CAITLIN PRARAT| DAILY KENT STATER Senior forward Mallorie Griffith looks past her defender at the game against Bowling Green yesterday night.

Credit: Adam Griffiths

The difference between a championship team and everyone else in the Mid-American Conference was put on display yesterday when the Kent State women’s basketball team lost to No. 17 Bowling Green 89-66.

“My assessment of the game is that we were beaten by a team that played better than us in just about every aspect of the game,” coach Bob Lindsay said. “I don’t think we played with any level of consistency tonight.”

La’kia Stewart scored four points and grabbed five rebounds in the first six minutes of the game to help spur the Flashes (13-12, 9-5 MAC) to an 11-6 lead.

But Kent State proceeded to commit nine turnovers, and senior guard Kristin Peoples said the Flashes’ stubbornness was partly to blame for the poor offensive efficiency.

“We just didn’t execute plays,” Peoples said. “We would try to run a play, and if they took it away we would still run it.”

Even with all that, the Flashes only found themselves trailing the Falcons by nine (39-30) at halftime, thanks to 13 first-half points from Peoples.

Kent State cut the Falcons’ lead to five with just under 13 minutes to go in the second half, but Bowling Green thwarted the comeback attempt.

“Bowling Green’s big time players stepped up and made big plays when we were trying to make a run,” Peoples said.

Sparked by two Liz Honegger 3’s, the Falcon’s put any thoughts of an upset to rest in the second half by going on an 11-2 spurt.

Bowling Green shot 60 percent from the field in the second half and had six players score 10 or more points.

“At the 10-minute mark we still thought we had a chance to comeback and win the game,” Peoples said. “Next thing I know there’s three minutes and 45 seconds left and we are down by 18.”

Lindsay said Bowling Green’s ability to drain the Flashes was a key difference in the game.

“We just wore down,” Lindsay said. “They are a physical team. They put bodies on people. I think the cumulative effect of that is it wears you down. It wears you down mentally and then eventually physically.”

Peoples finished with a game-high 23 points. No other player scored in double-figures for the Flashes.

“I would have hoped several of the players we had in there would have played better then they did,” Lindsay said.

Lindsay said that to beat Bowling Green, a team has to play flawlessly. The Flashes committed a season-high 27 turnovers.

“If you make mistakes they take advantage of them,” Lindsay said. “If you make enough of them, you have no chance to win.”

Contact women’s basketball reporter Tyler McIntosh at [email protected].