Ohio will welcome Lake Erie College to The Convo tonight for the final exhibition game before getting the regular season underway.
Senior Tenishia Benson racked up 17 points and 11 rebounds in the Bobcats’ 87-52 exhibition win against Ohio Valley last Tuesday. Freshman guard Kat Yelle scored 11 points in her Bobcat debut.
Coach Semeka Randall said the team will focus on solidifying its defense after the strong offensive effort.
“That’s one of the keys we have been focusing on. Our perimeter defense has to get better,” Randall said.
Ohio Valley had 17 offensive and 16 defensive rebounds against the Bobcats. That led the coaching staff to crack down on the team’s effort on the boards.
“They’ve definitely been enforcing the rebounding and just knowing that we have to do better,” sophomore Erin Bailes said. “We can’t give that many offensive boards, especially coming up into the regular season”
Ohio’s bench contributed 29 points in the team’s first outing. Alesia Howard scored 15 points with five rebounds to pace all bench players.
Lake Erie is coming off a 3-22 campaign last year, but the Storm has many veteran players on its roster. Lake Erie has eight seniors and only one freshman. Ohio, meanwhile, has one senior and five freshmen.
Randall said the keys to beating the Storm will be getting the ball inside to the post players and having her guards match up and not get beat off the dribble.
“I would love for our kids to communicate, and we talk about that every day,” Randall said.
But Randall said communication would come with time as the players learn to play with each other. She said the team still needs a leader to take charge of the team.
“It’s not really about one player or two players stepping up,” Randall said. “It’s about the total package that’s out there, that five playing together.
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