Life on the road can be tough.
Ohio (1-0) will have to adjust to being road warriors, as nine of the team’s next 10 games will be played on the road, including Saturday, when they play a guard-oriented Morehead State (2-1) team.
The key to victory for the Bobcats will be shutting down the Eagles’ senior guard Terrice Robinson, who is averaging 27.3 points per game, but Ohio also has a high scorer of its own in sophomore guard Kiyanna Black, who scored 35 against Xavier on Sunday.
Morehead State is coming off a 74-67 loss against George Mason when it committed 16 turnovers, which resulted in 18 points for the Patriots.
After allowing 88 points to Xavier last weekend, one-on-one defending was the emphasis in practice this week, as coach Bob Boldon is looking for improvement on that side of the court.
“He’s always yelling ‘hands off, hands off. They’ll call fouls, you can’t do that,’” freshman guard Quiera Lampkins said. “We’ve been playing one-on-one, so we can guard one-on-one in the game. On the shooters, we know we need to close out and with the drivers, close out and keep your hands off.”
Ohio and Morehead State split their past two meetings, as the Bobcats won last year’s game in Athens 79-72 in overtime paced by Black’s 19 points, while Robinson scored 39 points for the Eagles.
A shootout between these two teams could be in order again, especially with the new hand checking rules installed by the NCAA that are supposed to increase scoring. Boldon thinks that anyone on the team can have a big game.
“We’ll take what they give us,” Boldon said. “If Kiyanna can get hot and make shots, whether it’s Destini, Lexi, Mariah, or whoever it might be, we’ll take it. Our offense is designed to get players shots and our players are unselfish enough to get it to the player that’s making shots.”
Aside from Robinson, Morehead State has two other guards that average double-digit points in senior Shanice Parker and junior Almesha Jones.
“(The Eagles) are a talented offensive team,” Boldon said. “They are a team that’s really going to attack and try to exploit the same weaknesses we showed against Xavier. We have to make sure we did a good job this week in making adjustments.”
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