central. Then they beat Eastern Michigan 70-61 and Miami 83-61. Starkey said the packed schedule, caused by schedule changes after COVID-19 postponements, was a challenge.

“You could really tell that mentally and physically, they were really tired,” Starkey said. “They were dragging to do everything tonight. But they found a way to win, and that’s what you have to do on the road.”

Beating Central Michigan — finally

The win was Kent State’s first in Mount Pleasant since 2007. The Flashes’ victory last week was Starkey’s first over CMU in his six years at KSU and Kent’s first win over the Chippewas since 2012. The last time Kent State won two games in a season against Central Michigan was 2000. When the MAC scheduled by division, the teams rarely played twice in a season.

Central is going through its worst season since 2006-07. The Chippewas, who have won either the MAC Tournament or regular-season championship for six-straight years, are 2-11 in the MAC and 4-18 overall. CMU lost three key seniors, including league MVP Micaela Kelly, to graduation and have been hit by injuries and illness throughout the season. The Chipps had only seven players in uniform on Wednesday.

Box score

Running the numbers

  • Kent State made 29-of-55 shots for 51.8%, its second highest percetnage of the season by just .1 percentage point. The Flashes were 8-of-19 (41%) from 3-point distance. Central shot 39.8% from the field and 45.5% on 3-pointers.
  • The Flashes scored 25 points off turnovers, equaling its total of last week’s game against CMU. That’s the most points KSU has scored off turnovers against a Division I team this season. Central committed 17 turnovers, KSU 14.
  • Kent State outscored CMU 38-24 in the paint. KSU’s bench players outscored Central’s 28-11.
  • Clare Kelly started her first game of the season and scored nine points. She replaced Hannah Young in the lineup. Young, who has been fighting ankle problems, fell to the court as her team was ringing the victory bell Monday. She was on the bench against CMU but didn’t play.

Next: Ball State on Saturday

The Flashes play third-place Ball State (7-4 MAC, 14-7) at 1 p.m. Sunday on the M.A.C. Center. The Cardinals have won five games in a row and were idle Wednesday because of injury and illness at Ohio, their scheduled opponent.

The Bobcats didn’t have seven players available for the game, which is the minimum allowed by the MAC. Ohio ended its 80-70 loss at Northern Illinois Sunday with only four players on the court after leading scorer Cece Hooks went down with an injury with 3:31 to go.

Kent State beat BSU 54-51 on Jan. 9, but Ball State has won five games in a row.

Other MAC scores

  • First-place Toledo (11-1 MAC, 17-4 overall) 86, Miami (3-8, 7-13) 63 at Miami.
  • Second-place Buffalo (10-3, 16-7) 93, Eastern Michigan (2-10, 5-14) 68 at Buffalo.
  • Bowling Green (6-5, 11-9) 81, Northern Illinois (6-7, 9-12) 52 at BG.
  • Akron (7-5, 10-8) 86, Western Michigan (6-6, 12-9) 70 at Western.

MAC standings

MAC statistics

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Kent State women's basketball

Flashes and Katie Shumate find their shooting touch at KSU beats Central Michigan 68-57

By on Wednesday, February 2, 2022
Guard Katie Shumate equaled her season-high of 21 points to lead the Flashes. She made 7-of-11 shots. (KSU Athletic Communication Department photo by Gabby Kingston.)

Kent State has shot better than its Mid-American Conference opponents only three times this season.

The Flashes have won all those three games.

KSU made 45.8% of its field-goal attempts Wednesday as it beat Central Michigan 68-57 at the M.A.C. Center. The Flashes are 3-6 and in ninth place in the MAC; the win moved them a game closer to eighth and the final spot in the MAC Tournament next month. KSU is 11-7 overall.

Central Michigan, which has won either the MAC regular-season championship or the MAC Tournament for the last six years, is 2-9 (4-16 overall) and in last place in the league.

It was the first time Kent State has beaten CMU in 10 years and is coach Todd Starkey’s first over the Chippewas in his six years in Kent. Starkey now has beaten every other MAC team at least once.

Shumate the scorer

Junior guard Katie Shumate, who didn’t score at all in KSU’s 61-55 loss at Northern Illinois last week, made 7-of-11 shots and led the Flashes with 21 points. That equaled her season-high.

“I can’t say enough about how Katie played today,” Starkey said in his postgame press conference. “W really challenged her this week, and she absolutely responded.” 

During the week after the NIU loss, Shumate said, “I just had to clear my mind and realize it was about focus.”

“I think it was easy for me and my team to lose focus when things weren’t going great,” she said. “So we got to practice and put our heads down and put in some work.”

Starkey said Shumate had been playing hurt since Christmas and KSU’s time off — the Flashes played only one game in the last 18 days — may have helped.

“She’s been playing on a bum leg,” the coach said. “It caused her some pain and, especially early in the conference play, affected her shot and affected her defensively. Hopefully we can continue to stay ahead of that. When she’s focused and determined, she’s one of the better players in the league.”

Shumate made the MAC all-freshman team and was honorable mention all-MAC her freshman and sophomore years.

The team’s shooting touch

 KSU’s 46% shooting was, in MAC play, second only to a 52% performance in an 83-58 win over Eastern Michigan. It came mostly on 2-point shots. The Flashes 31.3% on 3-pointers, while better than they’ve been shooting in the MAC, was still far below the 42% they shot in non-conference play.

“We ran some different actions that were focused on getting the ball inside,” Starkey said. “We’ve been playing well recently when we’ve been playing through (forward Nila Blackford). 30 points in the paint were big for us.”

Blackford had 15 points and 11 rebounds for her third double-double in her last four games (she had 11 points and nine rebounds in the fourth game). Blackford has averaged 16.3 points and 11.8 rebounds in that time, which is better than when she led the team in scoring and rebounding last season.

“When Katie and Nila are both working and stuffing the stat sheet like that, we’re really tough team to beat,” Starkey said.

