The unofficial online home for fans of the Kent State University Golden Flashes. Part of Collegiate Sports Nation (CSN).

The KSU women open their season at 5 p.m. today (Sunday, Nov. 12) at the University of Louisiana. The game is on ESPN+.


This was written as a blog post and is way too long for this board. But I couldn't get WordPress to work. So it's all we have.

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The KSU women’s basketball team will open this season without four of its top six scorers from last year.

But nobody is calling 2023-24 a rebuilding year.

Mid-American Conference coaches have picked the Flashes to finish third in the league this season. That's the highest Kent State has ranked in the preseason in coach Todd Starkey’s eight seasons. The Flashes are ranked 16th in the preseason Mid-Major Poll.

The Flashes will stay in Louisiana and play at defending national champion Louisiana State on Tuesday.

In an exhibition game last Sunday, the Flashes overwhelmed Division III Muskingham 106-35.

Last season the Flashes went 21-11, their best record since 2005-06.

KSU lost forward Lindsey Thall, guard Hannah Young and guard Clare Kelly to graduation and point guard Casey Santoro through a transfer to Florida Gulf Coast. The four combined for 3,654 points in their time in Kent.

But Starkey has a lot of accomplished players to step into the lineup.

Katie Shumate: All-MAC, past and present

The new season’s roster begins with grad student Katie Shumate, a four-year starter who averaged 17.7 points and 9.7 rebounds in her final 12 games last season. Coaches voted her preseason first-team all-conference. She has received post-season all-MAC honors in three of her four years in Kent.

“Her versatility is her biggest strength,” Starkey said. “She’s a phenomenal 3-point shooter and can score in the mid-range. We can post her up against smaller guards or spread the floor and take bigger players off the dribble.

“Based on how she finished last year and how she's been playing through the summer, she is going to be on a short list of potential player-of-the-year candidates.”

If Shumate represents continuity for the Flashes, the team’s post players show the biggest change.

Power in the post


For the first time in years, Kent State will have two players whose focus will be on inside, back-to-the-basket scoring and rebounding.
6-foot-2 Mikala Morris is a transfer from Quinnipiac, a traditional mid-major power. In all four years of her years there, she made the first or second all-league team of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference.
When Morris graduated from Kenton Ridge High School (near Springfield, Ohio) in 2019, she was the all-time leading rebounder (girls or boys) in Ohio high school basketball history. At Kenton Ridge, she scored 2,052 points and blocked 383 shots. She led KSU with 11 rebounds in 19 minutes in their exhibition against Muskingham.

6-1 Janae Tyler averaged 18.1 points and 12.5 rebounds in a first-team all-state season at Holt High School in Michigan. Both Starkey and her high school coach said she plays three or four inches taller than her actual height.

Starkey said Morris and Taylor will give the KSU offense a different look.

“I think we have the ability to be much more of a physical and imposing team than we've been in the past,” the coach said.

Senior guard Abby Ogle said the Flashes will have “an inside presence that will be able to match up with bigger kids a lot better.”

Point guard Corynne Hauser said bigger point players are good for guards.

“Because we can shoot over a zone, they can’t collapse on the inside,” she said. “And that opens up the drivers.”

‘The perfect post complement’


Junior forward Bridget Dunn was leading the team in rebounding when she went down with an ACL injury in February. She’s the tallest player on the team at 6-3, but she’s not the inside presence Morris and Tyler are.

Instead, she’s one of the best 3-point shooters on the team, much like Thall was in her five years as a starter.

“When we were recruiting Mikala, we told her, ‘You’re going to play with somebody opposite you who perfectly complements your game,” Starkey said. “Bridget stretches the floor. Do they guard her with a post player or guard her with a guard? So they can’t help off of anybody on the court. We have the ability for a lot more high-low game (when a tall player passes from the foul line to another tall player close to the basket.)”

An all-freshman guard who played hurt all last season

The 5-foot-7 Hauser had surgery early this summer, a year after she injured her right hip in early practice last year.

She still played in every game, was fourth among KSU scorers, and led the team in assists. She made the MAC all-freshman team.

A three-time all-stater from Rochester, Pennsylvania, Hauser can play point or shooting guard.

