Sports
Detroit Drops Ohio, Bobcats Fall to 1-5
By: Colin Hanner
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In their first meeting in almost ten years, Ohio (1-5) welcomed Detroit (4-3) to the Convo on Sunday, but the contest furthered Ohio’s losing streak to five straight. The green and white’s bench proved its effectiveness, but the Bobcat’s unproductiveness from its starters looked to decide the end result, as the Titans won 65-53.
Head coach Semeka Randall expressed her frustration with the team’s poor performance and the inability to finish a game.
“We should be to a point where we are sick and tired of coming up with the same results in terms of our attitude and mindset, which both have to change…For whatever reason, we stopped working. I have no answer for that. At times, this team is a roller coaster: they do things right and they buy in, then we just go away from it,” said Randall.
In the first half, the Bobcats were outscored 6-0 in first two minutes of play, only to rebound with an offensive attack off the bench. Freshmen Kiyanna Black and Alex’ie Baldwin, as well as junior Erin Bailes, accounted for 23 of the Bobcats’ 27 first half points and 43 of 53 for the entire game. Black finished her second straight game with double-digit points (15) and Baldwin had nine points and nine rebounds.
“I’m very proud of Erin [Bailes] being ready, Kiyanna [Black] with back-to-back games. She’s [Kiyanna] put that pressure on me that it’s time to make a change,” said Randall.
The green and white’s starters accounted for 10 points and 16 rebounds, two less than that of Bailes, Black and Baldwin combined. Coach Randall said that she would change the starting lineup based upon the performance of, or lack thereof, the team’s starters.
The Bobcats had a scoring drought lasting 8:29 minutes in the first half, in which the Titans went on a 13-0 scoring run. Ohio also failed to get to the charity stripe at all during the first half and only had four shots from the line the entire game.
Where Ohio did allocate their focus was beyond the arc, where the team shot a season-high 23 three-point shots, converting on eight. Bailes finished with five threes and a team-high 19 points.
Before trekking to Athens, the Titans were outscoring opponents by an average of over six points a game, as well as shooting well over 44% from the field. With a run-of-the-mill three-point field goal percentage (32%), Detroit looked to its presence in the paint, where they finished with 44 points compared to Ohio’s 14. Shareta Brown, one of the top scorers in the country, proved to be a testament to Ohio’s defense in the post, especially with the lack of size the green and white have.
Randall notes that this team has lacked in terms of defense down low, but that the excuse of lack of size should be replaced with the team’s overall effort.
“This team is getting in a really bad cycle of playing 24 minutes here, maybe 35 minutes there, but for our team, because we lack that height and size and depth in the paint, we have to play 40 minutes,” said Randall.
Averaging over 24 points per game before today’s contest, Brown has scored over 30 points in two games this season: her season-low is 16 points against Penn State. She had a double-double halfway through the second half and finished with 19 points and 15 rebounds.
“She’s a big kid, she knows how to make big plays,” said Randall. “We knew we were going to spend a lot of our fouls trying to defend her.”
Ohio limited Brown to her second lowest point total this season, but the Titans looked to Rosanna Reynolds and Demeisha Fambro, who had 14 and 17 points, respectively.
Having only won their first game against Cleveland State, as well as a close-battle exhibition game with Wheeling Jesuit, the Bobcats are undoubtedly in somewhat of a funk, but Randall claims that this streak could lead to worse if things don’t change soon.
“This could be a bad domino-effect if we don’t change who we are right now,” said Randall.
The Bobcats play Thursday night at 7 p.m. against Eastern Kentucky at the Convo. They are looking for their first win in nearly a month.