After Ohio’s fifth consecutive loss Sunday, coach Semeka Randall and the Bobcats are heading back to the drawing board.
After the starting lineup mustered only 10 points on 4-of-29 from the field and bench players began to fill the stat sheet, Randall said a shakeup will be immediate.
“I’m very disappointed in my starters, some of them even came out a little lackadaisical in shoot-around,” Randall said. “The play from our bench has put pressure on me to make a change. We need to go back to the drawing board, because it’s unacceptable to come out and lay an egg and not try to change anything.”
Ohio (1-5) lost to Detroit 65-53, largely because of scoring droughts on offense and finishing the game having made 30 percent of its shots from the field. The Bobcats led 24-17 with 10:07 remaining in the first half, but went almost nine minutes before scoring again.
“If we don’t change who we are right now, there could be a bad domino effect,” Randall said. “I’ve seen this team playing high energy, but we are getting in a bad cycle of not playing the whole game.”
Stellar bench play fueled Ohio’s offense. Junior guard Erin Bailes poured in 19 points and finished five-of-nine from beyond the arc, while also grabbing five boards. Freshman guard Kiyanna Black chipped in with 15 points.
Detroit sophomore forward Shareta Brown finished short of a triple-double with 19 points, 15 rebounds and six assists and led the Titans in each category.
“Brown is a big kid and she knows how to make plays,” Randall said. “We knew we were going to spend a lot of our fouls while trying to defend her, but we did the best job we could do against her.”
Despite Brown’s team-leading performance, the Bobcats were able to hold her below her average of 24 points per game, after she scored 35 in the team’s previous game against Western Michigan. The Titans also dominated inside the paint, scoring 44 points Sunday.
Because Detroit controlled the paint with its size advantage, Ohio took 23 shots from beyond the arc, scoring just 14 points in the paint.
With difficulty shooting and spurts of not scoring, Randall said she, along with the rest of the team, need to find ways to not allow themselves to get down. The Bobcats are shooting 32 percent and averaging fewer than 54 points per game.
cl027410@ohiou.edu
QUICK STATS:
Detroit 65, OHIO 53
— Ohio’s starting five scored a combined 10 points.
— Junior guard Erin Bailes led the Bobcats with 19 points off the bench.
— The loss is the fifth consecutive for Ohio.
