From the opening tip, Ohio controlled the tempo of the game on its way to picking up the Bobcats’ first Mid-American Conference win of the season.
Ohio (6-7, 1-1 MAC) jumped all over its rival Miami forcing nine turnovers in the first ten minutes. Ohio was able to ride this early momentum to a 97-79 victory marking the highest scoring output for the season and the first time has beat the Redhawks since 2011.
Ohio would have blown out Miami had the Bobcats not have been in foul trouble the entire game. The nine-man rotation committed 30 fouls, allowing the Redhawks (4-9, 0-2 MAC) to convert 29 of 38 attempts from the charity stripe
Freshman guard Quiera Lampkins lit it up the scoring and netted a career-high 24 points to go along with seven rebounds. She led an offense that only turned the ball over six times for the game.
The Bobcats lockdown defense set up the offense which flowed well the entire first half consistently getting out on the fast break for layups and open threes. Ohio knocked down 13 of 33 from behind the arc ten of which came in the first half.
“I thought we did a great job defensively early.” coach Bob Boldon said. “This is probably the best job we’ve done in a long time of coming out and setting the tempo defensively. We worked on it quite a bit this week after getting back from Northern Illinois. I was happy with the start I was frustrated with the finish.”
Boldon’s motion offense worked to near perfection in the first half shooting 49 percent on their way to 54-35 lead heading into halftime. This wire-to-wire victory was never in doubt as the Bobcats smallest lead in the second half was 17.
“You have a little bit of time to enjoy it, but we’ve got a task ahead of us on Sunday,” he said. “We play a very good Western Michigan team, 2-0, that beat this Miami team. We have to get ourselves ready to go and enjoy it tonight, then get back to work tomorrow.”
The Broncos have an identical record to the Bobcats sitting at 6-7. Western Michigan already has two MAC wins under their belts with victories over Buffalo and Miami. This should be a good measuring stick to where Ohio sits in the conference as the Broncos were 6-10 in the MAC a year ago.
Much of Western’s scoring comes from the block as their three top scorers Miracle Woods, Marquisha Harris, and Michelle O’Brien combine for 39 points a game and 22 rebounds a game. This might prove to be a problem for a young and thin from court if freshman forward Jasmine Weatherspoon isn’t able to play Sunday.
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@Kovarandrew
