Sports
Ohio Women’s Basketball: Bobcats Return to Action, Fall at Akron
By: Max Brunke
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The Ohio Bobcats (12-7, 10-6 MAC) fell to the Akron Zips (7-13, 4-13) Wednesday night in the final days of the regular season, 71-67.
It was a rough night shooting for the Bobcats, and the slow start set the tone for what was yet to come. The Zips caught them on their heels, and opened up the game with a 9-0 run.
Ohio pulled it back in the second quarter, and took their first lead with 9:01 left in the half. Unfortunately, Akron was shooting dimes and extended their lead to 13 at halftime, leading 42-29.
Ohio finished the half making almost half the shots Akron were, sitting with 29.4 percent field goals compared to Akrons 60.7 percent. It was especially bad from beyond the arc, going 1 for 13 from three point range in the first half.
“We’ve got to shoot the ball better,” Ohio head coach Bob Boldon said in a postgame radio interview. “You can’t shoot 20 percent from the three and 35 percent from the floor and win.”
Cece Hooks had a great night as usual, and was a key part to keeping the game close in the first half. She finished the half with 18 of the Bobcats 29 points.
“She was spectacular,” Boldon said.
The nation’s fourth highest points-per-game earner was in fact “spectacular”, finishing the night with 33 points.
The Bobcats managed to mount another comeback later on thanks to a 23 point third quarter, which brought the game within six. They even led midway through the fourth quarter, and were neck to neck until Hooks came out of the game with a supposed calf cramp.
“Our team deserves a lot of credit,” Boldon said. “We dug ourselves a hole, Akron played well and we didn’t. We got ourselves down a little bit, but our team showed some resilience and toughness to get ourselves back in the game.”
The Bobcats resume action on Saturday back at the Convocation Center for their regular season finale against Miami (OH), and will hope to turn tonight’s performance into a lesson.
“That’s the way basketball goes. We’ll get back to practice tomorrow and try to be better on Saturday,” Boldon said.