As another season nears its end, so too does the career of at least one Bobcat standout.
Ohio (11-15, 4-8 Mid-American Conference) will honor redshirt senior guard Tenishia Benson as well as redshirt junior forward Alesia Howard, who might forego her last season of eligibility, Saturday against Kent State (5-17, 4-8 MAC).
“It’s sad, because this could possibly be it for real,” Benson said. “With family coming down and friends coming and not being able to play with these young ladies, it’s going to be sad. There’s nothing happy about it.”
Benson said she was glad that she made it and that she is prepared to move on to the next step in her life.
Now that she has time to digest eclipsing the 1,000-point mark, Benson said she feels it was just like anything else.
“(It feels) the same. I didn’t know until the day before the Akron game,” Benson said.
Ohio coach Semeka Randall said the festivities would be bittersweet and a time to honor the efforts of these players.
“I think it’s going to be emotional. Typical senior days are,” Randall said. “You think about all the sacrifices that these two ladies have made, choosing Ohio and all the hard work that they display out on the hardwood. It will be a bittersweet moment.”
Earlier this season, the Bobcats lost 68-65 at Kent State, giving the Golden Flashes their second win of the season. Ohio led that game at halftime but later surrendered the lead — and the game.
Randall showed the team the game film in hopes of teaching her squad the adjustments it needs to make.
“We showed them the film of how flat we came out, and how we need to come out better,” Randall said. “We’ve done this in typical games where we just didn’t come out ready to go.”
Ohio has a tendency to start games strong but fails to sustain the level of play in the second half. It happened earlier this week at Akron, when the Bobcats blew a nine-point first-half lead.
Benson said the team needs to continue to attack and put the pressure on the other team.
“We have to push the ball. We didn’t get out in transition as much as we normally do,” Benson said. “When we run transition, everything starts flowing, offense starts flowing, defense gets better. Things start opening up when we get in our transition game.”
nr225008@ohiou.edu
