Women’s basketball season ends at Ohio University
Kent State freshman guard Jamie Hutcheson blocks her opponent while she runs down the court in a game against Bowling Green at the M.A.C. Center Tuesday, February 28. The Flashes lost to the Falcons 91-48. Photo by Monica Maschak.
The final buzzer sounds, ending the Kent State women’s basketball season. Despite losing 58-40 to Ohio University, the Kent State women’s basketball team never gave up.
They didn’t get angry. They didn’t foul, and they didn’t let their emotions get the best of them. They simply kept their heads high and finished their season with the respect coach Bob Lindsay has taught them.
“I was very proud of the way our freshmen group played in that last part of the game when we were down a lot of points,” Lindsay said. “Our four freshmen on the floor, they went out and played really, really hard, and that was the best part of this whole game for us.”
The players didn’t walk out of Ohio’s locker room with tears or hung faces: Every last player had a smile and a look in her eye anticipating a bright future ahead.
“It’s really encouraging,” junior guard Tamzin Barroilhet said. “I think we can definitely build on what we have. The freshmen got a lot of experience this year, which is very fortunate for them because in a lot of programs, freshmen don’t get to start or even play. We have four juniors going into their senior year, and it’s always important to finish out in a positive way, so I think it will carry on well.”
Game highlights
Despite freshman Jamie Hutcheson hitting a 3-pointer 50 seconds into the game, the Flashes scored one of the lowest totals for a half with 8 points by the intermission on 3-23 shooting [13 percent]. The team finished the day shooting 29.5 percent from the floor on 13-44 shooting.
Turnovers hurt the team again with a total of 23 extra opportunities for the Bobcats that the team transferred into 20 points.
The lone statistic the Flashes did manage to win was rebounding, outworking Ohio 38-36 on the glass.
The Flashes are not eligible for any post season tournaments for the first time since 2008.
One of those freshmen who has seen a lot of playing time is starting point guard Jamie Hutcheson. Starting every game this season, Hutcheson accumulated 894 minutes of experience while averaging 8.3 points and 3.6 rebounds per game.
Saturday, Hutcheson led the way for the team, dropping 16 points on 5-7 shooting and hitting both 3’s she took. She is looking forward to an off-season to improve herself in order to make her teammates better.
“I think now I have time to work on my individual skills I struggled with during the season,” Hutcheson said. “We just need to play aggressively, and when we do and we play as a team, we play good basketball, and that’s what we need to do next year too.”
What killed the Flashes Saturday was missing simple layups. Lindsay was very frustrated with the recurring theme of his players missing open looks.
“The worst part was really, quite honestly, was we missed 40 points in layups,” Lindsay said. “We missed 20 layups. How do you win a game when you miss 20 layups? 40 missed points in layups.”
On paper, this season was the worst since Lindsay’s first season in 1989-90 when the team went 5-22. Where this season separates itself from that year was this year’s team’s ability to stay in games.
Optimism is what Lindsay said leads him to believe that with a good recruiting class coming in soon, the Flashes can be a young force in the MAC for the foreseeable future.
“I think that our freshmen group for the most part has a really good attitude,” Lindsay said. “I think they want to be good and do whatever it takes to be good and you know, we need some recruiting help. It’s not like we are going to put that team out on the floor and win 20 games next year. That’s not going to happen.”
The coaches have been working all season long on getting the missing puzzle pieces that will make this team a winner.
“We signed two kids early,” Lindsay said. “We’ve got another that we’ll announce at the spring signing, and we’ll have a couple others after it. A combination of those players plus the ones that we have, I think I’d be pretty optimistic about what we can do.”
Though schedules for next season have not been set, preparation for a whole new game is just getting underway for the 10 players set to return next season.
Contact Matt Lofgren at [email protected] or on Twitter at @MLofgrenDKS.