Sports
Scoring Drought Costs Ohio vs. Duquesne
< < Back toThe Ohio Bobcats (1-3) led for most of the game, but a nine-minute drought without a field goal was the difference as Ohio lost to Duquesne (4-1) 62-55 Sunday.
The Bobcats were held without any points from the 9:52 mark of the second half until a Shavon Robinson free throw with 1:40 to play. Then, Robinson ended the field goal drought with one minute left on a layup to make it 56-53 Duquesne.
Robinson led Ohio with 18 points for the Bobcats.
“Shavon made two critical threes and that’s not really her character of her game,” Bobcats head coach Semeka Randall said. “When a player’s flowing and rolling like that, you can’t take that away from her and she got hot for us today.”
Duquesne was led by Belma Nurkic, who scored 16 of her 19 points in the second half.
Nurkic was the one that kept Duquesne in the game when Ohio went on a 10-0 run in the middle of the second half. Nurkic hit a three to stop that run at 45-41, then Ohio scored five more points before two more Nurkic threes stopped that run to make it 50-47.
“(Nurkic) got rolling just like Shavon did in the first half,” Randall said. “It’s kind of that reverse mode and players like that are going to step up and make shots. We knew she was going to be a pivotal player for their team and she makes that team go.”
It was the same story in the first half for Ohio. They got out to an early 13-5 lead after four quick three pointers.
Duquesne would climb back though eventually taking a 32-31 halftime lead led by forward Wumi Agunbiade. She had 12 of her 14 points in the first half, as well as 8 of her 13 rebounds in the first half.
Ohio also received contributions from Mariah Byard, who had all 10 of her points in the first half.
“(We need to) come out in the second half the way we come into the game, just ready to go because it seems like the first half we’re ready and everything goes well,” Robisnon said. “The second half we come out and it’s just highs and lows. We need to know that during the lows we got to get back high and try to be consistent.”
Ohio will play UMass on Thursday at the Convocation Center. Tip-off is at 11:30 a.m.