Confetti finally falls again for Kent State women's basketball team

CLEVELAND — Twenty-two years is a long time.

When you think about the Kent State women's basketball team's climb back to the top of the Mid-American Conference, ardent Flashes fans may feel like it's a lifetime.

The Flashes were an annual Championship Saturday participant at the MAC Tournament at the turn of the century. They played in seven consecutive title games from 1996 through 2002 and won three.

Kent State waited over two decades to see the postgame confetti fall again. The wait is finally over.

Saturday's 78-60 win over Buffalo earned the Flashes their first NCAA Tournament berth since 2002. That team was led by MVP center Andrea Csaszar. Former Hoover High School star Jamie Rubis also won a ring for Kent State.

This year's group of MAC champions features guard Katie Shumate, a five-year player who scored 18 points Saturday and won tournament MVP honors. Fellow all-tournament team selection Bridget Dunn was a double-double machine in the Flashes' wins over Northern Illinois and Ball State. She grabbed 12 more rebounds against Buffalo.

"It hasn't really hit us yet, but we've been working for this," Dunn said after the Flashes climbed the ladders to cut down the nets. "This has been our goal the last four years."

Dunn's attention then turned to Shumate, sitting to her far right.

"We really wanted to do this for our seniors, and Katie is someone who has given everything she has to this team," Dunn said.

"It's just a surreal moment for us."

Kent State became conference champions again in Todd Starkey's eighth season as head coach. In 2016 he took over a program that had suffered five straight 20-loss seasons. The Flashes went 3-27 overall and 1-15 in the MAC during the 2012-13 season.

Seven of Starkey's eight teams have had winning records. A few of them came to Cleveland with an opportunity to end Kent State's NCAA drought. The Flashes always just ran into an opponent that was a little better.

"Some of the best individual teams in their school's history have been in this last eight-year period," Starkey said. "It's hard to get there. Even if you have a good team, you're not guaranteed (a championship).

"Sometimes you just needed just a little bit of luck, some things to go your way and to be playing really well at the right time."

Kent State's second half against Buffalo was a championship half of basketball. After a sloppy second quarter, the Flashes outscored the Bulls 48-26 the rest of the way. A seven-point third quarter deficit ballooned to a 20-point lead late in the game.

The Flashes were not fazed when the Bulls threatened to extend their NCAA drought. This is a team that had an opportunity to play on the road against nationally ranked Florida State and LSU, the defending national champions.

"The places we went on the road, not everybody's willing to do that," Starkey said. "I wanted to put them in those settings so that when we got into these type of moments, the moment wasn't too big for them. I think that paid off."

Starkey's only regret is that his mom, Alice, could not see his first MAC championship team. She passed away a few years ago.

"She was my biggest fan," Starkey said. "So this one's for Alice Starkey."

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This article originally appeared on The Repository: Kent State women's basketball team climbs back to top of MAC