Success on defense

Central’s Michigan’s 57 points were the fourth time the Flashes have held a MAC opponent below 60.

“We talk about that all the time,” Starkey said. “If they communicate and stay connected, we’re a really good defensive team.”

Central Michigan had 21 turnovers, the most by a Division I opponent against Kent State all season. The Flashes scored 25 points off of turnovers, a MAC-season best. CMU point guard Molly Davis, a preseason all-MAC selection, had nine turnovers.

“We did a good job of crowding her and, and forcing her into some tight spaces where she had to kind of fumble the ball,” Starkey said.

The player of 1,000 points

Lindsey Thall was honored before the game for becoming a 1,000-point scorer, something she achieved against Penn State in the Gulf Coast Showcase in November. Thall scored 11 points Wednesday and now has 1,085, which ranks 21st in KSU history.

Running the numbers 

  • The Flashes were outrebounded for the first time this season, 31-30. “We weren’t missing as many shots, so maybe that’s a reason why we didn’t have more rebounds,” Starkey said with a smile.
  • Kent State had 14 assists on 22 baskets, equaling a high in MAC play. Thall and Clare Kelly had four assists; Blackford had three.
  • Kelly also had four steals to lead KSU’s total of 12. That’s Kent’s most against a Division I team. Blackford, Thall and freshman Bridget Dunn each had two steals.
  • KSU blocked four shots, its most in MAC play. Dunn blocked two.
  • Central Michigan made 41% of its shots but only four of its 16 three-pointers.
  • Kent State never trailed after early in the second quarter. Central led for only 55 seconds of the game.

Box score

Next: Saturday at Eastern Michigan

The Flashes play the Eagles, whom they beat by 25 points in Kent, for a 2 p.m. game. Eastern lost to second-place Buffalo 69-62 at home on Wednesday and is in 11th place at 2-8 (5-12 overall).

Other MAC scores

  • Toledo (10-1 MAC, 16-4 overall) 74, Miami (2-7, 6-12) 64 in Toledo.
  • Western Michigan (6-3, 12-6) 57, Akron (6-4, 9-7) 53 in Akron.
  • Ball State (6-4, 13-7) 84, Ohio (5-4, 11-7) 74 at Ohio.
  • Bowling Green (5-4, 10-8) 64, Northern Illinois (5-6, 8-11) at NIU.

MAC standings.

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Kent State women's basketball

Flashes lose MAC game in last minute for 5th time, falling to Northern Illinois 61-55

By on Wednesday, January 26, 2022
Nila Blackford had 24 points and 15 rebounds to lead KSU against Northern Illinois. (File photo by David Dermer for KSU athletics.)

It’s been like watching a horror movie on repeat for the Kent State women’s basketball team.

This time the Flashes lost to Northern Illinois 61-55 on Wednesday to fall to 2-6 in the Mid-American Conference. KSU shot terribly from 3-point distance, still managed to stay in the game, but lost in the last minute.

That’s happened in five of the team’s six conference losses. In the sixth, Kent led early in the fourth quarter but fell 69-60.

The Flashes are in 10th place in the MAC and 10-7 overall. They have lost two straight games. Northern Illinois is eighth at 4-4 and is 7-9 overall. The Huskies have won three games in a row.

“A tough loss,” coach Todd Starkey said after the game. “We just couldn’t buy a shot. Six for 34 on 3s, and I thought probably 30 of the 3s were wide open.”

The coach said there really isn’t a pattern to the last-minute losses other than missing shots.

“There were a few times we gave up a lead and lost,” Starkey said. ” Some we were trying to come back. I don’t think there’s a common thread other than the fact that we’re just not shooting the 3 in conference play.”

28 missed 3-pointers

For three quarters, Kent State took more 3-point shots than 2-point attempts. It kept missing. The Flashes were 4-of-12 from distance in the first quarter, 1-of-9 in the second, and 0-for-5 in the third. Bridget Dunn, who has made and attempted more 3-pointers than anyone on the team, missed 8-of-10. Casey Santoro, Hannah Young and Katie Shumate — all of whom have led the MAC in 3-point percentage at one time this season, combined to go 1-of-10.

Lindsey Thall made three of her six 3-point shots, but she was in foul trouble most of the game and played just 22 minutes.

In non-conference play, Kent State made 42% of its 3-point attempts. That ranked third in the country. Since then, the team has shot 28.4% from distance, second to last in the MAC.

“Six-for-34,” Starkey repeated. “If you go 10-for-34, even 9-for-34 — which still isn’t great — you win the game. We got so many great looks. You think at some point, you’re going to make a few. And they just didn’t go down.”

Blackford’s terrific 4th quarter

When 3-pointers weren’t falling, the Flashes went inside to forward Nila Blackford in the fourth quarter. It almost pulled out the game.

Blackford made 7-of-8 shots — all under the basket. After the Flashes had trailed by 10 points, Blackford finished a 10-0 KSU run with a basket and free throw to tie the game at 53-53 with 1:08 to go. She made another layup about 40 seconds later to tie the score again at 55.

In the most dominating performance by a Kent State player this season, Blackford finished with 24 points and 15 rebounds.

Blackford led KSU in scoring and rebounding last season but has struggled on offense most of this year. She averaged 9.0 points a game going into Wednesday, almost 6.5 points fewer than she did last season. She was making just 38.8% of her shots, down 9 percentage points.

Against NIU, she made 10-of-14 field-goal attempts. She now is close to averaging a double-double, as she did last season, at 9.6 points and 10.4 rebounds per game.

“She’s just got back to doing what she’s capable of,” Starkey said. “I liked her aggressiveness down low. We’re trying to make sure we’re getting her good touches in good spots. And we got good scores from there, but the 3s it opened up just didn’t go down.”

Blackford was going against NIU’s A’jah Davis, who herself averages a double-double and led the MAC and was fourth in the nation in rebounding at 11.9 per game before Wednesday. Blackford drew four fouls against Davis and keep her out of the game for 10 minutes, and she scored when Davis had to back off on defense when she was on the court. Davis finished with seven rebounds.