When Hauser is not playing point, sophomore Dionna Gray will run the team on the floor. Gray, player of the year in West Virginia as a high school senior, got extra minutes at the point most of the summer while Hauser recovered from her surgery.

Gray and Hauser combined for 13 assists in last week’s exhibition game.

A junior moves into the lineup


Jenna Batsch, a 6-foot-1 guard/forward, started her first college game against Muskingham. She and Tyler led the Flashes in scoring with 14 points each.

Batsch, who said she had worked hard on her 3-point shot, hit two in the exhibition and had two steals.

A wealth of depth

The Flashes have at least four other players who could see significant minutes at guard and forward. 5-10 Tatiana Thomas was a primary substitute after Dunn was hurt last season, Abby Ogle is a defensive specialist who worked on her outside shooting during the off-season (she hit 2-of-2 three-pointers and had two steals against Muskingham.)

Freshman Mya Babbitt was one of the best 3-point shooters in Nebraska last year. She hit eight 3-pointers in the state semifinals, then hit three more in the fourth quarter of her team’s championship victory. Bianca Juzzo is a 5-10 player from Brazil who had five rebounds against Muskingham.

“We have a really deep bench,” Starkey said. “We want to make sure that we're taxing the other team up and down the floor so that they're getting fatigued.”

A ‘pretty good spot'

“We’re in a pretty good spot,” he said. “This team definitely has a few more gears, and we're going to be able to continue to progress as we go through the season. I like what I'm seeing early.”

No criticism of the players who left but I think we reached our ceiling with Thall, Santoro, Young and Kelly. I was starting to get bored watching them play (maybe the transfer portal isn’t all bad HaHa). I’ll be interested to see how Santoro plays in Florida. They usually win about 25. Let’s see how she fits in.

You had me at hello…

“For the first time in years, Kent State will have two players whose focus will be on inside, back-to-the-basket scoring and rebounding.”

And they won 64-55. Batsch 15, Morris and Hauser 10, Shumate and Tyler
9. Pretty balanced to say the least.

They held Louisiana to less than 30% shooting (and 2-of-12 on 3-pointers).

Shumate had eight rebounds and Morris seven. Ten players played at least 11 minutes.

Louisiana is 1-2 on the season. It lost to Auburn 60-54 on Thursday.

Kent State is 1-0 and plays at defending national champion Louisiana State on Tuesday.

Flashes hanging in. Led after 1, down 3 just before half. Shumate with 18 so far in the first half. Fun to watch!

(11-14-2023 12:46 PM)axeme Wrote:  Flashes hanging in. Led after 1, down 3 just before half. Shumate with 18 so far in the first half. Fun to watch!

Hung in there for nearly 3 qtrs 28 turnovers were a killer

Far too much length and bulk for LSU to handle. Eventually they just hammered us inside over and over and then started making outside shots, too, which they haven’t done very well in their earlier games. Flashes shot 14/33 on 3’s. That’s impressive, really. A lot of positives today. But physically, it looked like the varsity vs. the jv.

Shumate and Batch were both up to the challenge and really, the whole team was not intimidated. Just outgunned.

Here's my game story. I'm still struggling with WordPress.

