Sports
Ohio Women’s Basketball: Ohio’s offense disappears in Toledo
By: Ben Wielgopolski
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TOLEDO, Ohio — As the weather got colder in Northwest Ohio, so did the Ohio womens basketball team’s shots in the first half against the Toledo Rockets. Ohio’s (20-3, 9-3 MAC) worst shooting performance led to their largest loss of the season falling 76-50 to the Rockets (15-7, 7-4 MAC) Wednesday night.
Ohio went 9-of-40 from the field and 2-of-15 from beyond the arc. In a match up against the top defense in the Mid-American Conference, the Bobcats had issues breaking such a tough and impenetrable defense.
The Rockets contested every shot and made life miserable for Ohio all night long.
“Toledo did a really good job at protecting the paint,” Boldon said. “We had a hard time getting layups, and when we did they weren’t good ones.”
The Rockets are known for their impressive defense, but what had the spotlight on Toledo was not what they were ranked for. It was a surprisingly fast and ferocious offense that swept Ohio out from under their feet.
Toledo held Ohio to just nine points in the first quarter despite the Bobcats leading 2-0 for a small period until Toledo’s Nakiah Black took charge of Savage Arena to lead a sold offensive attack for Toledo.
Ohio had a very difficult time with matching up to Toledo’s pace of play, which made it so the Rockets could unleash some unfamiliar offense on the Bobcats who were far too caught up in the mix with the strong Rocket defense. Bobcat Erica Johnson (15 ppg) was held to zero points until she ended with four for the night in the fourth quarter.
In the third quarter, Ohio turned up the heat with a strong 7-0 run to give some push back to the Rockets. It was a valiant effort for the Bobcats but one that couldn’t last.
“I thought we played with good energy and coming out in the third we just couldn’t get stops,” Boldon said.
Toledo then brought it back to a double-digit lead. Bobcat Cece Hooks made the final attempt to bring it within nine, but couldn’t do it before the buzzer.
The fourth quarter came quickly as the Toledo went on a 7-0 run at the start. That would prove to be the knock out blow as it put the game out of reach for Ohio to muster any sort of comeback in the game.
Ohio still struggled with shots falling as they could only score 10 points while their opponents dropped 26.
Ohio looks ahead to redeem themselves when they next play Western Michigan on Saturday, Feb. 16 back home at the Convocation Center.