KENT — When the Kent State women's basketball team took the court Wednesday against Western Michigan, Jenna Batsch had one thing on her mind.
Be aggressive and attack from the start.
The junior guard scored eight of her career-high 25 points in the first quarter to help send the Golden Flashes to a 70-57 Mid-American Conference win over the Broncos at the M.A.C. Center.
"The previous game was a really hard game for me," Batsch said. "I was frustrated with myself. And I felt like I had had some off practices in the previous week.
"I wanted to make sure that didn't turn into multiple games and continue piling on and turn into any sort of slump."
The Flashes (14-6, 8-2) had lost their previous game 57-46 to conference-leading Ball State, and Batsch scored her second-fewest points (five) of the season.
"I'm not surprised at all with what she does," KSU coach Todd Starkey said. "I think everybody on the team knew she had a 25-point game coming her way."
Sophomore forward Tatiana Thomas said she and the teammates have the utmost confidence when Batsch has the ball in her hands.
"It's outstanding," Thomas said. "She's the best, and I'm glad she's on my team, and I don't have to play against her."
Batsch has scored in double figures 14 times this season, including nine of the last 10 games.
Coming into the game, KSU had an unplanned week off due to a cancelation against Central Michigan on Saturday.
"We felt a little bit sluggish and rusty after getting into a rhythm in conference play, then all of a sudden, and you don't play for a week," Starkey said. "I kind of had a little flashback to the COVID years, and this was an unplanned game that we missed and unforeseen circumstances, so it kind of throws you out of rhythm a little bit."
Kent State led 18-13 at the end of the first quarter and 33-23 at halftime. The Flashes limited Western Michigan guard Kaitlyn Zarycki — second in the MAC with a 18.5 scoring average — to two points on 1-of-3 shooting in the first half.
Zarycki finished with eight points on 3-of-12 shooting and committed eight turnovers for the Broncos (9-11, 4-6).
"The team really is what I think created that great defensive cohesion against her tonight," Starkey said. "We took away her opportunities to score, her driving lanes and I think it did frustrate her."
Batsch, who was matched up with Zarycki most of the game, said she was proud of the effort by her team.
"I take a lot of pride in my defense, but I also think tonight everybody was in positions to make plays," Batsch said. "Everybody was in their gaps, mostly with her, and I think most of our defensive issues came away from her, which is good."
With four minutes remaining in the game, Kent's starting point guard Corynne Hauser exited the game after an injury to her knee.
Starkey ensured his team focused on the game and not on the injury.
"Corynne is a great teammate and a great friend, and you'd hate to see something like that happen, but it does take the wind out of a team's sails in the moment," he said. "I thought our team did a pretty good job of handling that in the moment."
"It's really hard to see your starting point guard go down. I think it is in the back of all of our heads in the moment," Batsch said. "You have to be able to put that aside and focus on the game and worry about that after the game."
Although she was held to her second-fewest points (5) in a game this season, guard Katie Shumate led the Flashes with eight rebounds, four assists and four steals.
"If she was more selfish, she could have averaged 15 or 20 in any given season here. But this is the type of game she has when they're taking things away," Starkey said. "So that's just a sign of maturity, and we have a lot of a lot of trust in her to be able to figure out those ways to win."
Batsch (25), Hauser (13) and freshman forward Janae Tyler (10) all scored in double figures for KSU, which will shift its focus to Old Dominion in the second matchup of the MAC-SBC challenge.
KSU defeated Lousiana 64-55 in the first round on Nov. 12.
The Monarchs (16-6, 8-4 SBC) have won four of five games and defeated Buffalo 59-48 on Nov. 11. The Golden Flashes defeated the Bulls 73-64 on Jan. 3.
"This is a really good Old Dominion team that's coming in here; this is a program that has won a national championship," Starkey said. "I think it's great for our program to host a team like this, but the play has to be a lot better than we did tonight in order to beat them."
From 1982 to 2008, Old Dominion went to the NCAA Tournament 25 times, advancing to the Final Four three times and winning the NCAA Tournament in 1985.
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Jenna Batsch's career-high pushes Kent State past Western Michigan
