Kent State women's basketball edges Buffalo with Clare Kelly basket in final second
Kent State opened up Mid-American Conference play on Wednesday night with a 64-63 victory over Buffalo at the MAC Center.
“We needed to play better, no question about it,” KSU coach Todd Starkey said. “I thought we lacked a bit of intensity for probably 60-to-70% of the game, but I think we all know that.”
The Flashes had a 62-59 lead with just 1:33 left in the game. Back-to-back scores, including a layup with just four seconds remaining, gave Buffalo a 63-62 lead.
Kent State then took a timeout, setting up an inbounds pass.
“I’m a firm believer in not drawing up something that [opponents] haven’t ever seen before,” Starkey said. “You’re not in panic mode, but everything is rushed, so it is important to try and put them in some sort of action or set-up that we’ve done in practice and that is one of the plays we run in practice.”
Senior guard Clare Kelly inbounded, passing to graduate student forward Lindsey Thall towards the corner, where Thall hit a backdoor pass to Kelly. Kelly then took the pass and hit a layup with just one second left in the game for the win.
“He [Starkey] drew up an awesome play and we didn’t have any other timeouts so we knew we had to get it in,” Kelly said. “Lindsey made an awesome catch and an awesome pass.”
Kent State is 9-3 overall.
Thall was off to a hot start in the early part of the first quarter, scoring eight of the team’s first 12 points by the 4:07 mark in the first quarter. She was 2-for-3 on 3-pointer to open up the game.
Kent State was in front at the end of the first quarter 17-14.
The defenses controlled the pace in the first quarter. KSU turned the ball over four times and Buffalo turned the ball over three times.
Buffalo went on a 10-0 run starting at the 6:17 point in the second quarter and ending at the 3:22 mark to take a 28-25 lead.
Sophomore forward Jenna Batsch hit a 3-pointer with just seven seconds left in the half to tie the game up at 32.
Buffalo’s defense was everywhere in the first half with six team steals and three team blocks.
The third quarter was fast-paced, with each team going back-and-forth. Buffalo’s physical play gave it a 50-44 lead.
The Bulls scored 14 points in the paint, while forcing five turnovers in the quarter. The team shot 53.3% (8-of-15) in the quarter.
“They were getting downhill and we weren’t really helping each other out and were leaving each other out on an island, guarding people one-on-one,” Thall said. “We knew they were gonna do that coming into the game, but obviously we will have to take what they did to us and learn from it.”
The Flashes' offense awakened in the fourth quarter. They shot 52.9% (9-for-17) from the field and 40% (2-for-5) from 3-point range.
The shooting performance in the fourth quarter allowed KSU to capture its fourth-straight victory.
Thall finished with a team-high 15 points, adding seven rebounds, two assists, three steals and two blocks. Kelly had 11 points with a rebound and an assist.
Sophomore forward Bridget Dunn also had 11 points with six rebounds and a block.
“I thought Bridget had some really nice offensive rebound put-backs,“ Starkey said. “Bridget has been doing a really good job of rebounding the basketball this year.”
Buffalo scored 44 points in the paint, many of them from Re'Shawna Stone’s 21-point performance.
“To be honest with you it is unacceptable and we have to get better at that and we will,” Starkey said. “Credit to them, they did a good job of attacking us, but we have to be better. That is a team that should not put up 44 points in the paint.”
KSU scored 22 second-chance points off of 12 offensive rebounds.
“That has not been a strength of ours,” Starkey said. “It needs to not remain a weakness, so I’m pleased to see the second-chance points.”
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Kent State women's basketball defeats Buffalo Bulls
