Kent State’s rough second half leads to road loss against Ohio University
Freshman Katie Shumate (14) looks for teammates during first half of game on Sat. Jan. 25, 2020. Kent State University lost 57-44 against the University at Buffalo.
February 8, 2020
The shots simply did not fall for Kent State’s women’s basketball team in its 63-57 loss to the Mid-American Conference East Division leader, Ohio University.
“We should have won this game,” coach Todd Starkey said on the Golden Flashes Radio postgame interview. “We had so many good looks. We shot 19 threes, and I don’t know how many rimmed out. We had shots at the basket that rimmed out.”
The Flashes (12-9, 5-5 MAC) only made nine field goals and shot 29 percent in the second half.
In the first half, Kent State played shot 50 percent and held OU (15-7, 8-3 MAC) to shooting 34.5 percent to secure a 37-31 halftime lead.
“I thought we played a second really good defensive game in a row, but we just gotta knock down some shots and this is a game we win,” Starkey said.
They were led by freshman guard Katie Shumate, who had a double-double for the Flashes, scoring 15 points and grabbing a career-high 13 rebounds.
“I thought we had a good game plan for them and I thought we played well defensively against them,” Starkey said.
OU came out of the locker room and started the third quarter on a 6-0 run, forcing three straight Kent State turnovers.
“I thought we outplayed them for most of the game,” Starkey said. “If some of those shots go down, we stop that run at the beginning of the third quarter because we had two wide open looks and missed them.”
After only committing five turnovers in the first half, the Flashes turned the ball over 12 times in the second half.
“I thought we got beat at the free throw line too,” Starkey said. “We had 42 points in the paint and to only shoot eight free throws was bewildering to me.”
The Flashes scored 42 of their 57 points in the paint, but only managed to make it to the free throw line eight times.
“I thought we executed fairly well for the most part offensively,” Starkey said. “The 57 points for us is deceiving. We left a 70-point game out there, no question about it, and you’re going to have to knock down those open looks when you’re playing Ohio here and we weren’t able to do that.”
Kent State’s next game is at 7 p.m. Wednesday against the University of Akron (10-11, 3-7 MAC) at Akron.
Kathryn Rajnicek is a sports reporter. Contact her at [email protected].
