The Ohio women's basketball team just needs to do one thing to notch a win Saturday against Buffalo - pick up where it left off.
The Bobcats (8-11 overall, 2-6 Mid-American Conference) scored 43 second-half points during Tuesday's win at Central Michigan, a marked improvement from the 10 points they scored during the game's first 20 minutes.
We can't just play one half
forward Latreece Bagley said. We have to put two halves together because Buffalo is a better team than Central Michigan. We can't do what we did (against Central Michigan) or we will lose.
Buffalo (5-13, 3-5 MAC), which stands just one game ahead of Ohio in the East Division, is fresh off what might be its biggest win of the season, a 65-61 victory against Toledo Tuesday night. The Bobcats fell to Toledo by 18 points just two weeks ago.
With a win Saturday, though, Ohio would tie Buffalo for fourth place in the division and improve its seeding situation for the MAC Tournament, which begins one month from today.
You win the head-to-head games - that's like winning two games assistant coach Shanele Stires said. They're good and they're on a roll.
After starting 1-9, the Bulls have won four of their last eight games, and feature three players who average better than 10 points per game. Forward Jessica Kochendorfer leads the team with 13.8 points and 8.6 rebounds per game.
One of the keys for Ohio is to force Buffalo to earn its points from the perimeter and not allow easy scoring opportunities inside, assistant coach Gary Becker said.
We need to keep some pressure on them
which is our specialty right now
Becker said.
Against Central Michigan, the Bobcats recorded 20 steals, including seven by guard Angel Hornsburger. With her on-court performance Tuesday, Hornsburger tied for second on the all-time single-game steals list, recorded the most steals by a Bobcat in more than three years, and tied a 21-year-old record for steals by a freshman.
We have to create offense from our defense
and Angel is probably the biggest key in that
Stires said. She really causes people problems.
The Bobcats will try to cause more problems for Buffalo at 1 p.m. Saturday in The Convo.
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