Over the last six matches, the Kent State women’s basketball team is 6-0 against Toledo.
Saturday, in the final regular-season game of the year, the Flashes (18-10, 13-5 M.A.C. Center) lost their seventh consecutive game to the Rockets 81-63.
With the victory, UT (25-4, 17-1 M.A.C. Center) extended its winning streak to 13 games and entered the Mid-American Conference Tournament as the No. 1 seed.
“Sometimes teams are just better than you. They’re three-time champions for a reason,” coach Todd Starkey said. “They have really good players, and it’s a really well coached team.
“I think most teams in the league are going to need some help from them to beat them.”
KSU will be the No. 3 seed when the MAC Tournament begins Wednesday.
“That’s what the tournament is about; sometimes you go up there, and you get a cold shooting night,” Starkey said about beating Toledo. “If they play like they did in the second half today, nobody will beat them.”
At the end of the first quarter, KSU opened a 23-16 lead as redshirt senior guard Katie Shumate scored a quarter-high eight points.
The Flashes connected on nine of their first 16 shots – Toledo started the game 5-of-14 from the field.
“We had some opportunities to get a bigger lead there and kind of squandered a few opportunities,” Starkey said. “You can’t let a team like Toledo hang around.”
During the second quarter, Kent State shot 3-of-13 from the field as the Rockets outscored KSU 17-9, taking a 33-32 lead into halftime.
Toledo guard Sophia Ward scored 11 of her game-high 25 points in the third quarter, and the UT lead grew to 58-47 entering the fourth quarter.
“They went in and locked in and just said, we’re not losing on senior night,” Starkey said, “and they just kind of took over.”
The Rockets made six of its first seven shots during the quarter to seal its third consecutive regular-season M.A.C. Center title.
“I think some of our focus was already on Cleveland,” Starkey said.
MAC Tournament
The Flashes will now shift their focus to Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse, taking on Northern Illinois (15-15, 10-8 MAC) in the first round Wednesday at 6:30 p.m.
In the only matchup this season, Kent State defeated the Huskies 73-48 on Jan. 14.
Four Flashes scored in double figures: Shumate (16), junior forward Bridget Dunn (15), junior forward Jenna Batsch (15), and graduate student center Mikala Morris (10).
KSU shot 48% from the field and converted on six shots from behind the arc. NIU shot 27% from the field and converted on three shots from behind the arc.
“We’ll take it as it comes and only worried about Wednesday right now,” Starkey said. “We’ll deal with anything that happens after that.”
Jacob Shondel is sports editor. Contact him at [email protected].
