The women’s basketball team was unable overcome the Eastern Kentucky Lady Colonels losing 42-56 at Wednesday’s game.

“I’m pleased with our effort on the one end, in terms of battling back against the very physical team better than we did last weekend,” head coach Danielle O’Banion said. “But [I’m] displeased with our focus on boxing out their 20 offensive rebounds and that wasn’t something that helped us in the game.”

The Flashes were able to keep the point gap under 10 for most of the game, working the half court defense and pressuring the lanes throughout the entire game.

Kent State had a field goal percentage of 26 while Eastern Kentucky shot 33 percent from the field. Eastern Kentucky outscored the Flashes in the paint 32-20, but Kent State was able to score 16 points on turnovers and 21 off the bench. Eastern Kentucky scored 9 points off turnovers and the bench added 13 points.

Junior Amber Dunlap led the team in points with nine and senior Diamon Beckford followed with eight points and led in rebounds with seven. Senior Leslie Schaefer had a total of six rebounds and four points.

“We got to the free throw line more,” O’Banion said. “We shot 22 free throws in there. I thought [Beckford] did a good job, and I thought [Schaefer] did a good job. I thought [Dunlap] did a good job of getting to the foul line. We just need to do a better job of converting those free throws.”

“I feel like we did well to start off, but I think we needed more on the offensive end and defensively in transition basically stopping the ball,” Dunlap said. “Rebounding wasn’t very good but we’re improving every game”

Eastern Kentucky center Jade Barber had a double-double with 16 points and 18 rebounds. Guard Brittany Coles had 12 points and forward Alex Jones had 11 rebounds for the Lady Colonels.

“[Barber] was very persistent on the offensive board. She ended with eight offensive rebounds,” O’Banion said. “She certainly is one of the better post players that we’ve seen so far this season and I thought we did well with her.”

Both teams struggled to make 3-pointers throughout the game, with the Flashes making only 1-of-14, while the Lady Colonels had 3-of-13.

“We’re getting more mentally focused,” Dunlap said. “We’re understanding what we’re doing wrong. We’re watching more film and just fixing our [errors].”

The Flashes will open its home schedule at 7 p.m. Monday against the University of Cincinnati Bearcats in the M.A.C. Center.

Contact Erika Brun at [email protected].