Flashes Shooting for 9-1 Start Against Robert Morris Saturday
12/19/2008 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Riding a five-game winning streak, Kent State returns home for the first time in nearly a month, hosting Robert Morris Saturday (Dec. 20) at the M.A.C. Center. With a victory, the Golden Flashes can move their record to 9-1 for the first time in program history.
• Robert Morris holds a 2-1 all-time series lead with wins in each of the last two seasons. The two teams have not met at the M.A.C. Center since 1985.
• The Golden Flashes have gone 22-of-40 from behind the arc over their last two games and rank sixth in the nation in three-point shooting (.433).
• Behind Stephanie Gibson's 18 points on 4-of-5 shooting from three-point range, the Flashes earned their fifth straight road victory Wednesday night at Wichita State (65-58). Chenel Harris tallied season-highs of 14 points and 11 rebounds.
• Freshman Jena Stutzman recently became the first KSU player ever to drain six three-pointers in back-to-back games (Cleveland State and Vermont). After going 12-for-19 from behind the arc in two games, Stutzman began the week ranked fourth in the nation in three-point field goal percentage (.542).
• KSU ranks 14th in the nation in scoring at 75.8 points per game. The Golden Flashes have scored 84 or more points four times this season. The Flashes' .436 field goal percentage ranks 31st in Division I and its .744 free throw percentage ranks 35th.
• According to collegerpi.com, the Flashes currently hold an RPI rating of 39.
BROADCAST INFORMATION
Radio & Live Stats: Radio- WHLO AM-640 (Ty Linder, play-by-play). Online radio simulcast and live stats will be available on the Kent State website at www.kentstatesports.com.
A QUICK LOOK AT ROBERT MORRIS The Colonials returned seven letterwinners and two starters from a team that finished 23-10 last season. Under Head Coach Sal Buscaglia, Robert Morris has won the Northeast Conference regular season and tournament titles in each of the previous two seasons, making NCAA Tournament appearances. Buscaglia has won 580 career games as a head coach and has led the Colonials to four straight 20-win seasons. In its first six games, Robert Morris was without the services of standout senior guard Sade Logan. Last season, Logan led the nation with 3.8 three-pointers per game and was third in Division I in scoring at 24.7 points per contest. She appeared to be heading back to her old form Wednesday night, finishing with 22 points in 25 minutes on the floor at Akron. Junior guard Monet Johnson tallied 16 points and eight rebounds at Akron. Her 19.8 points per game ranks 13th in the nation. Senior guard Kendra Williams ranks in the nation's top 100 in steals per game (2.6), three-point field goals per game (2.4) and assist turnover ratio (+1.6). Logan, Johnson, Williams and junior forward Monica Jones all pose serious threats from three-point range. Defensively, the Colonials can give teams trouble with their full court press. Williams and senior guard Angela Pace each have 24 steals on the year.
• All three of RMU's victories have come at home. The Colonials are 0-4 in true road games.
• Five different Colonials are averaging at least 5.0 rebounds per game. CRUNCH TIME Six of Kent State's eight victories this season have been a battle to the end, including overtime bouts with Seattle and Cleveland State. KSU has come out on top in each of its last seven "down to the wire" games including a 2008 MAC Tournament win over Northern Illinois that was tied (60-60) with under five minutes to play.
• Wednesday night the Flashes trailed Wichita State by three points (51-48) with five minutes remaining.
• On Sunday, KSU was tied with Vermont with just over six minutes to play.
• The Golden Flashes trailed New Mexico State by a point (82-81) with under a minute to play and were tied with Delaware State (43-43) with just over five minutes remaining. PLAYING SPOILER ON THE ROAD Each of Kent State's last two victories were rare occurrences for a road team. In what was arguably KSU's best performance of the season, the Flashes downed Vermont 77-71 in Burlington. The Catamounts had won 18 of their previous 20 games at home. Wednesday, Kent State snapped Wichita State's 13-game home winning streak against non-conference opponents.
LONG-AWAITED STREAKS A win over Wichita State gave the Golden Flashes their first five-game winning streak since March of 2005. Kent State has won its first five true road games for the first time in school history. A win over New Mexico State gave the Flashes their first three-game winning streak since Feb. 7, 2007. A win over Cleveland State gave Kent State its first three-game road winning streak since Jan. 27, 2007. Only two other Kent State teams (1978 & 1993) have started a season 8-1.
