The Bobcats clinched the fifth seed in the Mid-American Conference tournament Saturday afternoon with a 62-48 win over Akron. Although they don't have a first-round bye, they are not concerned about seeding. They are more worried about their on-court product.
So, here are three things learned from the Akron game leading into the first round of the MAC Tournament on Monday
An era coming to a close
Saturday was the last regular season home game for the most influential senior class in program history. Coach Bob Boldon started all five active seniors to begin the game, started them again in the second half and took them out together in the fourth quarter to give them one final ovation from the fans inside The Convo.
They weren’t the most effective lineups — Akron started the game on a 13-4 run against the seniors — but they were the most memorable.
“It was a realization of, ‘we came in together and everybody stayed all four years,’ " forward Jasmine Weatherspoon said.
Now Quiera Lampkins, Weatherspoon, Hannah Boesinger, Yamonie Jenkins and Tmisht Stinson have one last chance to augment their footprint on the Ohio program. They don’t have the same target on their back as in past championship seasons, but maybe that’s not the worst thing.
“I would like to see us get our chip back,” Boldon said. “You’ll see a little bit more tempo and a little bit more urgency Monday night.”
Keeping bodies fresh for the tourney
Against Akron, Boldon played 10 players at least 10 minutes. Nobody played more than 28. If the Bobcats are going to win another MAC championship, they will need to win four games in six days.
That will require intense endurance and careful minute distribution. Sometimes there might be foul trouble, sometimes a starter might not be playing well on a particular night.
For those reasons, Boldon kept everyone’s minutes down but gave everyone minutes.
“We tried to get as many kids ready as we could for Cleveland,” Boldon said. “I don’t know how any of those games are gonna go, but I think we have a number of different types of players that are playing well and are ready to play.”
Taylor Agler, running the show
With 2:08 remaining in the third quarter, the Bobcats played their most entertaining stretch of basketball all afternoon. It started with a gorgeous pass from Agler to guard Amani Burke.
Agler threw a chest pass from the opposite three point line to a cutting Burke for a layup plus a foul. The crowd in the convo was awakened from its slumber in a mostly clunky game.
That sequence was the first of five straight field goals to end the quarter for the Bobcats. Agler assisted on three of them.
Agler has said multiple times this season she is most comfortable creating open shots for others, but she often shares the court with Jenkins. At the end of the third quarter, she directed her own offense for a couple of minutes. And it looked as good as the Bobcat offense had looked all season.
Scoring has been a struggle for Ohio all season. With the conference tournament beginning next week, Boldon said Agler might get more chances to be the main orchestrator on offense.
