Kent State women's basketball leads wire-to-wire in NCAA win over Northern Kentucky

Kent State led from start to finish to post its first win of the season, 77-54 over Northern Kentucky, Sunday at the M.A.C. Center.

The Golden Flashes (1-1) led by as many as 29 points in the second half to win comfortable after losing to Florida State on Thursday.

Katie Shumate led Kent State with 13 points and added five rebounds as the Golden Flashes shot 51% (29-for-57) from the floor. Clare Kelly added 12 points and three assists, while Corynne Hauser (11) and Casey Santoro (10) also reached double figures.

Bridget Dunn led Kent State with nine rebounds in only 16 minutes of action.

Lindsey Duvall paced Northern Kentucky (1-1) with 12 points and 13 rebounds but she also had a team-high four turnovers.

The Golden Flashes dominated around the basket, holding a 40-32 edge in rebounds and outscoring the Norse 40-18 in points in the paint. Kent State’s bench also outscored Northern Kentucky 34-19.

The Norse were held scoreless form the first 7 minutes, 6 seconds of the game as Kent State built a 14-0 lead and led 18-9 after one quarter.

Jenna Batsch’s layup at the horn gave the Golden Flashes their largest lead of the game, 24 points (44-20), at halftime and their advantage was never lower than 20 the remainder of the way.

Freshman Dionna Gray and Tatiana Thomas, along with redshirt freshman Elena Maier made their debuts for Kent State. Gray made a pair of 3-pointers for six points and she grabbed three rebounds.

The Golden Flashes begin a stretch of four consecutive road games Thursday night at Arkansas.

This article originally appeared on Record-Courier: Kent State women's basketball defeats Northern Kentucky