Sports
Ohio Pulls Away From Bowling Green Late
By: John Jarosik
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It was a tough, hard-fought, grind-it-out game at the Convocation Center Wednesday night, but Ohio came away with their second-straight victory after defeating Mid-American Conference opponent Bowling Green 79-68.
This game however, was not as easy as the first match-up between these two teams back on New Year’s Eve. Ohio stormed out of the gate for the second game in a row, scoring 23 points on 8-12 shooting and held a 23-13 advantage heading into the second quarter. However, Ohio was unable to put the Eagles away early, getting outscored 21-15 in the second and allowing many second chance opportunities.
The game was pretty even from that point on, but when then the fourth quarter hit, the Bobcats turned up their play and were able to finally pull away from Bowling Green late in the quarter.
This was a game of runs from start to finish and sure enough, the Bobcats were on the right side and had their runs at the right time. Ohio had a 10-point lead early in the fourth but that vanished after Bowling Green made a small 6-0 run of their own. However, after they got it to a 65-61 score, Ohio took over from there and ended the game on a 14-7 run.
This will go down as one of the Bobcats most impressive wins of the season. They shot more than 50 percent from the field in the first half, had a 15-4 edge in points off turnovers and were able to grind out a win against a Bowling Green team that’s been hard to beat as of late.
They were also able to play well without their leading scorer, Quiera Lamkins, who averages 20 points per game, scoring a single point in the first quarter. She ended up with a game-high 23 after getting hot from the field in the second quarter and had nine of the teams 15 points in that period. For the game, the Bobcats hit 47 percent of their shots from the field, went 25-36 from the free-throw line and made eight 3-pointers.
Despite getting out rebounded 41-31, this game was played at Ohio’s pace all night and the Bobcats were able to turn the switch on whenever they wanted. With the win, the Bobcats swept the season series against their division rival and reached the 20-win plateau for the third consecutive season. The team now sits at 20-8 overall and 11-6 in the conference with one more game remaining against Akron on Saturday at 2 p.m.
As of Wednesday, however, the Bobcats lost out on a shot to get a first-round bye in the upcoming MAC Tournament with Kent State beating Miami on Wednesday night. Going into the last game of the regular season, a win will give Ohio the five seed in the tourney or a loss by them and win by Buffalo will give them the six seed. There’s always something to play for in March and Ohio can end the year off on a three-game win streak before heading into the postseason.