The unofficial online home for fans of the Kent State University Golden Flashes. Part of Collegiate Sports Nation (CSN).

On Wednesday, the women played a good first half and a horrible second half when they beat Western Michigan.

Saturday Buffalo beat them up badly in the first half, then the Flashes outplayed them in the second, still losing 75-66.

I'm not terribly discouraged. I never expected them to beat Buffalo, which has an RPI of 24, the best in the MAC.

And last year, Buffalo beat Kent State three times by an average of 30 points. So we can see progress.

Kent still has to win some games. Wednesday will be a good test. They play at Eastern Michigan, a team with a worse record that KSU beat by seven at home in the first game of the MAC season.

Kent is 5-5 and in seventh in the league, one game behind Toledo and Northern Illinois. Overall they are 12-9. Buffalo is 8-2, tied for second in the MAC and 16-5 overall.

On Saturday the Flashes turned the ball over seven times and gave up six offensive rebounds in the first five minutes. They trailed by 14 at halftime and 20 early in the third quarter.

Then things clicked. They shot under 30 percent on all field goals and three-pointers in the first half; in the second they shot over 50. They pulled within four with about seven minutes to go, but Buffalo superstar Cierra Dillard took over. She finished with 31 points, 11 assists and eight rebounds, as close to a triple double as I've seen ill college.

Ali Poole and Megan Carter had 16 for KSU. Alexa Golden had 15.

Full story on the blog at http://wbbflashes.com.

The women played a very solid game at Eastern Michigan and won 67-54.

They're now 6-5 and tied for sixth in MAC, one game behind Toledo. Team is 13-9 overall, which is as many games as it won all last season.

Senior Alexa Golden played one of the best games of her career with 17 points, nine rebounds, four steals, two assists and two blocked shots. She led defense that held EMU to 33 percent shooting.

Coach Todd Starkey still grumped about inconsistency; Eastern outscored Kent by three in second half after KSU took a 40-24 halftime lead.

Flashes play Bowling Green at the M.A.C.C.Saturday in first game of doubleheader with men.

But big news about BG is that the Falcons, who hadn't one a MAC game, upset second-place Buffalo 78-72. Another surprising score: Toledo clobbered first-place Ohio 76-50.

Miami (9-2 and 18-4) now leads the league. Ohio is a half game behind, Central Michigan and Buffalo a game back.

Full game story on the blog at http://wbbflashes.com.

Also on the blog is the verbal commitment of KSU's first player in the class of 2020. She's Casey Santoro of Bellevue, a 5-4 guard who was first-team all-state as a sophomore and has been district player of the year twice, including this year. She averages 22.5 points a game on a team that is 16-2.

Six days ago, Saturday’s game against Bowling Green looked as if it could be an easy one. BG had lost 10 MAC games.

The came Wednesday, when the Falcons upset second-place Buffal 78-72 at BG. The Bulls are 31st of 351 teams in the latest RPI.

BG shot 62 percent in the first half and 57 for the game.

Bowling Green still is 1-10 and last in the MAC and 7-14 overall. KSU has beaten 10 teams that have beaten the Falcons. And Kent has the second-best field-goal defense in the conference.

Flashes are 6-5 in MAC and tied for sixth. They’re 13-9 overall.

The game might be more interesting than it once looked, but it’s one the Flashes need to and should win.

Game is at 5 in the M.A.C.C. and is first of a doubleheader with the men, who play Eastern Michigan. One ticket gets you in both games.

Preview on the blog at http://wbbFlashes,com.

Had a nice 65-52 lead and then all of a sudden it was 73-73 in the last minute. We pulled it out 77-73 but it was sure scary. BG played a lot better than a 1-10 team should and as always were excellent shooters (for some reason they always can shoot the ball). Starkey pressed for awhile and I thought BG became fatigued but for some reason he stopped using it. Probably due to our lack of depth. BG’s coach who won a D2 championship and lost in the finals last year at Ashland might be the real deal. She certainly has them improving.

BG beat Buffalo on Wednesday and played similarly against Kent. Falcons made 50% of their 44 shots. But KSU took 23 (!) more shots because of turnover and offensive-rebounding advantage.

Freshman Asiah Dingle hit two free throws with five seconds left to give KSU the lead, but a steal and basket by Ali Poole with a minute to go was just as important.

Dingle had 21 points, five steals and four assists. Poole had 17, four three-pointers and six rebounds. Megan Carter had 16 points and Lindsey Thall 12.

Win leaves Kent State at 7-5 and in three-way tie for fifth with NIU and Toledo. Flashes own tie-breaker over both teams for seeding in MAC tournament. Team is 14-9 overall. That's one more win than all last season with at least seven games to play.

BG is 1-11 and 8-15 but, as Burden said, is playing better than that record. Kent has to play them at BG in two weeks.

Full story, including quotes from Starkey, Dingle and Carter, is on the blog at http://wbbflashes.com.