The last 32 seconds

As Blackford broke free to tie the game at 55, NIU’s Erin Hodges fell to the floor with blood coming from a cut to her head.

Officials looked at a replay for long minutes. In the end, they counted Blackford’s basket but charged her with what Starkey called an “excessive contact” foul. They gave Northern two foul shots, taken by Janae Poisson because Hodges was on the bench, then possession of the ball. Poisson split the foul shots, then was fouled herself. She made both of those to put NIU ahead 58-55.

Kent State called timeout and advanced the ball to the front court.

“We drew up a play, and they executed great,” Starkey said. “We had an option for a 2-point shot and a 3-point shot. Clare Kelly breaks wide open for 3 — another great look — and we just couldn’t make it.”

NIU hit three free throws in the last 15 seconds to finish the game.

A potentially costly injury for NIU

Chelby Koker, Northern’s point guard and the sixth-leading scorer in the MAC, went to the court with an apparently non-contact injury with 8:19 to go. She had to be helped to the locker room by two teammates.

She returned to the bench late in the quarter and sat with an ice pack on her knee. After the game, Starkey sought her out and patted her on the shoulder. Each of her teammates gave her a hug as she sat fighting back tears.

Better injury news for Kent State

Senior guard Hannah Young, who at out the second half of KSU’s Jan. 14 game with Buffalo with an ice pack on her ankle, started and played 27 minutes. She had two points, four rebounds, three assists and a steal. When she was on the court, the Flashes outscored NIU by 14 points.

Box score

The numbers

  • Kent State outrebounded NIU 37-36, the 16th time in 17 games the Flashes have outrebounded their opponent. The other game was a 43-43 tie on the boards.
  • Northern Illinois made 40% of its shots (22-of-55) and 44% of its 3-pointers (8-of-18).
  • NIU’s 61 points were nine below its average. In MAC games, KS allows only 60.4 points a game, third best in the league. But the Flashes have scored fewer than 60 against league competition three times and fewer than 65 in all but one MAC game. They averaged 78 before Christmas.
  • The Huskies scored 10 points off of 12 KSU turnovers. Kent scored eight off of 10 NIU turnovers.

Next: Another week off, then Central Michigan

The Flashes, which had nine days off before the Northern Illinois game, will have another seven games before they play again. They host 11th-place Central Michigan at 7 p.m. Wednesday at the M.A.C. Center.

Central won its second MAC game of the season Wedneday, beating Miami (2-5 MAC, 6-9 overall) 70-59.

Central has won or shared the last five regular-season MAC championships. But the Chippewas are 2-7 in the league and 4-14 overall. They lost three key starters, including MAC player-of-the-year Micaela Kelly, to graduation.

Games postponed by COVID-19 have scrambled the MAC schedule. Only Kent State, Central Michigan and Toledo played the number of games they were scheduled to in the first four weeks of the season. Even then, KSU played four teams not on its original schedule as the league shuffled opponents to play as many games as possible.

Other MAC scores

The top three teams in the standings— Toledo, Buffalo and Western Michigan — all lost.

  • Ohio (5-2 MAC, 11-5 overall) 79, Toledo (8-1, 14-4) 72 at Toledo. Ohio, which beat second-place Buffalo on Wednesday, outscored Toledo 15-2 over the last five minutes. Ohio has won three games in a row.
  • Ball State (5-4, 12-7) 72, Buffalo (5-3, 11-7) 70 at Buffalo. Buffalo missed three layups in the last 12 seconds and has lost three in a row.
  • Bowling Green (4-3, 9-7) 67, Western Michigan (4-2, 10-5) 51 at Bowling Green. BG has won two in a rwo.
  • Akron (5-3, 8-6) 68, Eastern Michigan (1-7, 4-11) 64 at Akron. Eastern has lost six straight and fallen into last place.

MAC standings

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Kent State women's basketball

KSU’s 4th-quarter rally can’t overcome slow start, 19 turnovers as Flashes fall to Buffalo in MAC quarterfinals

By on Wednesday, March 10, 2021

Buffalo’s Dayaisha Fair shoots over Kent State’s Lindsey Thall. Fair, the seventh leading scorer in Division I, had 30 points and six steals. (Photo from Buffalo website.)

It took three quarters for the Kent State women’s basketball team to get its offense scoring. But by then, it was too late.

The Flashes scored the game’s first basket, then missed three straight shots and committed three turnovers. Suddenly Buffalo led 12-2.

It didn’t get much closer until the fourth quarter, when the Flashes cut the lead to three twice. But Buffalo answered both times.

The 73-66 loss in the Mid-American Conference Tournament quarterfinals ends Kent State’s season with an 11-9 record. Buffalo (15-8) advances to face regular-season champion Bowling Green Friday in the semifinals.

In the first quarter, coach Todd Starkey said, it seems as if the Flashes “were trying to feel our way into the game.”

“Against the team like Buffalo, you can’t do that,” he said. “You have come out of the gate a hundred miles an hour — just like them.” 

Sophomore forward Nila Blackford said the team lost its focus early on.

“We put ourselves in a really difficult position, especially against a team like Buffalo,” she said. “They got us scrambling, and we lost our composure. When you have so many live-ball turnovers, it’s going to lead to layup after layup. It’s hard to come back from that.”

For the game, Kent State committed 19 turnovers. Buffalo scored 24 points from them. Buffalo had just nine turnovers, which led to only five KSU points.

The fourth-quarter comeback

Trailing by 12 going into the quarter, Mariah Modkins hit a layup, then fed Katie Shumate for a 3-point basket a minute later. The lead was down to seven, and Hannah Young hit a short jump shot to make it 56-53 with 4:35 to go.

Buffalo then made two free throws. A minute later, Dayaisha Fair, Buffalo’s star 5-5 guard, missed a layup but got her own rebound in heavy traffic. She passed the ball out to Jessika Schiffer, who hit a 3-point basket to push the lead back to 61-53.