FLASHES HANG WITH LSU FOR A HALF,
BUT ATHLETICISM AND 42-POINT GAME FROM
FRESHMAN LET TIGERS PULL AWAY FOR 109-79 WIN

For 22 minutes, things couldn’t have gone any better for the Kent State women in their matchup against defending national champion Louisiana State. Behind 19 points from redshirt senior Katie Shumate, the Flashes led 42-41.
But then LSU showed why its athleticism and talent are as good as any team in the country. The Tigers shot 72% in the second half, stole the ball 13 times (20 total in the game) and scored 32 points off of Kent State turnovers. Freshman Mikayiah Williams — playing on a team with three all-Americans — scored 32 points in the second half and 42 for the game.
Kent State is 1-1 on the season. LSU is 3-1.
“There’s a lot to gain from this experience,” coach Todd Starkey said. “We can certainly get confidence from the first 25 or 30 minutes of the game, from being able to mix it up with very talented players and really compete.”
Kent State hit seven 3-point baskets in the first half — four by Shumate and three by Bridget Dunn. LSU was 0-for-5 on 3-pointers.
Shumate and the Flashes played so well that on X (formerly Twitter), national commentator Rebecca Lobo called it a “highly entertaining matinee” and cited Shumate’s 17 first-half points.
In a reply, Starkey said Shumate was “an honor to coach.”
In a postgame interview, Starkey said:
“I can’t say that I was surprised, but I was definitely impressed” by Shumate’s performance.
“Katie’s very capable against anybody,” Starkey said. “She could play at any level and have success. And when she’s focused like that and determined, she’s a really, really talented player.”
Shumate’s statistical line for the game: 22 points (7-of-14 shooting, 4-of-7 on 3s), 11 rebounds (seven offensive and four defensive), two steals, an assist and a blocked shot.
Shumate was complimented by another good game by junior guard Jenna Batsch.
Batsch set a new career high with 15 points in Sunday’s 64-55 victory against the University of Louisiana. Against LSU, she scored 16. Fourteen on those came in the second half on 5-of-6 shooting and 2-of-3 three-pointers.
Dunn had 11 points and three 3-pointers for Kent. Corynne Hauser had seven points and four assists, and sophomore Dionna Gray and freshman Mya Babbitt had six points on two 3-pointers each.
LSU’s Williams, Starkey said, played “as good of a half of basketball offensively that I’ve ever seen from an individual player that I’ve coached against.”
“We actually had a lot of possessions where we played great defense on her, and she was hitting contested, pull-up, fadeaway jump shots from 17 feet. She was hitting 25-foot 3-point shots with people with a hand in her face. When a player’s just playing like that, all you can say, ‘Congratulations.’
Wiliams' line: 42 points (an LSU record for a freshman), seven rebounds, three assists and three steals.
Finally, some overpowering numbers in favor of LSU:
• Points off turnovers: LSU 42 off 28 Kent State errors. (KSU scored eight off 13 LSU turnovers).
• Points in the paint: 58. (Kent 14).
• Second-chance points: 24. (KSU 14).
• Fast break points: 32. (Kent 8.)

Watched the game and was impressed. Great first half. Easy to see that LSU will be in the national hunt.

Down 46-43 to Xavier (0-4) after 3 quarters. Our ex player Blackford has 17. Shooting from three is more like game one as we are only 5/24. Shumate has 10. Need a rally.

Came back and won 64-57. Shumate and Hauser had 15. Held Blackford to 2 in 4th quarter.

Flashes outscored Xavier 21-11 in the fourth quarter to pull away for the win.

Biggest difference in the game was offensive rebounding in the second half. KSU scored 18 points off of 13 offensive rebounds. Katie Shumate and Jenna Batsch each had four offensive boards.

Shumate and Corynne Hauser led KSU with 15 points. Batsch had 10.

KSU is 2-1 on the season, playing all road gamers. Xavier is 0-5.

Kent State heads to the Daytona Beach Classic over the Thanksgiving weekend. KSU will play Chattanooga (2-1) on Friday and Missouri (4-1) on Saturday.

The blog is finally working again. Game story is at HTTP://wbbFlashes.com. v

In the second quarter of Kent State's 64-54 loss to Chattanooga Friday, the Flashes scored only four points.

In the whole game, KSU managed only two 3-point baskets on 22 attempts.

That's about all you need to know. The Flashes are now 2-2 on the season and play Missouri at 5:45 p.m. Saturday in the Daytona Beach Classic. Chattanooga, the preseason choice to win the Southern Conference is 5-1 and is off to its best start in 10 years. Missouri, of the Southeastern Conference, was 4-1 before its late game Friday with Tennessee Tech.

Kent State led 18-14 after the first quarter. But in the second, it didn't score during the last seven minutes and trailed 29-22 at halftime. The Flashes made only 2-of-14 shots and 0-for-6 on 3s in the second quarter.

Chattanooga led by as many as 15 points in the second half. Kent State cut the score to 61-54 with three minutes to go, but the Flashes didn't score again until a basket by Jenna Batsch with six seconds to go.

Freshman center Janae Tyler led Kent State with a career-high 14 points. She made 6-of-8 shots, and had three assists and two rebounds. Transfer grad student forward Mikala Moris had 12 points and redshirt senior Katie Shumate had 10. Shumate also had seven rebounds, three assists and two blocked shots.