Pretty cool that even at 8-15; 1-11 the BG fans still travel. Lots of familiar faces from the Curt Miller days in the stands wearing orange. Gotta respect that.

(02-17-2019 02:12 AM)JimJoyce Wrote:  Pretty cool that even at 8-15; 1-11 the BG fans still travel. Lots of familiar faces from the Curt Miller days in the stands wearing orange. Gotta respect that.

They didn’t travel so well for a few years. This new coach has got them excited. I respect them but they drive me crazy with their whining at the refs.

Over on the blog, Burden mentioned how interesting Kent State's schedule was for the rest of the season. I liked his idea so much that I wrote a whole post on it.

The Flashes are 7-5 with six games left. They play at home against Buffalo, Ohio and Miami -- three of the best teams in the conference, all of whom beat KSU on the road in the first round of conference play. But at home, Kent might have a shot at any of all of the games.

On the road, the Flashes play Western Michigan, Akron and Bowling Green. They're all below KSU in the standings and teams it beat at home in the first round. The Flashes should beat them again but could lose any or all.

So it's possible for KSU to go 6-0 or 0-6 for the rest of the season. Either is unlikely, but the Flashes were in exactly the same position two years ago. They won their last six to take the MAC East title.

More on that on the blog at http://wbbflashes.com, along with a preview of Kent's Wednesday game at Western Michigan.

The women pulled out their second four-point win over Western Michigan, 56-52 on the road.

Except for Megan Carter, their shooting was terrible. She had 22 points; rest of team was 10 of 40. Defense obviously was good; it's sixth time in 15 MAC games they've held opponent below 60. They're third in conference in scoring defense.

Flashes are tied for fifth in conference and hold tie breaker over NIU. Toledo lost at home to first-place Miami and is a game behind KSU.

KSU is one game behind Buffalo for fourth and first-round bye, but they'll likely have to beat Buffalo and either Miami or Ohio to get there.

(Earlier version of post said KSU had clinched home game in tournament first-round. That's not right. It won't be official until Flashes win one more or Eastern Michigan loses. Information I got from a usually very reliable source was wrong, and I didn't do my own math to confirm it.)

Flashes play Ohio, which is in second at 11-3 and 21-3 overall, Saturday at 2 p.m. at M.A.C.C. Bobcats edged KSU 83-81 in Athens, though game was more of a two-possession win.

Next Wednesday KSU plays Miami here. We'll know in a week whether Flashes are a first division team on one of the best of the rest.

Game story is on the blog at http://wbbflashes.com.

In the last two weeks they have beaten 11th place WMU twice and 12th place BG in Kent. All three games went down to the wire. They picked a good time to play poorly but that time is now over. They probably need to go 4-1 to get a bye which won’t be easy with Ohio, Miami and Buffalo looming.

(02-21-2019 10:28 AM)burden Wrote:  In the last two weeks they have beaten 11th place WMU twice and 12th place BG in Kent. All three games went down to the wire. They picked a good time to play poorly but that time is now over. They probably need to go 4-1 to get a bye which won’t be easy with Ohio, Miami and Buffalo looming.

They have won more than seven games, though.

Women have two very big games over the next five days, both at home.

At 2 p.m. Saturday, they play second-place Ohio (21-3 overall). Flashes took OU to the last minute in Athens before losing 83-81 in January. As usual, OU has tons of firepower; five players average in double figures.

One is redshirt freshman Erica Johnson, who is probably Asiah Dingle's biggest competition for freshman of the year. I'd say Johnson is the favorite; she's better in most statistical categories.

I would argue Dingle has meant more to her team. Despite being somewhat one dimensional on offense, Dingle has given KSU scoring punch at point guard it hasn't seen in many years. That and Megan Carter's growth into a consistent scorer are the biggest reasons the Flashes are a better team than last year. They've already won two more games than they did all last season.

On Wednesday, first-place Miami comes to town. Redhawks are 20-4 and beat KSU 79-63 at Miami in what was Kent's worst loss of conference season.

Kent State is 15-9 overall and tied for fifth in the MAC with Northern Illinois at 8-5. The top four teams get a first-round bye in the MAC Tournament, which starts in three weeks. Kent is one game behind Buffalo and would likely have to win four of its last five games to pass the Bulls. That means they have to beat Buffalo in the last game of the season and beat either Ohio or Miami.

Preview of the Ohio game is on the blog at http://wbbflashes.com.

The women played a very good OU team today. They gave up 23 1st quarter points and looked like they might get run off the court. But they rallied and tied the game with less than a minute left. Down 2, we had a chance to tie but the shot was blocked cleanly. OU got the ball back and we nearly stole it. Curiously we did attempt to foul with 2.5 seconds left and time expired. Really impressed with the team's poise.

That was a battle. Heck of a second half.

The slow start in the first quarter was typical. However we also started the second half almost as slow scoring only 5 points in 5 plus minutes. It wasn’t as noticeable as we held Ohio to only 5 but we blew an ideal chance to get back even early in the second half. Thall played a great game for a freshman and almost won it for us. I have to hand it to Ohio as two of their best players played the last 13 minutes or so with 4 fouls. Had they fouled out we might have pulled it off with ease.