Kent State had one last-minute push in it. With 1:06 to go, Modkins passed to Lindsey Thall, who hit a long 3-pointer. Twelve seconds later, Modkins hit her own 3, then hit another 20 seconds later. All three shots came from well behind the NBA 3-point line at Rocket Mortgage Arena, and the score was 69-66.

That was as far as Kent State could go. Buffalo made four free throws (and missed three more) in the last 22 seconds to clinch the win.

“We couldn’t quite get over the hump,” Starkey said. “We fought so hard, and we needed some good fortune down the stretch. We didn’t get it on a few key plays in the last couple minutes. But I’m really proud of our team for not giving in.”

For three quarters, shooting woes for the Flashes

Kent State made 10 of its 19 shots (52.6%) in the fourth quarter. But before then, KSU shot only 31.6%.

“We really struggled to shoot the ball for the last eight or nine games,” Starkey said. “I just think everything this season just wore them down, and it really showed in our field goal percentage.

“If we just shoot the ball better, we’re winning a lot of those games. But at the end of the day, you’ve got to put the ball in the basket.“

Buffalo’s shooting was the reverse of Kent’s. The Bulls made 57.1% of their shots ion the first half but 33.3% of their shots in the second.

Big games for Young and Blackford

Young, who has started three straight games in place of injured guard Clare Kelly, had a career-high 15 points to lead the Flashes. She made 3-of-5 three-point shots, had five rebounds and drew two offensive fouls on Fair.

“She is making a ton of effort plays,” Starkey said. “And we always talk about scoring as kind of a by-product of playing really hard. We were really struggling to score, and she was able to hit some key shots. It really kept us in the game.”

Blackford had a career-high 18 rebounds. That ties for the ninth most in KSU history and fourth most in the MAC this season.

“I can’t say enough about Nila,” Starkey said. “To get 18 rebounds against this team was phenomenal.”

Buffalo leads the MAC and ranks 15th in the nation in rebounding. Blackford had 10 offensive rebounds — the same number as the entire Buffalo team, which leads the MAC on the offensive boards.

Blackford also had 12 points for her 12th double-double of the season. That’s second in the conference to 13 for Ball State’s Oshlynn Brown, a senior who has been first-team all-MAC for two years.

A much more than Fair performance

Fair is Division I’s seventh-leading scorer, averaging 24.1 points a game. She had 30 against Kent State, making 8-of-19 field goals, 3-of-4 three-pointers and 11-of-14 free throws. She had six steals and four assists. (She’s among MAC leaders in those categories, too.)

Kent’s walking wounded

KSU starting guard Clare Kelly, who missed the last two games because of a foot injury, and 6-4 freshman reserve center Lexi Jackson, fighting a high ankle sprain, both played. Kelly had no points in 16 minutes. Jackson had a basket and three rebounds in nine minutes. Both were “weren’t even close to 100%,” Starkey said.

Wait ’til next year

Kent State returns all starters and 11 of its top 12 players.

“We’re excited about the future,” Starkey said. “We built the program around these two recruiting classes, who are coming through as juniors and sophomores. They’ve been really big so far, and we expect even bigger things in the future.”

Blackford said she was “super optimistic.“

“We have learned a lot about ourselves and our team this year,” she said. “I think some of the adversity we have gone through is only going to make us better in the future.“

Box score

The rest of the tournament

All four top seeds won.

No. 1 seed BOWLING GREEN trailed No. 8 Eastern Michigan by 10 at halftime but held the Eagles to 16 points in the second half and won 63-47. BG’s Lexi Fleming, the conference player of the year, left the game with a shoulder injury in the second half and scored only four points. Kenzie Lewis, another freshman guard, led the Falcons with 14 points and 11 rebounds.

No. 2 CENTRAL MICHIGAN broke a close game open with an 12-1 run in the second quarter and beat No. 7 Northern Illinois 83-69. Sophomore guard Molly Davis had 24 points and senior guard Micaela Kelly had 23 for CMU. Both had been named first-team all-MAC Tuesday.

No. 3 OHIO edged No. 6 Ball State 61-59. Cece Hooks, the MAC player of the year, had 21 points, and Erica Johnson had 19. Both players suffered severe cramps in the last minute. Johnson had to leave the game; Hooks fought through pain as Ball State had to foul four times in the last 15 seconds to try (and never succeed) to force Ohio to shoot fouls shots.

Bowling Green and Buffalo will play in the semifinals at 10 a.m. Friday. Ohio and Central Michigan will play a half-hour after that game ends, probably about 12:30. Both games are on ESPN+. Finals are at 11 a.m. Saturday on the CBS Sports Network.

The view from Buffalo

Coach Felisha Legette-Jack in her postgame press conference

“What a great team win. Our story is not about Kent State or whoever else we’re playing, but it’s about how good we can be if we rely on each other, see each other, trust each other and play for each other. Today we did that, and we beat a pretty good team.“

Notes

  • Three other Kent State players scored in double figures. Thall had 13 points and Modkins and Shumate 12. No one besides Blackford and Young had more than four rebounds.
  • The game was the fourth straight year Kent State and Buffalo have met in the quarterfinals. Buffalo has won three times. The better seed has won each season.
  • In the regular season, Buffalo beat No. 1 seed Bowling Green, its opponent Friday, twice.

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Kent State women's basketball

Blackford is all-MAC 2nd team, Thall all-defensive team, and Thall and Shumate honorable mention

By on Tuesday, March 9, 2021

From left: Sophomore Nila Blackford, junior Lindsey Thall, sophomore Katie Shumate.

Kent State sophomore forward Nila Blackford was named to the all-Mid-American Conference second team Tuesday.

Junior forward Lindsey Thall made the league’s all-defensive team for the second year in a row.

Thall and sophomore guard Katie Shumate were honorable mention all-MAC.

The selections were made by league coaches.

Flashes prepare to play Buffalo in quarterfinals for fourth straight season.