Chattanooga's Jada Godd had 26 points, and Jada Gunn had 20, both career highs.

Might be time for an adjustment. Three of four games they have been very bad from 3 point range. In the LSU game they were hot but then again Angel Reese has been benched ever since. I have a feeling LSU didn’t show up for that game.

Nice 67-64 win against a 5 win SEC team Missouri. Only shot 15 threes tonight making 4. 27% isn’t great but it doesn’t kill you. Shumate had one of those mysterious 2 point games. Hauser played well.

The Missouri win was Kent State's fourth win over a Power Five conference team in the last three years. Flashes beat Oklahoma State last season and UCLA and Penn State the year before.

Neither team led by more than 3 minutes in the last five minutes. Almost all of that time, it was a one-point game. Sophomore point guard Corynne Hauser gave KSU a 65-64 lead with a layup with 12 seconds to go. Katie Shumate sank two three free throws with .3 seconds left for the final score.

Mikala Morris, a 6-2 grad transfer from Quinnipiac, led the Flashes with 18 points, nine rebounds and a blocked shot. Hauser scored 17 points, had a career-high eight assists and only one turnover.

Kent State is 3-2 on the season. Missouri is 5-2.

The Flashes play their first home game of the season at 7 p.m. Wednesday in the M.A.C. Center against Coppin State (3-3). The Eagles beat Pittsburgh 61-56 Tuesday for their first victory ever over a Power Five school.

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Burden, Starkey said Shumate was sick going into the game.

Nice W, way to go Flashes!

(11-25-2023 10:31 PM)cschierh Wrote:  The Missouri win was Kent State's fourth win over a Power Five conference team in the last three years. Flashes beat Oklahoma State last season and UCLA and Penn State the year before.

Neither team led by more than 3 minutes in the last five minutes. Almost all of that time, it was a one-point game. Sophomore point guard Corynne Hauser gave KSU a 65-64 lead with a layup with 12 seconds to go. Katie Shumate sank two three free throws with .3 seconds left for the final score.

Mikala Morris, a 6-2 grad transfer from Quinnipiac, led the Flashes with 18 points, nine rebounds and a blocked shot. Hauser scored 17 points, had a career-high eight assists and only one turnover.

Kent State is 3-2 on the season. Missouri is 5-2.

The Flashes play their first home game of the season at 7 p.m. Wednesday in the M.A.C. Center against Coppin State (3-3). The Eagles beat Pittsburgh 61-56 Tuesday for their first victory ever over a Power Five school.

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Burden, Starkey said Shumate was sick going into the game.

I hope that’s all it a was but I remember her, Santoro and Hauser going through spells like that last year. By the way Santoro fought her way into the starting line-up by game 3 at FGSU (scoring 15 against Brown) and then disappeared from the box score. Suppose she is hurt.

(11-26-2023 12:28 PM)burden Wrote:  

(11-25-2023 10:31 PM)cschierh Wrote:  The Missouri win was Kent State's fourth win over a Power Five conference team in the last three years. Flashes beat Oklahoma State last season and UCLA and Penn State the year before.

Neither team led by more than 3 minutes in the last five minutes. Almost all of that time, it was a one-point game. Sophomore point guard Corynne Hauser gave KSU a 65-64 lead with a layup with 12 seconds to go. Katie Shumate sank two three free throws with .3 seconds left for the final score.

Mikala Morris, a 6-2 grad transfer from Quinnipiac, led the Flashes with 18 points, nine rebounds and a blocked shot. Hauser scored 17 points, had a career-high eight assists and only one turnover.

Kent State is 3-2 on the season. Missouri is 5-2.

The Flashes play their first home game of the season at 7 p.m. Wednesday in the M.A.C. Center against Coppin State (3-3). The Eagles beat Pittsburgh 61-56 Tuesday for their first victory ever over a Power Five school.

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Burden, Starkey said Shumate was sick going into the game.

I hope that’s all it a was but I remember her, Santoro and Hauser going through spells like that last year. By the way Santoro fought her way into the starting line-up by game 3 at FGSU (scoring 15 against Brown) and then disappeared from the box score. Suppose she is hurt.

Santoro tore her Achilles tendon, done for the year.