CLEVELAND ' Nobody said it was going to be easy.
The Bobcats held on to their chances at a Mid-American Conference tournament title with a 68-65 win in their first round game against Central Michigan last night in Quicken Loans Arena. But it wasn't pretty.
It was an ugly game
but we'll take it coach Sylvia Crawley said. We expected this type of game today...I'm just happy our team was able to come out with a win.
Ohio took an early lead in the game, but Central Michigan caught up quickly. A free throw by Angel Chan at the 9:45 mark in the middle of a ten-point Central Michigan run gave the Chippewas the lead and the game was back and forth from there. Ohio took a three-point lead into the half.
Guard Lauren Kohn said that Ohio's defense was not able to focus on just one player and had difficulty controlling the Chippewas offense.
They are a very well-balanced scoring team Kohn said. They were being very aggressive attacking the basket.
The second half was a tight battle with four lead changes and five ties. Neither team took more than a six-point lead.
Kohn hit a free throw with 3:35 remaining to put the Bobcats ahead for good.
Chan took a jump shot at the buzzer for the tie but it bounced off the rim and into Kohn's hands.
If they were going to make a shot at the end we wanted to make sure it was a tough shot
Kohn said.
It was a shootout to the end, but Kohn said that Ohio's defense put the pressure on to make sure the Chippewas didn't come out with an upset win.
Crawley said that the team worked out the kinks from the first half late in the second half.
It was their penetration that helped them get open shots or layups
Crawley said. That's something we have to tighten up on and I thought we did a better job late in the game of buckling down and not allowing penetration.
The Chippewas were the sixth seed in the West Division, totaling just two conference wins all season. Kohn, Ohio's leading scorer with 18 points and-
there are no seeds
Kohn said. Everybody's here to win. You need to play every game like it's a championship game.-
said-
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