Blackford was one of three players in the league to average a double-double. She averaged 15.6 points and 10.2 rebounds per game, both numbers leading the Flashes. Blackford also led Kent State in field-goal percentage (48.7%) and steals (1.3 per game).

The other two MAC players with double-doubles were first-team member Oshlynn Brown of Ball State and third-team member Ce’Nara Skanes of Eastern Michigan.

Blackford is the first KSU player to average a double-double since Tracy Lynn in 1990-91. Only Blackford, Lynn (a 1994 grad), Marvetta Froe (1990), Mary Bukovac (1989) and Margie Zezulewicz (1979) have averaged double-doubles in the 45-year history of scholarship basketball at Kent State.

A graduate of Dupont Manual High School in Louisville, Kentucky, Blackford made the MAC’s all-freshman team last season. She was one of 16 finalists for Kentucky Miss Basketball her senior year.

Blackford’s mother, Nell, played for the University of Louisville women’s basketball team, and her father, William, was a member of the Cardinals’ football team.

Thall made the all-defensive team for the second year in a row and has led the conference in blocked shots for all three of her years in college. This season she averaged 1.5 blocks a game, along with 10.9 points and a career-best 5.3 rebounds.

With at least another season to go, Thall is second all-time for Kent State in 3-point shots made with 165 and third in blocked shots with 145. She went to Strongsville High School, where her mother, Dawn, is the girls basketball head coach.

Despite summer knee surgery that threatened her playing at all this season, Shumate was MAC honorable mention for the second year in a row. After seeing limited action in the Flashes’ first two games, she averaged 30.6 minutes for the rest of the season. Coach Todd Starkey said after last Saturday’s Akron game that Shumate had never been 100% healthy all season.

Shumate is second on the team in scoring with an average of 12.2 points per game, which ranks 23rd in the MAC. She is fourth in the MAC in free-throw percentage at 84.5% and 10th in 3-point shooting at 37.7%.

Shumate went to Newark High School, where her father, J.R., is the long-time girls basketball coach.

Full list of all-conference honors:

Player of the Year 
Senior guard Cece Hooks, Ohio.

Coach of the Year
Robyn Fralick, Bowling Green.

Freshman of the Year
Guard Lexi Fleming, Bowling Green.

Sixth Player of the Year
Junior guard Janae Poisson, NIU, Northern Illinois.

Defensive Player of the Year
Senior guard Cece Hooks, Ohio.

All-MAC First Team
Senior forward Oshlynn Brown, Ball State.
Sophomore guard Dyaisha Fair, Buffalo.
Senior guard Micaela Kelly, Central Michigan.  
Sophomore guard Molly Davis, Central Michigan.
Senior guard Cece Hooks, Ohio.

All-MAC Second Team
Freshman guard Lexi Fleming, Bowling Green.
Senior guard Areanna Combs, Eastern Michigan.
Sophomore forwarrd Nila Blackford, Kent State.
Sophomore guard Peyton Scott, Miami.
Sophomore guard Chelby Koker, Northern Illinois.

All-MAC Third Team
Senior forward Jordyn Dawson, Akron.
Junior guard Kadie Hempfling, Bowling Green.
Sophomore guard Ce’Nara Skanes, Eastern Michigan.Forward
Junior forward Erica Johnson, Ohio.
Sophomore guard/forward Quinesha Lockett, Toledo.

All-MAC Honorable Mention (6 Players due to ties)
Sophomore guard Sydney Freeman, Ball State.
Sophomore guard Katie Shumate, Kent State.
Junior forward Lindsey Thall, Kent State.
Senior forward Gabby Burris, Ohio.
Senior forward Reilly Jacobson, Western Michigan.
Freshman forward Taylor Williams, Western Michigan.

All-Defensive Team (6 Players due to ties)
Freshman guard Nyla Hampton, Bowling Green.
Sophomore guard Dyaisha Fair, Buffalo.
Senior guard Micaela Kelly, Central Michigan.
Senior guard Areanna Combs, Eastern Michigan.
Junior forward Lindsey Thall, Kent State.
Senior guard Cece Hooks, Ohio.

All-Freshman Team
Guard Lexi Fleming, Bowling Green.
Guard Nyla Hampton, Bowling Green.
Guard Cheyenne McEvans, Buffalo.
Guard Madi Mace, Ohio.
Forward Taylor Williams, Western Michigan.

Full MAC press release on postseason honors

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Kent State women's basketball

Kent State wins 5th straight and goes to 4-0 in MAC with 70-61 win over Ball State

By on Saturday, January 9, 2021
Associate head coach Fran Recchia with team in huddle. Recchia led the team because head coach Todd Starkey is recovering from COVID-19. (Photo by Hayley Steffy from KSU Athletic Communications.)

Nila Blackford kept piling up the double-doubles in MAC play.

Hannah Young and Casey Santoro stepped up in reserve roles and played their best basketball of the season.

Associate head coach Fran Recchia won her first game as an acting head coach.

And Kent State is 4-0 in the Mid-American Conference and alone is second place after a 70-61 win over Ball State Saturday. The Flashes have won five in a row and are 5-2 on the season.

Blackford: Points and rebounds keep coming

Blackford had 20 points and 11 rebounds, her fourth time in fourth league games with double figures in both. She was a season-best 8-of-11 shooting, made a 3-point basket and had three steals. Blackford is averaging 13 rebounds a game in MAC play, best in the league in conference games only.

“When she puts complete games together — as she’s been doing — she gets really hard to guard,” said Recchia, who ran the team from the bench. Coach Todd Starkey was home after testing positive for COVID-19.

“She competes on every possession,” Recchia said, “and is an aggressive, instinctual player. She wants to win and really listens to coaching.”

Blackford talked about playing for her team.

“They need me to crash the boards really hard,” she said. “I feel like I just have a knack for the ball. I try to stay aggressive on offense, try to get mismatches and be strong to the basket — just strictly for my team.”

