After Ohio suffered its third loss of the season to Toledo on Wednesday night, the Bobcats’ offense needed a bounce-back game to right the ship and erase the struggles from its worst game of the season.
It wasn’t immediate, but the Bobcats found their stride in their 70-56 win over Western Michigan on Saturday afternoon at The Convo.
The Bobcats received only six points off their bench and only two players — Cece Hooks and Amani Burke — reached double digit point totals in Ohio’s loss Wednesday. Three Ohio players reached double figures and the bench scored nine points to give the Bobcats enough of an edge over Western Michigan’s twelfth ranked offense Saturday.
Dominique Doseck, Gabby Burris and Hooks each scored 15 points, and shot a combined 17-for-32 from the field.
It still took time for the Bobcats to find the same offensive consistency that powered it atop the conference a week earlier when they defeated Central Michigan on the road to become the first MAC team to reach 20 wins.
Ohio opened the first quarter 4-for-13 and didn’t make its first layup of the game until seven minutes into the game when Deesh Beck bounced a ball off the rim and in. The Bobcats could only find points from 3-point range prior to Beck’s layup, but they couldn’t rely on 3s for the whole game.
Ohio finally discovered its rhythm in the second quarter after Doseck battled her way to the rim, made the layup and sunk the foul shot she drew on the play. The sequence sparked a 16-5 run that gave Ohio a lead it sustained for the rest of the game.
The win prevented the Bobcats from suffering their first losing streak this season and sets them up for two crucial games against Kent State and Buffalo. Ohio defeated both opponents in its previous meetings but only by a combined five-point margin.
Stat Pack
- The Bobcats forced 21 turnovers from the Broncos, which Ohio used to score 18 fastbreak points.
- Ohio also forced 13 steals, its highest total since Feb. 2 against Ball State when it notched 18 and its second-highest total in its last 10 games.
- The Bobcats shot 7-of-26 (27 percent) from 3-point range.
