The Kent State women’s basketball team suffered its sixth straight loss, 73-39, as Miami took complete control of the game Thursday night in Oxford, Ohio.

The Flashes were unable to deliver on either end of the court, as the team’s defense was unable to stop the many RedHawk threats.

Kent State (3-24, 1-13 Mid-American Conference) came out to a strong, jumping out to a 13-9 lead and forcing Miami to switch into a zone defense for the majority of the first half.

The Redhawks (17-10, 9-5 MAC) took control of the game from that point on, putting together a 15-0 run to take a 24-13 lead.

Kent State coach Danielle O’Banion believes a quick change defensively and Miami’s deep bench contributed to the early momentum shift.

“First, they started substituting very early, so their players were a bit fresher toward the end of the first half,” O’Banion said. “Secondly, when they went into the 2-3 zone, I thought that really shook the momentum in terms of our scoring.”

Miami standouts Courtney Osborn and Kirsten Olowinski combined for 27 points and 13 rebounds, proving very hard for the Flashes to guard. For Osborn, it was a big improvement from the teams’ last meeting when she only settled for nine points.

“The difference tonight was one of the Robertson twins, who did not appear in the first meeting due to injury, played tonight, so they were able to function a little bit better with Osborn not having the ball in her hands because there was a secondary ball handler that could get her [Osborn] touches on the ball,” O’Banion said.

Junior guard Ashley Evans led the way for the Flashes, finishing with 13 points. She has greatly improved her play over the last few games, taking some of the pressure off of senior Tamzin Barroilhet.

“If I see open looks, I take what the defense is giving me,” Evans said. “We have put a couple plays in where the point guards take it to the hole more, so it has opened up some more looks for me and getting other people looks too.”

Kent State let the lack of scoring slip into the second half as the momentum stayed in favor of Miami for the rest of the game.

“I think we had a little miscommunication during offensive plays,” Evans said. “They hit a couple of shots, and they just got down and frustrated a little early so it kind of got us out of rhythm.”

As the Flashes hit the road again Sunday to compete against Buffalo, the team is well aware that they need to regroup as the season comes to a close.

“Every game is a different game,” Evans said. “Tonight we kind of regressed, but I think we will get back on [track], so we can come out and play like we did against Akron, if not better.”

O’Banion still believes that her team will go into Sunday’s game looking to improve.

“Buffalo is a very hard-nosed team, like us, very much effort-based and I think they fell short tonight in their game, so we will both be showing up on Sunday looking to get back on the right side of things,” she said.

Contact Meghan Blaha at [email protected].