After the Kent State women’s basketball’s team’s victory over first-place Miami (OH) Wednesday, coach Todd Starkey praised the Flashes for playing a “complete four quarters” and said that he hoped that it was “foreshadowing what’s to come.”

On Saturday the Flashes went in the opposite direction, falling to last-place Bowling Green 62-49.  

“This team is inconsistent. This team has not been able to sustain an effort throughout the game,” Starkey said. “At times we played really hard today, but we didn’t finish plays, execute, knock down shots. We missed free throws, we missed layups. The same thing happened at Ball State, earlier this year.”

The Flashes lost to Ball State 48-44 on Jan 23 in a game in which they shot 23 percent (16-for-67) from the field. That game was also the only other time the Flashes scored less than 50 points.

On Saturday, Kent State shot 18-of-67 from the field. 

“We shot the ball 67 times, we only made 18 of them; that’s the story of the game,” assistant coach Mike McKee said. “Your not going to beat many people scoring 49 points.

Asiah Dingle led the Flashes with 10 points in her second straight game off the bench. Dingle scored 21 points in Flashes’ 77-73 win over the Falcons’ on Feb. 16. 

Dingle and junior guard Megan Carter came off the bench for the second straight game after previously starting in Kent State’s first 25 games. Merissa Barber-Smith and Mariah Modkins took their spots in the starting lineup. 

“It’s a tough day all around,” McKee said. “It makes me sick looking at these shooting percentages up and down the stat sheet. Just an unusually poor offensive performance today.

Junior guard Andrea Cecil and senior guard Sydney Lambert each scored 10 or more points in the first half to help key the Falcons’ hot start. Cecil finished with 21 points and 11 rebounds. 

“She was unbelievable; Cecil was a real problem,” McKee said. “I want to make sure I give credit to Bowling Green, they played a great game. I don’t want to dwell on the shots that we missed. They did some things that really affected us. They had a good game plan coming in.”

Bowling Green had 12 points off turnovers, nine of which came in the first half.

Kent State scored1 7 points in the third quarter before only managing seven in the final frame. 

“It was a snowball. It was a snowball coming downhill and we were caught in the way,” McKee said. “Just, all around, just an ugly game today.”

Kent State has two more games before the start of the MAC tournament. They face Akron on the road on Wednesday and Buffalo at home next Saturday.

“It’s not the last game of the year. There is still games to play, so you go to work,” Starkey said.

 Gina Butkovich is a sports reporter. Contact her at [email protected].