With the Thanksgiving holiday still two days away, most of the student body at Kent State has yet to engorge themselves with the traditional fixings. But Kent State’s men’s basketball team has spent much of the last two weeks feasting on its own preference — its schedule.

Faced with the daunting task of two road games against American Athletic Conference-member Temple and Big East-member Seton Hall, the Flashes came away with one close, important win and was three points from another road victory. A 78-76 loss to Seton Hall is the lone blemish on the Flashes’ otherwise pristine 6-1 mark heading into Wednesday night’s contest against Youngstown State, the sixth of a seven-game homestand.

Despite the assumed advantages of such a long time at home, Kent State actually weathered a taxing storm of three games in three days, defeating Western Carolina, USC Upstate and Niagara on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. After a convincing 13-point triumph over WCU, the Flashes needed all 40 minutes on both Friday and Saturday nights to pull out victories against their opponents, winning by a slim combined margin of six points over the two games.

The three-game onslaught became the weekend of senior forward Mark Henniger, who finished with 39 combined points over the three wins — including a 20-point performance against Niagara — to earn Mid-American Conference East division Player of the Week honors. But despite Henniger’s solid performance in two of the three victories, the Flashes’ true brilliance in a very young season has been their ability to find contributions from almost anyone on the roster on any given night.

Junior forward Devareaux Manley made seven of 10 3-pointers to finish with 21 points in a 79-78 victory against USC Upstate, redshirt sophomore K.K. Simmons poured in 18 against Niagara and junior guard Kris Brewer averaged 10.6 points in the three games, all of which contributed to a remarkable undefeated weekend.

Now, with the Flashes having enjoyed three days off entering Wednesday, Kent State looks to improve to a surprising 7-1 when they host the Penguins (6-1) at 7 p.m.

Youngstown State boasts a record identical to the Flashes, but four of its wins came against lesser opponents Eastern Kentucky, Florida International, Thiel and Westminster. The game at Kent State will be the Penguins’ first true test of the young season, but they’ll come equipped with five players scoring in double figures in 2013. Senior guard Kendrick Perry leads Youngstown State with 17.3 points per game, and with him come Bobby Hain and Kamren Belin, who are both averaging more than 10 points per game. Hain, a 6-foot-10, 235-pound sophomore, also leads the Penguins in rebounding with 8 per game and will likely give trouble to both Henniger and sophomore center Khaliq Spicer.

After the Flashes’ game against Youngstown State, they will remain home for one more contest against Kennesaw State at 2 p.m. Sunday at the M.A.C. Center.

Contact Nick Shook at [email protected].