Despite a career-high 23 points from Ciara Iglehart, the Ohio women's basketball team could not sneak away with a victory last night on the road against Western Michigan.
A 13-2 run in the first half and an 8-0 run to begin the second half by the Broncos would put the Bobcats in a hole they could not dig out of in the 88-77 loss.
They came out and jumped on us right away
coach Lynn Bria said. I thought we were a little bit flat in the first half and they're the kind of team that thrives on their offense. If they get their offense going the defense gets better.
Ohio (6-11, 3-3 Mid-American Conference) would never hold a lead in the contest and saw their last tie after a Simone Redd jumper made the score 4-4 less than two minutes into the game.
Bobcat turnovers and hot Bronco shooting would then propel Western Michigan (7-10, 4-2 MAC) to a 13-2 run that Ohio would fail to ever recover from.
Led by eight points from Redd and seven points from guard Rachel Frederick, the Bobcats would manage to keep within striking distance but could cut the lead under double-digits only once. After being down by as many as 16 at one point, a 7-2 Bobcat run at the end of the half kept the Bobcats in the game, down 41-28.
Unfortunately for Ohio, Western Michigan would come out of the gate just as strong as they had in the first half, putting the game out of reach with an 8-0 run that left the Bobcats trailing 49-30.
From that point on, Ohio would hang tough, but the big lead would be too much for the Bobcats to overcome. Iglehart performed at her best near the end of the second half when she scored eight consecutive points to bring the Bobcats within nine points with one minute remaining.
It seemed like we couldn't get anything going until the second half
Bria said. We played right with them in the second half. You can't let a team like that get ahead of you early
though
because they can score points in a hurry.
Iglehart would lead all scorers with her 23 points. Frederick and Redd were the next best for the Bobcats with 20 and 15 points respectively.
All of Western Michigan's starters managed to score in double-figures with Carrie Moore leading the way with 19 points.
Ohio will take the floor next at 3 p.m. on Saturday at Northern Illinois.
- Andrew Gribble
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Andrew Gribble
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