Santoro and Young: Big games from the bench

Freshman Santoro ran the KSU offense after starting point guard Mariah Modkins went out with an injury three-and-a-half minutes into the second quarter. The Flashes trailed 22-21.

Twenty-four seconds later Santoro fed Blackford for a layup to give Kent the lead, and a minute later Santoro hit a 3-point shot. Kent State never trailed again.

Santoro scored 12 points with two 3-point baskets and three assists. She played 33 minutes, the most of her short career.

“You have to step up when the opportunity presents itself,” Recchia said. “Casey took advantage of that opportunity. We see it in practice every day. Our team has a lot of trust in her with the ball in her hands.

“We’ve really been talking to her about staying aggressive offensively and defensively and listening to the scouting report. That’s always an adjustment for freshmen.”

Kent State outscored Ball State 49-39 with Santoro at the point.

Young came into the game in the second quarter. With 3:07 left in the half, she grabbed an offensive rebound and scored. Two minutes later, she did it the same thing.

For the game, Young had seven rebounds and 12 points in 23 minutes, all by far season highs.

“Hannah had a really good week of practice, and it translated to the game today,” Recchia said.

“Toward the end of last year, she was playing well,” Recchia said. “2020 has been crazy with the coronavirus, and some people lost a little bit of their rhythm. If Hannah continues like that, she can really contribute.”

Winning with rebounding

After being outrebounded 9-7 in the first quarter, the Flashes dominated the boards for the rest of the game. They outrebounded Ball State 14-6 in the second quarter, then outrebounded the Cardinals 22-18 in the second half. Game totals were 43-33 Kent State.

Kent State had 17 second-chance points. Ball State had two.

“Rebounding is a mindset,” Recchia said. “We talked about after the first quarter, but the girls just decided that we were going to win this game with defense and rebounding. So they kind of flipped the switch.”

The Modkins collision

Modkins went out after she and Ball State guard Essence Booker banged knees hard as Booker attacked the basket. Booker lay on the court for several minutes and could put no weight on her leg as she was helped off the court. Ball State’s second-leading scorer at 12.8 points a game, Booker was on crutches after the game.

Modkins was on the ground for a shorter time, then managed to get to the KSU bench. She sat in the front row of the socially distanced bench for the rest of the game.

Asked after the game how Modkins was doing, Recchia said: “She’s OK. She’ll be all right.“

Modkins was Kent State’s second-leading scorer at 10.8 points a game and leader in assists at 3.5.

Thall the floor leader

As point guard, Modkins is the team’s leader on the floor. After she went out, junior forward Lindsey Thall took on more of that role.

“She and Mariah have become leaders of this team,” Recchia said. “So when Ri when out, Lindsey really stepped up. She was really talking to the team in all the dead balls, repeating what we were saying on the sidelines and keeping the five on the floor together.”

Thall scored 11 points, had five rebounds, two assists and a blocked shot.

Recchia: 1-0 as a coach

It was the first game Starkey had missed as a coach in 21 years, he told told Allen Moff of the Record-Courier before the game.

He and Recchia had talked throughout the week as the team prepared for the game.

Leading the team was a new experience for Recchia, who has been an assistant at Radford College before coming to Kent State. She was head coach at William Byrd High School in Vinton, Virginia, from 2007-10.

“It’s a lot different when you’re the one making the decisions,” she said. “Until you’re actually in that position, you don’t really understand just how many decisions go into a game day — from shootaround to even writing on the board.

“As an assistant, you can suggest. Then coach gets to and decipher through all that and decide what to actually tell the team. I feel very fortunate because (Starkey) allows us to have a big voice in practice and games. So the girls have been used to hearing our voices.”

Starkey tweeted congratulations to Recchia and the team minutes after the game.

Blackford said the change in coaching was different but not that big of a deal.

“She’s always coaching us,” Blackford said. “We talk every day.”

The San Diego seniors

It was Senior Day, and forward Monique Smith and Margaux Eibel started for the Flashes. Smith is the last member of Starkey and Recchia’s first recruiting class. Eibel walked on the team her freshman year and earned a scholarship that summer.

Neither have ever played big minutes, though Smith had made a difference on defense and rebounding in some key games. She had five rebounds in six minutes in KSU’s win at Eastern Michigan last week. Smith had started one game her freshman year.

Eibel has played in 24 games over four years and scored 18 points.

Both she and Smith are from the San Diego suburbs but had never met before they arrived at Kent State. They’re the only two California players I can remember playing for the Flashes in 30+ years of following the team.

Smith and Eibel played two minutes at the beginning of the Ball State game and checked out with the Flashes leading 6-4. Smith scored a point on a free throw. Both returned for the last 39 seconds.

The second-place Flashes

Four teams went into Saturday undefeated in the MAC. Only Central Michigan and Kent State still are. Central (5-0 in the league, 7-2 overall) beat Buffalo (4-1 and 7-3) 79-63 in Buffalo. Bowling Green (4-1 and 8-2) lost its first league game to Northern Illinois (4-5 and 2-2) at BG.

Kent State is 4-0. It has played one fewer game than than the other leaders because the Flashes’ Wednesday game against NIU was canceled after Starkey’s positive COVID test.

In other MAC games Saturday, Akron (1-4 MAC, 4-4 overall) beat Miami (1-8 and 0-5) 84-77 at Akron. Ohio (3-2 and 5-3) beat Toledo (2-3 and 6-3) 85-66 in Athens. Link to MAC standings.

Box score

Notes

  • Kent State made a season-high 45.8% of its shots. Ball State hit 37.1%. From 3-point distance, the Flashes were 7 of 20 for 35%; Ball State was 6 of 18 for 44%.
  • The Flashes committed a season-low 12 turnovers; BSU was even lower at eight. Off those turnovers, the Cardinals outscored KSU 16-4.
  • Sophomore guard Clare Kelly had a career-high four assists to lead the Flashes in that category. She also had seven points and two steals.
  • The last time Kent State started the MAC season 4-0 was 2010-11, when the Flashes won their fifth game and went on to finish 11-5 and second in the MAC East and 20-10 overall.
  • Oshlynn Brown, Ball State’s all-conference forward, led the Cardinals with 16 points and 13 rebounds. But she sat out eight minutes of the second quarter with two fouls. During that time, KSU took control of the game.
  • The game is the only meeting between the two teams in the regular season.

