For much of the night Ohio looked like it was going to pull off the improbable and defeat the Mid-American Conference East Division leaders Bowling Green, but midway through the second half the Falcons took it to another level and never looked back.
Good teams always seem to find a way to win and that’s exactly what the Falcons did shrugging off a poor first half shooting performance to hand the Bobcats their fourth straight loss 78-62.
Bowling Green came out on fire as they started the game with a 10-0 run. From there Ohio took as throughout the rest of the first half and into the early part of the second half they controlled the tempo of the game leading by as many as 10 over the heavily favored Falcons.
Unfortunately for the Bobcats, Ohio hit a wall late in the second half and didn’t a single field goal with less than seven minutes to go. Not only did the Ohio offense collapse, but so did the defense, as Bowling Green finished the game on a 20-4 run.
“Offensively the last five minutes we couldn’t get a shot to fall,” coach Bob Boldon said. “Defensively, we couldn’t get a shot and that’s a terrible combination when you can’t score and you can’t stop them from scoring. It makes a competitive game get ugly real quickly.”
In the past four games, Ohio’s defense has allowed 37 points or more in the second half that trend continued tonight as they gave up 47 points to the Falcons.
“Just saying that we can beat Toledo and Bowling Green in a half isn’t good enough,” sophomore guard Kat Yelle said. “We should be able to do that in two halves now. We just have to figure out how to finish it. We know that if we can beat them in the first 20 minutes then we can sure beat them in the last 20 minutes too.”
Yelle lead the offensive production most of the night with 10 points and four assists. Coach Boldon used her in the post against the undersized Bowling Green guards to get to the hole and free throw line.
“We usually make that adjustment depending on who’s guarding me,” Yelle said. “Coach just likes to pair me up with other point guards and hopefully get a basket because he seems to think I’m stronger than most point guards so that gives me the leverage to hopefully score on them.”
The Bobcats hit the road this weekend to face yet another tough opponent in Central Michigan. They lead the conference in scoring averaging more than 88 points a game in MAC play. They are led by US Olympian guard Crystal Bradford.
Undefeated in MAC play it will be another tough game for Ohio as they look to break their four-game losing streak.
@Kovarandrew
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