Ohio confirms consecutive 20-win seasons with blowout win over rival Miami.
In the words of coach Bob Boldon, Ohio is making sure what happened at Buffalo won’t happen again.
“The loss to Buffalo still hurts a lot of us,” Boldon said.
It’s apparent.
Two weeks ago, the Bobcats were upset by the Bulls from Buffalo and their perfect record in Mid-American Conference play disintegrated.
Two weeks removed from Buffalo, Ohio is playing its best basketball of the season.
Including a 72-44 win over the Miami RedHawks on Wednesday night in The Convo, the Bobcats have been on a tear, wrecking opponents and proceeding on to the next.
“We addressed some of our deficiencies,” Boldon said, addressing the aggressive turnaround since the Buffalo game. “We’ve been a little more dialed in defensively since then. That really got our attention.”
Ohio forced 36 turnovers Wednesday night, the most since Boldon took over coaching the team three years ago.
The Ohio defense was so tenacious that it took Miami until there was only 2:37 remaining in the third quarter to have more points (30) than turnovers (29). By then, Ohio led 60-30.
And had the Bobcats not given up a 6-0 run to end the game, the RedHawks would’ve finished with as many turnovers as points.
“Our goal is just to make teams make and take tough shots,” senior guard Kiyanna Black said. “At the end of the day, that’s all we can do.”
Even though that’s the fewest amount of points the team has allowed in the regular season this year, Ohio just wants to move onto the next game. And then the one after that.
In the postgame press conference, Boldon reiterated the Miami win, which couldn’t have ended 20 minutes prior, was already in the past.
“Some of them have already moved on to the next,” he said. “I’m guessing (Black and Quiera Lampkins) were already over this one a half hour ago.”
Boldon has instilled into his team the vantage point of constantly looking forward. It shows in their play on the court and their word choice in interviews.
For Ohio, the only thing that matters is to win out, win the regular season MAC title, and then go to the conference tournament and win that, too.
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“It’s nice to be in this position this late into the season,” Boldon said. “It’s nice you don’t have to look at scoreboards and wonder who won tonight, who lost tonight.”
The Bobcats have a one-game lead in the MAC standings with five games remaining.
Barring the Akron Zips, the Bobcats won’t play another opponent in the remainder of conference play with a winning record. Ohio plays Akron on Saturday.
But even entering that game, recollection of Buffalo will still exist.
“It still kinda sucks we lost,” Lampkins said. “We can’t really do anything about it. It’s still in the back of everyone’s minds. We just have to focus on the game.”
Ohio is just moving forward.
@charliehatch_
gh181212@ohio.edu
