After braving the elements of the nationwide snowstorm a day earlier, the Bobcats were ready to take on anything. Against Ball State, they did just that.
The Bobcats handed the Cardinals their first conference home loss last night, beating Ball State (9-13, 4-5 Mid-American Conference) 68-59.
We really had people step up and provide for our team
said head coach Semeka Randall.
Ohio (7-15, 3-6 MAC) had four players in the double digits - including Shavon Robinson, who led the team with 16 points.
(Shavon) has the ability to attack the basket - she can take the initial contact and still be able to finish the play Randall said. This is the first time I was able to play her for a longer period of time without her getting tired so I was very proud of that.
Guard Tenishia Benson started the game, complete with protective eyeglasses, only to sit on the bench for most of the first half. She rejoined the team later, playing 19 minutes of the whole game.
Randall cited foul trouble as the reason Benson played so little of the game,
Benson scored 11 points and is still listed as day-to-day with her broken orbital injury.
The Cardinals led the game through most of the first half until the Bobcats scored eight unanswered points with less than 10 minutes left.
The score continued to bounce back and forth between the two teams until the very last seconds of the first half when the Cardinals sank five free throws to take the lead.
Ball State went into the locker room with a two-point lead, 33-31. Ohio trailed only slightly at the half with 42.9 percent field goal shooting.
We started off off-the-bat pressuring the basketball more
Randall said. It was a team effort ... I am really proud of them.
Coming out of the locker room, the Cardinals were quick to gain the lead. Ohio, however, had other plans by taking the game and never looking back.
The Bobcats scored seven points in the last minutes while holding Ball State to 59 points.
They had a taste (of winning)
and now we are going to have to step up to have a repeat of the game
Randall said. We put a lot of points up on the board
and so we are definitely going to have to defend a lot better than we did tonight.
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Olivia Arbogast
