Bob Boldon sat in his chair in the postgame press room Wednesday and put his head in his hands. The coach’s face was a shade or two redder than usual as he thought about how he was going to explain Ohio’s adversity-filled performance against Kent State.
The Bobcats defeated the Golden Flashes 83-81 at The Convo, but the expressions of Boldon and the players told the real story of their victory. The Bobcats won ugly, and they weren’t happy about it.
“Nobody enjoyed watching that game,” Boldon said. “It was a terrible game. I would have rather watched ‘Bachelor in Paradise.’ I didn’t enjoy watching it. I didn’t enjoy being a part of it.”
The Bobcats couldn’t wait to see the clock hit zeroes after their cozy 46-31 halftime lead slowly dissolved in the final 20 minutes. Ohio dominated the first half with a quality defensive effort that complemented its Mid-American Conference-best offensive attack, but then everything seemed to fall apart.
Some of Ohio’s collapse was self-inflicted. The defense fell apart and allowed Kent State to surge back after it converted on just 30 percent of shots in the first half. The Bobcats’ offense scored 11 points in the third quarter, committed 11 turnovers and suddenly looked a step below the Golden Flashes’ attack.
But the frustrations also stemmed from something the Bobcats can’t control — the whistle. Both teams didn’t hesitate to show their displeasure with the referees throughout the game, which contained 61 total free-throw attempts, but Ohio believed some of the calls halted its pace.
“I feel like we definitely have a target on our backs when it comes to refs,” Amani Burke said. “I personally feel like because we’re such a defensive team, the refs are looking for any hand check, body calls that they can get.”
Regardless of their feelings about the officiating, the Bobcats admitted their performance was poor. They forced themselves to panic, and the Golden Flashes feasted on the Bobcats’ five fourth quarter turnovers and passive defensive play to score 31 points in the final 10 minutes.
So while Ohio grabbed its 14th win — two wins away from matching last year’s total — and snapped Kent State’s seven-game win streak, the Bobcats learned a lot about how they need to improve their game. The dull expressions on their faces showed it.
“I think earlier in the season, we were really good at picking each other up when we had a bad first quarter or first half,” Burke said. “And then in the third quarter, we’d punch people in the mouth. We haven’t really had that in conference play.”
Ohio can exhale. Yes, it may not have played as well as it would have liked on Wednesday, but it started conference play 3-1, and two of those wins came against the toughest teams in the conference.
Even though they won ugly, the Bobcats still found a way to grow.
“We have to come in to practice with an angry mindset,” Dominique Doseck said. “We survived this game.”
