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ATHENS, OH – The Ohio women's basketball team (2-9, 0-1 MAC) will return home after a long road stretch and play the Kent State Flashes (8-3, 1-0 MAC) at the Convocation Center. The game will be Saturday, January 7th and will begin at 1pm.  The MAC contest will be available to stream on ESPN+. 

MAC PLAY CONTINUES
Mid American conference play has begun and both the Ohio Bobcats and Kent State Flashes have one game under the belt. Ohio fell to Akron in a close battle making them 0-1 in the MAC and Kent State defeated Buffalo by one point to give them a 1-0 record in the conference. Both Ohio located teams endured a challenging non-conference schedule which prepared them to enter conference play in 2023. 

ALL-TIME SERIES 
The Ohio Bobcats have seen Kent State over 90 times in their recorded history. The current all time series stands at 37-56. The Bobcats have been challenged by the Flashes time and time again.  

LAST TIME OUT
The last matchup between Ohio and Kent State was on March 5th, 2022. The game marked the last matchup of the 2021-22 regular season for both teams and resulted in a 50-59 Flashes win. This was the second time during last season that the Bobcats played Kent State, evening the wins to one apiece. Before the March contest, Ohio defeated Kent State on January 12th 70-64 where they were led by Cece Hooks with 26 points and 11 rebounds. The Bobcats are looking to take the win at home this time in their 2023 matchup to close in on the Flashes all-time series. 

SCOUTING THE FLASHES
Kent State's most recent contest was against Buffalo where they took the win by one point, 64-63. It was a back and forth battle between the two MAC teams, but Kent State pulled through with outstanding performances from Lindsey Thall with 15 points, Katie Shumate with 9 rebounds, and 11 point games from Clare Kelly and Bridget Dunn. Clare Kelly was responsible for Kent State's final points; with 1.5 seconds left on the clock she drove to the basket securing a  layup to give the Flashes the 64-63 victory over Buffalo. Hannah Young also contributed to the win in the last minute of the game by burying a three pointer to close the deficit and put the Flashes within one basket of a win.  

KENT STATE NON-CONFERENCE SEASON
Kent started the season with a tough loss against Florida State (71-80), before defeating Northern Kentucky (77-54). The Flashes then went on the road losing to Arkansas (59-80) but came back to win against Oklahoma State (59-56). The Flashes also competed in the Christmas City Classic winning back to back against Quinnipiac  (58-55) and Southern Illinois (72-66). In the Flashes final five games of the non-conference season they won all but one contest falling to Duquesne, (67-73). They defeated St. Bonaventure (64-49), Hiram (105-33), Otterbein (97-36), and Coppin State (72-69) in overtime. 

LEADING THE FLASHES
Currently, Katie Schumate leads Kent State in scoring with a total of 140 points, averaging 11.7 per game. Not far behind Schumate is Lindsey Thall with 136 points averaging 12.4 per game and Casey Santoro with 112 accumulated points and averaging 9.3 a game. Leading the Flashes in rebounding is Katie Schumate with a total of 70 rebounds, but it is Bridget Dunn who has grabbed the most defensive rebounds with 56.  In terms of assists, Corynne Hauser has totaled 35 thus far in the season followed by Kelly Clare with 20. Kent state has several weapons on their roster who lead in different categories. 

OHIO'S MOST RECENT MATCHUP
The Bobcats played their first MAC game on the road falling to the Akron Zips (9-2, 1-0 MAC) 64-73. Ohio was led by Yaya Felder who dominated the offense with 22 points, followed by Abby Garnett with 18. In terms of defense, Jasmine Hale led the Bobcats with 6 rebounds, and closely behind was Kate Dennis with 5. Akron came out as an offensive threat with to make the score 0-4 in minute one. Ohio's Jasmine Hale responded with a defensive steal which led into a layup from Yaya Felder to give the Bobcats 2 points on the board. Akron then went on a 8 point scoring run before Yaya Felder hit another layup and Abby Garnett went back to back on the boards. Jaya McClure also contributed with a jumper and it was Jasmine Hale and Cassidy Lafler who recorded steals for the Bobcats in quarter one.The second started with a layup from Yaya Felder to get the game within 2 points at 14-16. Abby Garnett also assisted Felder with a three pointer to get her into double digits for scoring. Jaya McClure and Abby Garnett also assisted on the Bobcat offense with 6 points from McClure and a big three from Garnett. Both also had defensive rebounds for the Bobcats, getting the score to 28-33 heading into the locker room. To start the second half, Abby Garnett came out with five points in the first 90 seconds, Ohio also came out determined on defense with rebounds from Kate Dennis and steals from Caitlyn Kroll, Yaya Felder, and Jaya McClure forcing turnovers. Yaya Felder also grabbed an offensive rebound leading to a breakaway layup for Ohio. The score going into the fourth quarter was 44-53.Yaya Felder started the fourth quarter with two free throws, followed by a driving layup. Jasmine Hale was also a large force in the fourth quarter with multiple steals, defensive rebounds, and coming up with big three pointers. The Bobcats got the game to 57-59 before the Zips ran away on the offense with MAC player of the week Regan Bass taking their lead. 

OHIO'S MOST RECENT STATS
The Bobcats ended their last game going 26 for 67 (38.8%) on field goal attempts, 7-28 (25%) from the three point line and only seeing the line 6 times going 5 for 6 (83.3%) in free throws. The Bobcats also grabbed 32 rebounds, had 13 steals, and 15 assists. 

LAST TO LEAD
In the Bobcats last contest against Akron, Yaya Felder grabbed 22 points for another double figure game. On the other-side it was Jasmine Hale who led Ohio in rebounds for the first time this season with 6. Other outstanding performances came from Abby Garnett with 18 points and 4 rebounds and Jaya McClure with 8 points and 3 rebounds. 

NOW LEADING OHIO
The Bobcats have been led by Yaya Felder in scoring for the majority of the season. Felder currently holds the lead in points for the Bobcats with a total of 230. Caitlyn Kroll follows Felder in scoring with 109 points, and then Jaya McClure with 92. Caitlyn Kroll leads Ohio in rebounds, totaling 62; 56 defensive rebounds and 6 offensive. In terms of steals Yaya holds 28 for the season and Kroll is three behind with 23. 

MATCHUP NOTES
- This matchup will be the second game of MAC play for both teams 
- Yaya Felder has reached double figure points in almost every game this season 
- The teams met twice last season going 1-1 
- The Flashes are coming off a one point win over Buffalo and are determined for another MAC win 
- Ohio still looks to gain a win at their home court 
- Ohio still has multiple injuries on the bench and are depending on a generally younger team than most

Up Next:
The Bobcats will continue MAC conference play at home on Wednesday, Jan. 11th against Buffalo. The game is set to tipoff at 7pm and can be streamed live on ESPN3/+. 

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