Wednesday at Akron

The Flashes travel 13 miles to the James A. Rhodes Arena for a 6 p.m. game against the Zips. The game will be on ESPH+.

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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

Blackford’s birthday double-double leads Flashes past Toledo and into 1st place

By on Sunday, December 13, 2020

Kent State’s Nila Blackford had 21 points and 15 rebounds, her second-straight double-double. (File photo by Scott Galvin from KSU team website.)

It was Nila Blackford’s birthday. And wow, did she celebrate.

Blackford had 21 points and 15 rebounds to lead the Kent State women to a 61-57 victory at Toledo Sunday. The win moves Kent State into early-season first place in the Mid-American Conference at 2-0. Overall the Flashes are 2-2. Toledo is 3-1 and 1-1 in the MAC.

Blackford’s double-double was her second in two games. She had 12 points and 13 rebounds in KSU’s 84-80 win over Ohio Friday.

“She was being herself — playing with energy and effort,” coach Todd Starkey said from the team bus on the way home. “A lot of the rebounds she got were just toughness rebounds. They were in traffic; she had to really get gritty in there and pull them out.

“We’ve been talking about how she’s really got to just treat every shot like a miss and pursue the basketball.“

Blackford’s 9.5 rebounding average now leads the MAC.

Kent State built an 18-point lead with 37 seconds to go in the third quarter. But the Flashes had to hold on to beat the Rockets, who hit a 3-point basket at the end of the third quarter, then outscored KSU 14-2 to start the fourth quarter.

“We fell asleep some down the stretch,” Starkey said on ESPN+ after the game.

“We made some boneheaded plays,” the coach said in his interview. “We also missed three wide-open 3s and missed three layups. If we make a couple of those, it’s a different situation.”

The Flashes had some big runs of their own earlier. They started the second quarter 12-0 and the third quarter 12-1.

“The two key numbers in that aren’t 12 points,” Starkey said. “It’s the zero and the one. You have to continue to get stops on defense. That’s really what fueled us when we were playing well — we really were making things difficult on them to score the ball.” 

Toledo’s 57 points were the fewest Kent State has allowed this year and well below their defensive average last season. Toledo has a solid offensive; it had averaged 76 points in its first three games.

The Flashes held Toledo sophomore Sofia Wiard, who had tied a school record with 42 points against Northern Illinois last week, to 14 points on 6-of-15 shooting. She was 16 of 25 against NIU.

Modkins keeps on scoring and leading

Point guard Mariah Modkins had her third straight game in double figures with 10 points. She has three assists and three steals and disrupted the Toledo offense all afternoon.

Modkins is listed generously at 5-foot-1, but she attacks and defends much taller players.

“She’s out there trying to prove people wrong,” Starkey said. “People have underestimated her her whole life, and that’s one of the reasons why I love her as player — she’s out there playing with a little bit of a chip on her shoulder.

“She’s been making a lot of tough gritty plays and has embraced her leadership role on the team.”

Modkins averages 10.5 points a game, not far from the averages of Asiah Dingle and Megan Carter, who players in the backcourt the last two years. Carter graduated and Dingle transferred to Stony Brook.

Modkins is seventh in the MAC in 3-point percentage (50%), eighth in assists per game (3.5), sixth in assist-turnover ratio (1.8 to 1) and 16th in steals per game (1.5).

Santoro is ahead of the curve

Freshman Casey Santoro played her second good game in a row, scoring nine points.

“She’s a tough, aggressive, smart player,” Starkey said. “She makes some natural freshman mistakes, but she understands the game and is ahead of the curve.”

Flashes big on the boards

Kent State’s rebounding was dominant against a smaller Toledo team. Kent outrebounded the Rockets 48-28 with 15 offensive rebounds and 13 second-chance points. Toledo had two offensive rebounds and no points on second chances. After Blackford’s 15 rebounds, Lindsey Thall had seven, Linsey Marchese six, and Santoro and Hannah Young four.

The end game

Toledo made 56% of its shots in the fourth quarter and got within three points twice, the last with 17 seconds to go.

But free throws by Blackford and Modkins and a strong defensive rebound by Blackford preserved the victory.

First place

The Flashes have the MAC’s only 2-0 conference record. Buffalo, Bowling Green and Central Michigan are 1-0 and have another league game before Christmas. Teams will then restart the conference season after New Year’s.

Four days ago Kent State was 0-2 after a disappointing loss at 1-4 Saint Francis.

Before that, the Flashes had lost 10 days of practice to COVID-19, then lost their opener 103-47 at No. 19 Ohio State.

Box score

Notes

  • After making a school-record with 16 3-point baskets on Friday, Kent State made only four of its 20 3-point attempts. Ohio was also 4 of 20.
  • Lindsey Thall had a career-high six assists to go with seven points and seven rebounds. “She is doing a good job of letting the game come to her and did what she needed to help us win,” Starkey said.
  • The last KSU player to score at least 20 points and have 15 rebounds was Anna Kowalska, who had 27 and 16 in 2007. Kowalska is now head coach at West Virginia Tech, an NAIA school in Beckley.
  • The Flashes had 19 turnovers for the second straight game; Toledo scored 14 points off of them. KSU scored 13 points from the Rockets’ 13 turnovers.
  • The NCAA decided last week to allow all transfers to be eligible this season. (Usually they have to sit out a year.) But days before the decision, Kent State’s Bexley Wallace was injured in practice. Starkey said she is out for the season. Wallace is a 6-3 junior transfer from Penn State.
  • Sophomore guard Katie Shumate’s father, JR, was at the game with her brother JT, a junior on the Toledo men’s team. JR Shumate was the coach of Katie’s Newark High School team.

