ESPN+. Kent State is 8-4 (2-0), having won 4 in a row. Miami is 2-10 (0-2). Todd Starkey is in his 7th year and has been running a consistently successful but not great program. This year they are clearly the best team in the MAC East, but not as good as Toledo or Ball State and fighting with BG for the third or fourth best MAC team. Twice under Starkey they have had the best record in the MAC East, 3 times they have made the WNIT. The last two years Miami has won dramatic finish games in Oxford vs Kent, but has not beaten Kent on the road for a long time. Two years ago Peyton Scott hit a 3 at the buzzer to win and last year we won in OT after both Scott and Cluse had fouled out.
Kent is first in the MAC in scoring at 74 ppg. So far in MAC play they beat Buffalo on the road 73 to 61 and hammered Ohio at home 92 to 63. They have depth and balanced scoring. Their leader is 5th year starter Katie Shumate (sister of the former Toledo star men’s player). They have 6 girls averaging between 11.8 and 7.2 ppg. Besides Shumate, 6-0 JR Jenna Batch and 5-7 Corynne Hauser are also in double digits.
Saturday at NIU Miami had a 3 point lead early in the 4th quarter, then stopped scoring and faded late again. We only average around 50 points per game and until that improves wins are going to be rare.
GS Jaydyn Scott leads the MAC in fg% at 52.4% and leads our team in scoring at 12.3 ppg. Freshman Amber Tretter has been our best player lately and is now averaging 11.5 ppg and leads our team in rebounding.
My ESPN+ does not recognize me today, worked just fine for the men’s game last night. I am following the game on live stats. This is the first time we have been outplayed badly in the first half at home. Kent is dominating the stats. Rebounds. 23 to 15, turnovers 12 to 4, steals 10 to 3, field goals 14 to 9, free throws 6 to 0.
Kent had 4 girls in double digits and their best player, Katie Shumate had a double double with 11/10.
Brown did not play for us and Lard played only 2 minutes. Jaydyn Scott hit 5 of 7 for 10 points. Riley Neal got by far her most time this year ( 10 minutes) and scored 6 points. We lost by 31 points, I would point out that Kent beat OU by 32 on Saturday. Perhaps they will challenge Toledo and Ball State at top of the MAC.
Our offense is built around getting the ball into the post. Kent did a great job of denying that and we don’t have anyone who can create their own shot, creating a situation where we struggle to score. Add to that 25 turnovers, that’s 25 possessions on which we didn’t get a shot, and you have 38 points in four quarters.