It has to be the hair.
Playing in her first collegiate game without cornrows, guard Angel Hornsburger led the Ohio women's basketball team to its first Mid-American Conference win of the season Wednesday night, a 75-63 victory against Akron at the Zips' James A. Rhodes Arena.
Ohio (7-8 overall, 1-3 MAC) used a 12-0 second-half run to seize control of a game that had been close since the opening tip. The Bobcats, finally able to finish off a conference game, had endured second-half struggles in each of their first three MAC contests.
The first one's the hardest one to get
and we got it coach Lynn Bria said.
Hornsburger scored 12 points in only 21 minutes and collected five assists, four rebounds and three steals in Ohio's win. In her last three games, Hornsburger has dished out 16 assists and committed only seven turnovers.
(Angel) just gets better and better every game Bria said. Guard Candace Bates led all scorers with a career-high 24 points, including 14 in the first half, and tallied five rebounds, four assists and three steals. She also nailed a career-high 9-of-11 free throws.
Candace was ready to play
said forward Latreece Bagley. She did everything. She penetrated
she dished
she hit the three. She really stepped up her game tonight.
Bagley scored 10 points and grabbed a career-high 13 rebounds, good for her fourth double-double of the season and first since Dec. 16.
It was time for us to get a win
and it was time for me to do my thing
Bagley said. It helped my team. We came out with a victory.
Ohio held advantages in nearly every offensive category, including made free throws, 22-6, and rebounds, 38-25. The Bobcats grabbed 16 offensive boards.
(Rebounding) was critical in regards to (getting) easy baskets
Bria said. We could get an offensive board and run our offense again or go back up with it.
The Bobcats sprinted out of the gates to an early 8-2 lead, before Akron (5-11 overall, 0-5 MAC) went on a 13-2 run to take a lead it would hold for much of the first half. The Zips led by as many as seven points before Ohio tied the game, 33-33, at the half.
The Bobcats used an aggressive, up-tempo defense to force 31 total Akron turnovers and outscore the Zips, 42-30, in the second half. Ohio held Akron scoreless for a stretch of nearly seven minutes during the middle of the second half.
When you're playing great defense like that
it doesn't put as much pressure on your offense
Bates said. It makes things a lot easier.
The Bobcats hope to collect another conference win when they return to action against Toledo 3 p.m. Saturday at The Convo.
