The Bobcats (13-9) lost to the Old Dominion Monarchs (15-10) by a score of 84-76. This was the first time since Dec. 28 that the Bobcats faced off against a non-Mid-American Conference team and it showed somewhat, as Ohio was not adjusted to the shooting of this time as much.
The main pain point for Ohio in this game was layups. In all four quarters combined, Ohio went 13-42 on layups, missing over half of them. In what was only an 8 point game, even converting half of their layups could have won the Bobcats the game. This is something Ohio needs to fix in the near future.
“Just getting more reps in, practice, and game-like reps,” Ohio point Guard Bella Renallo said. “Not going half speed but going full speed and just putting that in a game.”
Free throws also plagued Ohio. It missed nine of them, which could’ve easily added a few more points on the board for Ohio to take the game away from Old Dominion.
The first quarter saw Old Dominion instantly open the game with barrages of 3 pointers, something Ohio didn’t seem to anticipate. Lots of open shots were made and the Monarchs' length and height helped them on offense heavily.
“They’re just more aggressive than us, " Ranallo said. “We kind of just sat back and let them do it, but we need to set the tone earlier.”
Despite how well Old Dominion was able to shoot the ball, Ohio was able to still get a lot of rebounds, something the team struggled with this season. This allowed Ohio to get up 18 shots in the quarter and despite making less than Old Dominion, it allowed the Bobcats to end the quarter down 5, with the score being 24-19.
“People are going to be able to make tough shots even when we play good defense,” Ohio’s Aliah McWhorter said. “It goes back to doing our principles, doing our work early, don’t let them catch the ball and if she likes to go right ,take away that hand.”
Ohio continued to struggle in the second quarter, with a shooting percentage of 33.33%. The Bobcats were somewhat able to overcome this though, with 8 points off of free throws. Old Dominion also had a huge dip in shooting after its blazing hot first quarter which gave Ohio some leeway with its own offense. The second quarter ended with Ohio still down, only this time by 4 points with a score of 44-40.
“I thought we generated good shots," Ohio coach Bob Bolden said. “We missed a couple of them and they blocked a couple of them too. They were big, long and athletic and got off the ground quickly.”
Ohio continued to chip away at Old Dominion's lead in the third quarter. The Monarchs once again struggles to regain that shot they had in the first. Ohio finally shot over 40% from the field and it showed. The Bobcats looked like they had control this entire quarter. McWhorter also started to slash to the rim more and it showed, as Ohio’s score consistently went up while Old Dominion’s remained stagnant.
“Definitely as a team we shoot a lot of threes, but my game is kind of more inside getting to the rim,” McWhorter said. “That’s something we’ve been emphasizing these past couple of weeks.”
Ohio’s rebounding was still going strong, despite Elli Garnett fouling out in the second quarter. A team effort on the rebounds made up for it. This allowed Ohio to end the third quarter down by 2 points, the score being 61-59. Ohio went into the final quarter with a good chance to win.
“I think it's just being in the right place at the right time,” McWhorter said. “It works for all of us to get our rebounds and get our steals.”
Ohio’s poor layup shooting inevitably caught up to it in this quarter. The Monarchs also caught fire from three again, making three out of their four. In what looked like a winnable game for Ohio quickly evaporated towards the end, as costly turnovers and shooting errors mounted to become too much. Ohio would lose the game 84-76, with the game being within a few scores for almost the entirety of the duration.
“This was a bizarre game to play, " Coach Bolden said. “It puts a lot of stress on your staff to try and figure out a gameplan for kids that you don’t know a whole lot about.”
With this loss, Ohio returns to MAC play in its next game, traveling to Toledo for a game on Tuesday.
