Women’s basketball loses in final minutes
Sophomore guard Naddiyah Cross brings the ball up the court against Colgate on Sunday Nov. 15, 2015.
Kent State women’s basketball suffered its first loss of the season, 68-73, to Wright State on Tuesday morning.
The Flashes put on quite a show for the many young fans in attendance, as Kid’s Day was a great success for the children who were happy to get out class for a few hours to watch the game. The children provided an abundance of noise, keeping the M.A.C. Center loud during key moments.
Unlucky for the Flashes the games were not able to deliver a win, as they failed to close the game in the few minutes. Similar to Sunday, the Flashes struggle to keep their fast pace offense moving in the later stages of the fourth quarter.
Kent State was forced to play the whole fourth quarter without starting point guard Naddiyah Cross, who fouled out of the game with 16 seconds left in the third quarter. The team had to depend on freshmen Taylor Parker, and junior transfer Chelsi Watson to control the game. Both did a solid job handling the ball and putting the team into good position.
The Flashes grabbed a seven- point lead with five minutes left in the fourth quarter. That lead evaporated in a few short minutes. The Flashes lost the lead with two minutes left in the game, as the Raid- ers went on a 12-0 run during that stretch to make the score 64-67.
Kent State seemed winded and struggled to put the ball in the basket late, the team did not receive much contribution points wise from Larissa Lurken. Lurken was pretty quiet throughout the game, finishing with six points on the day; she only attempted four shots the whole game. The Flashes will need more shot attempts from Larissa to win games this year.
Redshirt freshman Tyra James carried the team as she scored at will finishing the game with 20 points and seven rebounds. James shot 39 percent from the field, as she was able to score from anywhere on the court it seemed.
Chelsi Watson ended the game with 11 points, as she drove to the hole from some tough buckets in the fourth quarter.
Kent State fought hard, and sadly just did not have quite enough gas to finish the game. The fact that the Flashes were even able to compete without much help from Lurken is a testament to how deep this team is this season, as last season if Larissa did not score 15 plus points the game usually was a blow out. Wright State is a very good team and the idea that the Flashes were able to run with them should send a strong statement out to MAC foes.
Kent State now (1-1) on the sea- son will travel to (2-0) IPFW on Thursday for their first road game of the year. Tip-off is at 7 pm.
Contact Ty Sugick at [email protected].