On the road again.
This has been the theme early in the season for Ohio, as the Bobcats will travel away from Athens for their sixth consecutive contest when they head to play Cleveland State.
The Vikings (3-4) have played a weaker schedule than the Bobcats (3-3) with one of Cleveland State’s three wins coming against Division II Lake Erie College.
However, Cleveland State is one of the lone teams Ohio will play all season that is shorter than them. This could help the Bobcats’ previous poor numbers on the glass after being outrebounded by more than 10 boards a game.
“Rebounding is the thing that we need to work on because almost every team we play they are out-rebounding us,” sophomore guard Kiyanna Black said. “So, I think this is a good way to get the rebounds up and get confidence in rebounding.”
Cleveland State runs a unique five-out motion offense in which all of players stand around the perimeter. This allows for a lot of space to drive to the basket and if the Bobcats don’t step out on the shooters, the Vikings are not afraid to shoot the three, as they attempt nearly 20 a game.
With this style of offense you might see another shootout like Ohio had against Xavier early on in the season, as Cleveland State averages 71 points per game, but give up the same number of points.
“They have the best movement of anyone we’ll play, they cut harder than anyone we’ll play,” coach Bob Boldon said. “You get to guard something that is fairly unique and it really puts pressure on your help side defense. We’ll see how good we are at guarding it and inevitably we’ll have corrections to make on Friday as we head into the next week.”
The Bobcats will have plenty of chances to flex their offensive muscle, but it may not come from the three point line Ohio has shown so far this season. Teams that have been successful against Cleveland State have done most of their damage inside the arc shooting nearly 50 percent.
If that’s the case, freshman forward Destini Cooper or sophomore forward Lexie Baldwin could be the main offensive threat for the Bobcats. The key for these two players is staying out of foul trouble, especially since they will be needing to play a lot of help defense with Cleveland State’s guards wanting to get to the rim so much.
The Vikings have already played one Mid-American Conference foe in Eastern Michigan, which dominated Cleveland State 84-70 in a game where they limited the Vikings to only shooting 35 percent from the field.
Although Ohio is a much different team from a year ago, the Bobcats beat the Vikings last year 63-56.
ak840511@ohio.edu
@Kovarandrew