Watching the game I realized how much I’d like to see two rule changes. I hate when a coach calls a time out to bail a player out. They need to eliminate it. Also at the end of the game we only had 2 team fouls and it took three fouls to get them to the line. With only 2.4 seconds left we didn’t get them there (didn’t seem to try on the third one but there would have been tenths left by then anyway). Would like to see the NBA rule of second foul in the last two minutes sends the team to the line. At least in the 4th quarter.

The score, which nobody has mentioned yet, was 69-67. It was the second loss of the season to Ohio (22-3) by two points.

Every game but one that KSU has played against the top four teams in the MAC has been like this. The Flashes get way behind in the first half, make a good run in the second but lose. KSU is 0-5 against top four and 8-1 against everyone else. After every game, coach Todd Starkey talks about team's lack of consistency within games.

Thall did play a great game on offense, but neither she nor Starkey were happy with her defense. KSU did hold Ohio, 13th-best scoring team in Division I, to its third lowest total of the season and 13 points below its average.

Kent made 44 percent of its three-point shots but only 34 percent of all shots.

KSU is still tied for fifth in MAC with Northern Illinois and Toledo. Akron upset Buffalo 70-59 in Akron, so Flashes are still one game behind Bulls for first-round bye in tournament.

Next for Kent State: First-place Miami (12-2 MAC, 21-4 overall) at the MACC on Wednesday night. Miami has won 11 games in a row and beat Kent by 16 at Miami.

The women host first-place Miami (21-4, 12-2 in MAC) at 7 p.m. Wednesday at the M.A.C. Center.

Redhawks are one of the hottest teams in the country; they've won 11 in a row, all league games. Their best player is even shorter than Kent State point guard Asiah Dingle -- 5-3 Lauren Dickerson. She scored 53 points in two games last week and is in league's top 15 in five categories.

Junior Savannah Kluesner, whom KSU associate head coach Fran Recchia called the most improved player in conference earlier this season, averages 9.9 rebounds and 16.3 points in league games.

Game starts at 7 at the M.A.C.C.

Full preview on the blog at http://www.wbbflashes.com.

It also includes a segment on KSU's woes in shooting 2-point baskets this year. Flashes make 39 percent -- 311th of 351 Division I teams. The team misses a lot of layups and offensive-rebound putbacks.

On 3-pointers, Flashes are second in conference at 35 percent in MAC games only.

The Flashes played their best game of season against one of the MAC's best teams Wednesday and upset Miami 67-58 at the M.A.C.C.

Miami had won 11 in a row and was in first place in conference.

Coach Todd Starkey had said all season that if his team, which has struggled with consistency, could put four good quarters together, they could beat anyone. Wednesday Flashes led 18-15 after first quarter and outscored Redhawks in every quarter but the second, which was 14-13.

Asiah Dingle scored 19 points, and Megan Carter and Lindsey Thall 16. Alexa Golden had a career-high eight steals Merissa Barber-Smith had 11 rebounds.

Kent goes to 9-6 in MAC and 16-10 overall. Flashes are still tied for fifth with NIU and Toledo and are a game behind Buffalo, which beat second-place Ohio 73-43 at Ohio. Miami is 12-3 in league and 21-5. Redhawks slip into first-place tie with Central Michigan.

Story on the blog at http://www.wbbflashes.com.

Kent upset first place Miami tonight, 67-58. They are now in a three tie with Toledo and NIU for 5th place one game behind 4th seeded Buffalo. Unfortunately we got no help from Ohio who got routed by Buffalo 73-43. That fourth seed could come down to a home game against Buffalo a week from Saturday. We have to win road games against BG and Akron first though. Thall, Dingle and Carter led the offensive. Barber Smith was a defensive force. Maybe her best game overall.

(02-27-2019 09:55 PM)cschierh Wrote:  The Flashes played their best game of season against one of the MAC's best teams Wednesday and upset Miami 67-58 at the M.A.C.C.

Miami had won 11 in a row and was in first place in conference.

Coach Todd Starkey had said all season that if his team, which has struggled with consistency, could put four good quarters together, they could beat anyone. Wednesday Flashes led 18-15 after first quarter and outscored Redhawks in every quarter but the second, which was 14-13.

Asiah Dingle scored 19 points, and Megan Carter and Lindsey Thall 16. Alexa Golden had a career-high eight steals Merissa Barber-Smith had 11 rebounds.

Kent goes to 9-6 in MAC and 16-10 overall. Flashes are still tied for fifth with NIU and Toledo and are a game behind Buffalo, which beat second-place Ohio 73-43 at Ohio. Miami is 12-3 in league and 21-5. Redhawks slip into first-place tie with Central Michigan.

Story on the blog at http://www.wbbflashes.com.

Whoops. We posted at about the same time. Good thing we said about the same things.