KENT, Ohio - Playing with just six scholarship players available, the Kent State womens basketball team (9-6, 2-2 MAC) fought off a late charge by the Zips and posted a 66-57 win tonight over visiting Akron (0-15, 0-4 MAC) in front of 1,057 fans at the M.A.C. Center. Melissa DeGrate (Sr., Amarillo, Texas, South Plains) poured in a KSU-best 25 points and Lindsay Shearer (Jr., Minerva, Ohio/Minerva) posted her third double-double in as many games with 20 points and 13 rebounds.
Due to injuries to four other key players, the short-handed Flashes had just one scholarship player and two walk-ons available to come off the bench. Kent State had four players that logged 37 or more minutes in the game.
Two made free throws by Akrons Jae Conn cut what was once a 16-point Kent State lead to four, 60-56, with 1:14 remaining. But the Golden Flashed held their own and sank six-consecutive free throws in the final 49 seconds, four by Shearer and two by Malika Willoughby (Jr.-R, Milwaukee, Wis./Washington), to secure the win and extend Akrons losing streak to 22 games, the longest current streak in the nation dating back to last season.
We staggered to victory tonight, head coach Bob Lindsay said. We had six scholarship players available to play with four sitting on the sidelines and we did enough to win. It wasnt pretty at times but we did enough to win.
Akron came out hot in the first half, beginning the game on a 17-8 run with eight of those points coming from Jessie Crooks. Kent State wasnt playing its normal, ball-pressure defense in the beginning, instead playing smart not to foul in the early going, allowing the Zips to pull ahead.
But after the second media timeout, Kent State turned it up a notch and went on a 12-1 run over the next four minutes to take a 20-18 lead. The Flashes rode its defense the remainder of the first half, forcing 12 Akron turnovers to take a 33-28 lead at the break.
Kent State then picked up right where they left off after halftime with Shearer and DeGrate sparking a 9-2 run to begin the second half.
Then, leading by four late in the game with time running down on the shot-clock, Shearer took the inbounds pass following a 30 second timeout and drove the lane, drawing the foul on Crooks to put her at the line, making it a six-point KSU lead. After an Akron free throw cut it to five, Shearer again was fouled in the backcourt and calmly sank two more free throws to make it a three possession game with 34 seconds left.
Shearer finished the game 7-of-12 from the field with two treys and sank all four free throw attempts. DeGrate was 8-of-16 from the floor and hit four three-pointers to go along with eight rebounds.
Kacie Vavrek (Jr., Bellaire, Ohio/Bellaire), the only scholarship player available off the bench, scored seven points in 23 minutes and had tied a career-high with three assists. Kerrie James (So., Mississauga, Ontario/Power) and Willoughby each had five and Tiffany LaFleur (So., Scarborough, Ontario/Mother Teresa) added four.
Courtney Stewart led four Zips in double figures with 12 points.
Kent State will be back in action Tuesday night Jan. 18 when they play host to Western Michigan at 7 p.m. at the M.A.C. Center.
Game Notes: Kent State has now won the last 11 meeting with Akron and lead the all-time series 36-4 ... KSU is now 8-1 when scoring 60 or more points and held its 10th opponent to under 60 points this season ... Shearer tied a career-high with 13 rebounds, recorded her fifth 20-point game of the season and her fourth double-double of the season ... James recorded a career-high five steals ... the lead changed hands eight times and was tied three times.
