Erica Johnson limped into the tunnel during the waning moments of the first half. At the start of the second half, she came back out on crutches and with a boot on her right foot.
The Bobcats played the second half of Saturday’s 70-64 win over IUPUI without their second-leading scorer and leader in rebounds and assists.
In her absence, juniors Cece Hooks and Gabby Burris scored 20 of Ohio’s 33 second-half points and had nine of the team’s 18 rebounds.
“We all just kind of knew we were doing it all for (Johnson),” Burris said. “So, we all just picked up our game one more step.”
The duo knew they had to pick up their game after a frustrating loss against Butler in Daytona Beach. The two players combined for just nine points on 3-for-13 shooting in the loss. Hooks attributed the problem in her performance to a lack of confidence and aggression.
“We got up a lot of shots this week, we did a lot of drills, ball handling and shooting drills,” Hooks said. “I think I’m just more confident in my shooting instead of being so passive.”
The junior guard’s aggression got her to the free-throw line 13 times. She made nine of them and went 6-for-6 in the second half. Hooks also grabbed 10 rebounds to go along with her 25 points for her first double-double of the season.
“There’s a certain standard that she holds herself to,” head coach Bob Boldon said. “And she has become one of the best guards to ever play here because of her standards.”
Ohio (6-2) relied on Hooks as well as a slew of bench players to fill the huge gap left behind by Johnson’s injury. Caitlyn Kroll, Peyton Guice and Deesh Beck stepped up offensively while Abby Garnett was brought in to anchor the defense in the late minutes of the game.
The Bobcats didn’t have to make any huge changes on either side of the ball for those players to step in, as they run a motion offense and a man-to-man defense. The simplicity and a good week of practice translated to success for those bench players.
“Everybody who came off the bench really did some good things for us,” Burris said. “I feel like that’s a lot of pressure, especially against a good team like that and stepping up and doing your role.”
Ohio won’t know how long it’ll be without Johnson until the beginning of this week, but Boldon is confident in the abilities of his younger players.
“We have a handful of players that are just waiting for an opportunity to play,” Boldon said. “I think they’ve done a nice job in practice, it’s just hard. One of the challenges for those kids that come off the bench is that the players that play in front of them are really good.”
This is a perfect opportunity for those bench players in the absence of Johnson. They will have three opportunities in 2019 to earn more minutes against some good teams.
The first opportunity comes on Dec. 15 at TCU as Ohio travels to Texas for two games.
