Credit: Carl Schierhorn

Junior guards Sarah Burgess and Mallorie Griffith react to the Flashes’ win over the Toledo Rockets Wednesday night. The Flashes won 85-57. The Golden Flashes will look to extend their winning streak to three on Saturday afternoon when they travel to Kala

Credit: Carl Schierhorn

Something has to give in tomorrow’s Mid-American Conference game between the Kent State women’s basketball team and Western Michigan.

The Broncos’ offense, which averages 70.2 points per game, enters the contest ranked No. 1 in the conference.

The Flashes (13-6, 6-2 MAC) enter with the No. 4 ranked defense in the MAC, surrendering just 60.4 points per game.

And while Western Michigan (8-11, 5-3 MAC) has three of the conference’s top six scorers, Kent State possesses the league’s leader in steals, senior guard Malika Willoughby.

Yet with all that said, the Flashes have something the Broncos don’t: The MAC’s No. 1 scorer, Lindsay Shearer.

Shearer, a senior forward, averages 20.1 points per game. In Kent State’s recent 85-57 win over Toledo Wednesday night, she recorded her sixth-straight 20-plus-point game.

Not only is Shearer active when shooting the ball, but also when hauling it in. She averages 7.1 rebounds a game.

Junior Carrie Moore, meanwhile, leads the Broncos with 16.6 points per game. Teammate Lindsey Brown and her 15.3 points per game follows closely behind Moore, who is second to Shearer in scoring.

But those are not the only two with the ability to score for Western Michigan, as senior Casey Rost enters as the conference’s top 3-point shooter. Rost has 248 career treys, the fourth highest in MAC history and a team record. She has already nailed 47 3-pointers this season in only 19 games.

“They’ve got three key players that need to be defended,” Kent State coach Bob Lindsay said. “Casey Rost, Lindsey Brown, and Carrie Moore. Those three players are doing most of the scoring for that team, and they have to be defended. If we do that, we have a good chance at winning the game. If we don’t, we lose. That’s the bottom line.”

Western Michigan is coming off a 62-58 victory over Akron, its fourth win in its last five games. Kent State, also winners of four of its last five, will attempt to maintain sole possession of No. 2 in the conference with a victory. Bowling Green (17-2, 8-0 MAC) stands as the only team in front of them.

The last time these two conference rivals clashed was last season when the Flashes pulled off a thrilling 69-67 win. Before that, the Broncos had won four in a row.

Kent State will look to repeat that performance when it heads to Kalamazoo, Mich. for tomorrow’s 2 p.m. tip-off.

“We’re going to come out and do the same thing we’ve been doing these past few games,” Lindsay said. “We’ll go out and play man-to-man, try and put some pressure on them. We have to be aggressive, play smart and try and take away some of their strengths. We’ll see if we can hold them down.”

Contact women’s basketball reporter Matt Gottfried at [email protected].