The Kent State women’s basketball team suffered another blowout loss against West Virginia University with a final score of 47-88 on Friday.
“We played a really tough opponent,” coach Todd Starkey said. “West Virginia puts a lot of pressure on you. They were one of the best defensive teams in the country last year.”
After the Flashes’ 48-80 wipe out at the beginning of the week against James Madison, the team was hoping to get back to its usual form and consistency. However, the team is still struggling to overcome the big losses of Jenna Batsch and Bridget Dunn.
“Our focus is on really getting back to the baseline of who we are and our identity,” Starkey said.
KSU jumped out to an early 3-2 lead off a junior guard Mya Babbitt’s 3-pointer, but the team never led after that. WVU went on a 20-7 run following Babbitt’s make to have a controlling lead in the first quarter.
This is now the second game in a row the Flashes got off to a slow start.
“I thought that we handled a few things better than we did earlier in the week, but we still have a lot of room for growth, and obviously we’ll continue to improve,” Starkey said.
The second quarter showed little improvement, as the WVU defense held the Flashes to just 12 points. WVU also went on an 11-0 run to end the quarter. At the half, the Flashes were down 42-22.
The Mountaineers were suffocating defensively, limiting the Flashes’ offense to a poor first-half shooting performance of 8-28 (29%) and 3-10 (30%) from 3-point distance.
WVU put the game out of reach in the third quarter, outscoring the Flashes 22-10. KSU did manage to score 15 points in the fourth quarter, but by then WVU was coasting to a comfortable win.
“I think we stuck together and battled a little bit more consistently,” Starkey said. “It’s tough when you’re in those situations and those environments and things aren’t going your way. We didn’t handle that the best, but I know this group is hungry to improve.”
Just as it was in the early stages of last season, turnovers have been a huge problem for the Flashes. The team committed a whopping 32 against WVU after committing 25 against JMU.
“We’re turning the ball over way too much now,” Starkey said. “We played against two teams that really pressured us, but we’ve got to be able to handle pressure better and take care of the basketball.”
The Mountaineers also scored 45 points off of KSU’s 32 turnovers.
“We learned a lot of lessons from those things, but I think we’ll just continue to move forward and be better,” Starkey said. “They know that’s not who we are.”
The Flashes shot just 16-49 (33%) from the field, but did find success from 3-point range by shooting 5-14 (36%). WVU handily outshot KSU with ratios of 31-64 (48%) from the field and 9-27 (33%) from 3-point distance.
The Mountaineers also outscored the Flashes in multiple key categories with 21 fast-break points and 44 points in the paint.
“Our defensive discipline needs to be better, so we’re focused on that as we’re moving into games this coming week,” Starkey said.
Babbitt was KSU’s leading scorer with 13 points. She did struggle with inefficiency, as she shot 4-12 (33%) from the field as she adjusted to her new role as the Flashes’ go-to scorer.
Junior center Riley Rismiller had eight points and six rebounds in another solid performance.
“I thought Riley Rismiller was our most consistent player all week,” Starkey said. “She had the best stat line. She had a double-double against James Madison and had another pretty solid performance against West Virginia.”
Last year, Miller played in 28 games and had 11 starts. She averaged 7.6 points and 5.0 rebounds per game.
“It was nice to see her emerge and play well,” Starkey said.
Up next
The Flashes will play Walsh for the team’s home opener on Monday.
“I think the girls are excited to get home,” Starkey said. “Obviously, it was a tough week with a lot of long bus trips to travel.”
The game will be a doubleheader, as men’s basketball kicks off right after. Tipoff will be at 5 p.m.
“I know they’ll be excited to get in front of our home fans, and use the advantage of being in the MAC Center,” Starkey said. “It’s a really good catapult to moving us forward.”
Emily Lowen is a reporter. Contact her at [email protected].
