Four players finished the game scoring in double-digits as Kent State had no trouble defeating Miami, 67-51 on Sunday.

“We felt we had an advantage over Miami down low,” said Kent State head coach Danielle O’Banion. “The difference today was that CiCi [Shannon] and Montia [Johnson] made their shots in the paint. CiCi did a really nice job, only missing one shot from the field, and Montia only missed two. It’s really hard to come up with a different solution when we’re converting at such a high rate on those interior touches.”

With four games remaining in the season, the Flashes (6-19, 3-11 MAC) have already doubled their win total from last season and have two more conference wins than they did all of last season.

Junior center Shannon led the Flashes in scoring with 16 on six of seven from the field and also grabbed six rebounds.

“I feel like I had to make smarter decisions with the basketball, because last game I didn’t shoot so well. This game I focused on making my shots, and concentrating on the shot that I was taking at the time,” Shannon said.  

Freshman guard Larissa Lurken added 15 and made four three pointers for the third consecutive game. Junior forward Johnson finished with 10 points and seven rebounds, and senior guard Amber Dunlap also added 10 points.

The Flashes held Miami (7-18, 3-11 MAC) to just 33 percent shooting from the field for the game.

O’Banion said her team showed great effort on the defensive end, and that turned into easy points for the Flashes on offense.

“Our team defense allowed us to get some really easy and high percentage shots, particularly in the first half. I think our players did a nice job with our full court defense in keeping Miami on their heels,” O’Banion said.

The Flashes finished the game shooting 53 percent from the field and were also able to out-rebound Miami, 29-27.

“This was a really nice win for our team, from the standpoint of us really setting the tone at the very start of the game and maintaining that throughout,” O’Banion said.  It’s been a while since we’ve played well enough to put ourselves in that position. I am really happy for our players that they were able to start and end the game in such a strong manner, particularly on the defensive end of the floor.

The Flashes will head to Bowling Green this week and play the Falcons at 7 p.m. Thursday.

Contact Taylor Rosen at [email protected].