The Kent State women’s basketball team wrapped up its first road trip of the season and lost a back-and-forth down-to-the-wire 66-63 game at Elon Saturday night.
Both teams were unable to pull away until Elon’s sophomore guard Raven Preston knocked down a jumper to give the Phoenix a one-point lead with just a minute left. Elon never looked back and held on to win.
“I don’t think anyone played particularly well,” coach Todd Starkey said. “And I think [our players] would all admit that. Player by player, coach by coach — we all needed to perform at a much higher rate than we did.”
The game featured five ties and 10 lead changes with neither team able to build substantial momentum. Elon’s biggest lead of the game was seven points, and the Flashes followed closely behind with six points being the largest lead for the team.
Elon went up one point at the end of the first quarter, and the Flashes later retook the lead in the second quarter. The second half was characterized by back-and-forth scoring which featured several one-score leads for both teams.
“You start playing against quality opponents and get in close games then you’re going to have those momentum swings,” Starkey said. “It’s more a matter of how you handle those and try to keep momentum on your side. That’s the nature of competitive sports — every game presents its own flow, and we have to handle that a little bit better.”
Shooting woes continued for the Flashes against Elon, the team went 21-54 (38.9%) from the field and 3-16 (18.8%) from three-point range. The offense picked up in the fourth quarter, where the Flashes went 7-12 (58.33%) from the field, but it wasn’t enough.
This marks the third time in four games the Flashes have shot under 40% from the field, and the second time the team has gone under 20% from three-point distance.
“They were very disruptive the whole game knowing that we were down a lot of guards, and that took us out of our offensive flow,” Starkey said. “Our ability to win games can’t just come down to be contingent upon whether we’re making shots or not; we have to be better defensively and continue to improve on the offensive flow.”
Turnovers were another big problem for the Flashes Saturday. Both teams played with a lot of defensive intensity, as the Flashes turned it over 26 times and Elon turned it over 25 times.
Starkey said points off of turnovers (Elon won the disparity 23-15) was the deciding factor in the game.
“We beat ourselves for sure,” Starkey said. “Their conversion rate was much higher than ours, and that’s really what the game came down to. They capitalized on our mistakes much more than we did theirs.”
The Flashes had several impressive performances in the game, with the most notable coming from sophomore center Riley Rismiller, she nearly had a double-double with 15 points (5-8) and eight rebounds.
Freshman guard Meghan Murray and junior forward Tatiana Thomas were also huge coming off the bench Saturday for the Flashes. They combined for 23 points on 9-14 shooting with nine rebounds.
Together, they delivered all the bench points for the Flashes, even outscoring Elon’s by a disparity of 23-10.
Senior guard Jenna Batsch was once again the leading scorer for the Flashes with 18 points, but inefficiency (6-20 from the field and 0-5 from three) and turnovers (eight) have continued to plague her. Starkey said that injuries have forced Batsch to play out her usual role.
“I don’t want her to be too comfortable with that new role too much longer,” he said. “Hopefully we’re going to get some players back healthy, and she can play more of her natural position. She’s had to play out of character and out of position in all of our games so far, and that’s been the toughest part for our whole team is to adjust to having six of our top eight players out.”
Elon’s biggest performances came from Preston and junior guard Laila Anderson. Preston filled up the leaderboard with 21 points (5-12), 11 rebounds and five steals. Anderson finished with 23 points on 8-12 shooting with three steals.
The Flashes fell to 1-3 on the season while Elon improved to 3-1. The team will look to wash off this rough road trip at home Wednesday night against Duquesne. Tipoff will be at 7 p.m.
“We’re used to winning games this time of year, and right now, with all the adjustments that we’ve had to make, it’s been a bit of a challenge,” Starkey said. “[Duquesne and Xavier] will be a challenge for us, but it gives us an opportunity to get better each game.”
John Engoglia is a reporter. Contact him at [email protected].