NUMEROUS OFFENSIVE WEAPONS Kent State has had nine different players with at least one double digit scoring outing this season. Four Golden Flashes (Anna Kowalska, Jena Stutzman, Jamilah Humes, Rachel Bennett) began the week in the MAC's top 30 in scoring. Five Flashes scored in double figures in wins over Seattle and Youngstown State. Three of the five double figure scorers in the Seattle win (Gibson, Spears, Shields) differed from the double figure scorers against YSU (Kowalska, Harris, Humes, Stutzman, Bennett).
MAGIC NUMBERS- 76 & 60 Following a 77-71 win over Vermont , KSU improved to 19-0 when scoring 76 or more points in a game since the 2006-07 season. The Flashes have had similar success with the number 60. After holding Wichita State, UNC-Wilmington, Youngstown State and Delaware State to under 60 points this season, Kent State improved to 40-1 when holding opponents under 60 points since the 2004-05 season.
M.A.C. CENTER MAGIC Very few teams have had as much success on their home court as Kent State. Since the 1992-93 season, Kent State is 161-25 at home and 119-15 in conference games at the M.A.C. Center. During a stretch from 1997-2001, the Golden Flashes won 43 straight games on their home floor. From 1996 to 2005, the Flashes went unbeaten in league games on seven occasions.
REPAYING THE FAVOR Robert Morris will be the fourth rematch against a non-conference opponent on last season's schedule.Kent State is now 3-0 against teams it lost to last season. The Flashes fell by double digits to Vermont, New Mexico State and UNC-Wilmington last season, but turned the tables in 2008. KSU will also have a chance at redemption against Maryland-Eastern Shore in January.
STUTZMAN, KOWALSKA JOIN ELITE CLUBS In Kent State's win at Cleveland State, Jena Stutzman and Anna Kowalska each hit single-game shooting milestones. Kowalska became just the third player in school history to go perfect from the free throw line with at least 12 attempts, joining Lindsay Shearer (12-for-12, Jan. 25, 2006) and Liz Beggs (20-of-20, Nov. 19, 2000). Stutzman became just the 10th player in school history to make at least six three-pointers in a game and the first to do so since Melissa DeGrate in March of 2005. The win over the Vikings also marked the first since January that two Kent State players hit the 20-point mark.
• On Sunday, Stutzman became the first Kent State player to ever hit six three-pointers in back-to-back games and only the second player to make at least six triples on more than one occasion.
TRIPLE THREAT Guards Jena Stutzman, Rachel Bennett and Stephanie Gibson rank second, third and fourth respectively in the MAC in three-point shooting. The trio has helped the Flashes become the top three-point shooting team in the conference.
After going 6-for-9 from three-point range at Vermont, Stutzman briefly became the top three-point shooter in the MAC and is currently shooting over 50 percent (26-of-50). In her first game at Kent State, Stutzman started at guard and finished with three triples. In just over a three-minute span at Cleveland State, she scored 12 points, including three field goals from behind the arc. Stutzman hit 56-of-151 three-point attempts as a senior at Hiland High School and became the school's career leader in three-pointers made. Bennett has has picked up where she left off last season from behind the arc, hitting 15-of-31 three-pointers in nine games. She has nailed at least a pair of three-pointers in five different games this season. Bennett has scored 18 points in both of Kent State's home wins, going 4-of-4 from three-point range against New Mexico State and 3-for-7 against Youngstown State. In an 11-game span at the end of last season, Bennett connected on 20-of-40 three-point field goal attempts. She sat out the entire 2006-07 season with an injury and improved as the 2007-08 season progressed scoring in double figures five straight games during the month on February, including 21 points against MAC West champion Ball State. • In her last two games, Gibson has gone 6-for-7 from behind the arc. In two home games, she is 4-of-7 when dialing long distance. As a freshman, Gibson made 29 three-pointers. • Led by Stutzman's six threes, the Flashes hit a season high 12 treys on 24 attempts at Vermont. Bennett, Gibson and Harris each made two. • In their very next game at Wichita State, the Flashes had their most accurate three-point performance of the season, converting 63 percent (10-of-16) of their threes, including 8-of-9 in the second half. • At UNC-Wilmington, KSU nailed its first four three-point attempts of the game.
| Complete Notes in PDF |