Next Sunday vs. Duquesne

The Flashes have this week off for final exams and are schedule to play Duquesne at the M.A.C. Center at 2 p.m. Sunday. Duquesne is 2-1 and plays at Toledo Friday.

Starkey said it probably would be the team’s last game in 2020 unless an opponent “comes up that makes sense for us.” Without another game, the Flashes will have played just three non-conference opponents. A number of other games were canceled because of COVID-19.

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Kent State women's basketball

Coming off big win, Flashes travel to Toledo for 2 p.m. Sunday game

By on Saturday, December 12, 2020

Casey Santoro had 14 points and three 3-pointers against Ohio in the third game of her freshman season. (KSU photo by Bob Christy.)

The Kent State women play their second MAC game in three days when they visit Toledo for a 2 p.m. Sunday game.

The game will be streamed on ESPN+, which costs $5.99 a month. Click on the link and it will send you to a page where you can sign up. Most women’s away games are on ESPN+, as well as many men’s games and many other MAC basketball contests. An audio stream starts at 1:45 p.m. on the Kent State Radio Network.

The Flashes (1-2 on the season) are coming off a big — and somewhat unexpected — 84-80 win over Ohio Saturday at the M.A.C. Center. The Bobcats (now 2-1) had been ranked fifth in the latest Mid-Major Top 25 poll.

Toledo is coming off a big victory of its own, beating Northern Illinois 82-79 at Northern behind a 42-point game by sophomore guard Sofia Wiard. The Rockets are 3-0.

The Rockets start three sophomores and two freshmen. Wiard, who averaged only 3.8 points a game last season, is third in the MAC scoring at 23.7 points a game. Fellow sophomore Quinesha Locket averages 18 points a game and 5-10 freshman forward Sammi Mikonowicz averages 10 points and 9.3 rebounds.

Story on how Kent State beat Ohio Saturday.

Six Kent State players scored in double figures in the win over Ohio, and the Flashes set a school record with 16 3-point baskets. The game was a major step forward from KSU’s opening loss at Ohio State and road loss to Saint Francis last week.

“We just need consistency moving forward,” coach Todd Starkey said after the OU game. “I think (the Ohio victory) proves who we’re capable of being. But you have to do that every single game.

So, he asked, “Are you a one-hit wonder?”

“Or what’s going to happen when you don’t have good shooting nights like that. So we have to continue to get better defensively. We have to continue to work on our rotation and our connectedness on the court.”

Through three games, Nila Blackford leads the Flashes in scoring at 11.3 points a game and in rebounding at 7.7. Lindsey Thall averages 11.0 and Mariah Modkins 10.7.

Modkins has stepped up her play in a major way when since she took over as KSU’s primary point guard this season. (She split the job with Asiah Dingle last season.) She leads the Flashes in 3-point shooting percentage (54.5) and in assists (3.7).

The undefeateds

Toledo and two other MAC teams are unbeaten in the early season. They’re all surprises. Toledo (3-0) was picked seventh in the conference coaches’ preseason poll. Akron (3-0) was picked 10th, and Bowling Green (4-0) was picked 11th.

The top teams in the preseason poll were Central Michigan (2-1), Ohio (2-1) Ball State (1-3) and Buffalo (2-2).

Kent State was picked sixth.

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Kent State women's basketball

0-2 Flashes come home to face 2-0 Ohio on Saturday

By on Thursday, December 10, 2020

Nila Blackford shares the Kent State lead in scoring average with Lindsey Thall at 11 points a game. (Photo from KSU website.)

Kent State finally gets to play its home opener Friday.

The Flashes will take on Ohio at 2 p.m. in a game postponed from last Saturday. No reason was given by the Mid-American Conference, but it likely was COVID-19 related.

COVID protocols won’t allow fans at the game, but it will be live streamed through the Kent State website. Audio on the game is available on Tune-In Radio, with David Wilson announcing.

Kent State is 0-2 after its 67-64 loss at Saint Francis Wednesday. Here’s link to game story.

Ohio is 2-0 but has been idle since it beat Notre Dame 86-85 on Nov. 27. It earlier beat Liberty, which was picked to finish second in the Atlantic Sun Conference but is 2-3 so far.

Friday’s game is also the MAC opener for both teams. Conference play usually begins after New Year’s, but the league went to a 20-game schedule this season and shuffled its schedule to give more flexibility if games are postponed because of COVID.

Ohio, KSU coach Todd Starkey has said, “may be the best team in the conference.”

OU was picked second in the league to Central Michigan. But CMU lost by 18 to Power 5 opponent Michigan.

The Bobcats have two of the best guards in the MAC, if not in the country. Cece Hooks (25 points per game) and Erica Johnson (27.5) average more points than any two players on the same team in Division I. Both were preseason all-MAC selections and first-team all-MAC last season.

Ohio is ranked fifth in this week’s Mid-Major Top 25 and got six votes in the latest AP poll.

For the second straight game, Kent State will have a significant size advantage with a front line of 6-4 Linsey Marchese, 6-2 Lindsay Thall and 6-2 Nila Blackford. But the Flashes were outrebounded 43-30 by a smaller Saint Francis team.

Notes

  • Through two games, Blackford and Thall lead Kent State in scoring with 11.0 averages. Guard Mariah Modkins averaged 8.5. Thall leads in rebounding at 6.0 per game, with Blackford and Clare Kelly at 5.0.
  • Ohio and Kent State tied for the MAC East title last season. The teams split their two games, with Ohio winning 63-57 in Athens and the Flashes winning 81-77 in Kent. Ohio and Kent were supposed to play in the conference tournament semifinals when the pandemic ended last season.
  • The last five games between the teams have been decided by six points or fewer.
  • Live statistics during the game are available on the KSU website.

Sunday at Toledo

Kent State plays its second conference game at 2 p.m. Sunday at Toledo. The Rockets are 3-0 with wins over Oakland and Detroit Mercy. They edged Northern Illinois 82-79 at home Thursday night.

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