After not seeing any action last Wednesday against Marshall, guard Tiffany Byrd has lifted the Ohio women's basketball team with some sharp shooting from beyond the arc. Byrd has emerged as the team's No. 1 threat from long distance by making seven-of-16 3-pointers in the past two games.
Fighting off food poisoning, which kept her out of practice for the previous two days, Byrd managed to lead the Bobcats with 15 points while playing only nine minutes in Tuesday's 70-56 victory against Akron. Despite the low number of minutes, Byrd managed to take 10 shots.
That's always been my job since I came here
Byrd said. Coach (Lynn Bria) tells me to shoot the ball and if I don't I'm coming out.
Byrd's teammates have no problem feeding her the ball when she is shooting this well, especially when she's left unguarded. At times on Tuesday, it seemed as if Byrd was an extra person on the floor for the Bobcats.
They (Akron) were leaving her wide open
forward Erin Isbell said. She had
like
10 seconds to shoot.
Bria said she plans to ride Byrd's hot hand the rest of the way and into the Mid-American Conference Tournament by getting Byrd more involved.
She'll play a lot more minutes
as long as she stays healthy
Bria said. She is playing very
very well.
Seniors return to lineup after experiment
It only took 10 tries, but Bria said she believes that she has finally found her ideal starting lineup.
After Saturday's lineup change against Toledo, which sent seniors Isbell and Kristian Kirkpatrick to the bench, Bria decided on a lineup that mixed her talented freshmen with her experienced veterans in Tuesday's win.
This is the lineup that I'm very comfortable with
Bria said
The new lineup has freshmen Simone Redd and Quintana Ward and senior Andrea Johnson playing at the guard positions, and Kirkpatrick and Isbell at the forward positions.
It is likely that the benching of Isbell and Kirkpatrick was a one-game experiment. Isbell's 13 points and 14 rebounds in Tuesday's victory reaffirmed the importance of senior leadership at this point in the season.
I look at Erin
Kristian and Andrea
