Many fresh faces on both sides of the floor will experience their first Battle of the Bricks showdown when the Ohio women's basketball team squares off against Miami tonight in The Convo.
Only four members from the Ohio squad suited up for last year's matchups, while Miami comes in as the youngest team in the Mid-American Conference, featuring five freshmen and only three upperclassmen.
With only 12 games under their belt together, the new-look Bobcats (3-9, 0-1 MAC) have already had their fair share of growing pains.
In its first MAC contest of the season, Ohio turned the ball over 30 times, two short of its season high, in an 83-73 loss to Kent State on Sunday in The Convo.
Coach Lynn Bria said that the team played strongly on the defensive end against Kent State but cannot expect to win with 30 turnovers.
They didn't score very much when they were up against our five-player defense
Bria said. It was the turnovers that did us in. If you cough the ball up top it leads to an easy lay-up.
Sophomore guard Simone Redd said that team chemistry is developing more and more each game.
Every day at practice we are going over things like back-door cuts
and we're definitely connecting
Redd said.
One player from the Bobcats who will not be experiencing her first matchup against Miami is Ohio's lone senior, forward Ciara Iglehart. In Sunday's game against Kent State, Iglehart had a banner day, setting a new career-high in points with 19.
Of Iglehart's 19 points, 14 came from the free-throw line, which tied her for second-most free throw conversions in a single game in Ohio history.
Iglehart said that she does not care how her points come, as long as she is contributing to the team.
With me being a senior
coach has told me I need to be more productive
Iglehart said, so if that means I have to make more free throws
that's what I'll do.
In its last time out, like Ohio, Miami (5-7, 0-1 MAC) lost its first MAC contest of the season at the hands of Buffalo, 78-75. The Redhawks are led by guard Cindi Merrill, who leads the team in scoring with 17.7 points per game.
Tonight's matchup will be the 60th all-time between the two squads. Miami holds a 42-17 edge in the series but lost to the Bobcats 65-63 in The Convo in the 2004-05 regular season finale.
Tonight's tipoff is slated for 7 in The Convo.
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