Midway through the third quarter, Ohio needed an offensive spark.
Katie Barker provided an explosion.
In a span of 4 minutes and 54 seconds, Barker scored 15 points of her eventual 18 points on five 3-pointers, part of a 28-point Ohio third quarter resurgence.
Ohio carried that momentum to a 63-55 win over Binghamton on Monday night at The Convo.
Before Barker acted as a human defibrillator for the Ohio offense, the Bobcats were meandering around rock bottom. Coming into the game shooting 32 percent from the field in December, the Bobcats added a dismal 6-for-27 start Monday to their shooting woes.
From the time Barker hit her first three pointer with 6:49 remaining in the third quarter until the end of the game, the Bobcats shot 13-for-24 from the field.
“We’ve seen Katie do this for a year and a half now,” coach Bob Boldon said. “Katie Barker’s ability to shoot has never been questioned by anyone on our staff and it was nice to be able to see her display that tonight.”
Barker’s three point explosion undoubtedly provided the spark, but it would not have mattered had the Ohio defense not led the effort to keep the game within reach. Even though Ohio recorded its lowest scoring output in a half all season, the Bobcats were still within seven at halftime.
“I was really happy with the way our kids stayed locked in defensively,” Boldon said. “It gets frustrating playing defense when you don’t ever score, and we went through a lot of stretches in the first half where we didn’t really score. It was nice to see them stick to it, fight through some frustration and adversity and play well enough to win I guess.”
After Barker’s third quarter shooting display, Quiera Lampkins took it from there and put the game away. Lampkins scored nine of Ohio's 16 fourth quarter points, part of a 23-point, eight rebound, six assist performance.
Ohio’s defense stayed locked in throughout the second half, stammering all of Binghamton’s comeback attempts late in the game. Binghamton’s 16-point first quarter turned out to be its best, despite some impressive shooting from guards Jasmine Sina and Imani Watkins.
The Bearcats finished with a 41 percent 3-point percentage, but Boldon said Binghamton was simply making difficult shots at times.
Despite the come-and-go nature of its offense, Ohio is now 8-1, good for the second best nine game start in school history. Ohio will need to be better come Thursday when it takes on its second Big Ten opponent of the season, Illinois.
But a historically good Bobcat team, with a lot of room to improve, is not a bad situation to be in, either.
