Ohio is a new-look team compared to a year ago and will return to action Thursday against Detroit.
For as strong as Ohio’s offense has been, its defense has been just as dominant.
The first two games of the season the Bobcats have outscored their competition by 98 points and have forced 47 turnovers.
“I think our defense came from our offense,” freshman forward Kelly Karlis said. “Some of our defensive hype came from our offense knocking down shots.”
But some of that dominance comes from the team’s ability to adapt its game plan for every opponent, playing to its weaknesses.
During Monday’s 84-37 win against Wofford, there were situations when the Bobcats knew their opponent’s plays and were in position before the Terriers even got in their places to run the play.
“We go through a series of plays in the fall that we see a lot of throughout the year, and they happened to run one of those plays,” coach Bob Boldon said. “We were familiar with that set…but it was nice to seem them carry over things we worked on in the fall.
That hasn’t come from weeks of study or preparation for every opponent. It wasn’t until late Monday when he would finally look at tape for Thursday’s game against Detroit.
“My brain isn’t big enough to be able to figure out a scouting report of two teams at one time,” Boldon said. “Thankfully my assistants are a lot smarter than me, and they’ve already been watching some Detroit edits to give me some ideas and go from there.”
The only thing Boldon knew about his team’s matchup is that it’ll put together a strong performance and continue its hard work from the offseason.
Detroit enters the contest at 1-1, including a loss to Michigan and a win over NAIA Marygrove College.
Freshman guard Darianne Seward leads Detroit scoring averaging 17 points per game, while redshirt sophomore guard Rosanna Reynolds averages 13 points. Haleigh Ristovski has averaged seven rebounds per contest.
“In this team, they’ve matured in a year,” Boldon said.” They work harder on a more regular basis. At times last year I think we worked hard when it was convenient, and I think this team seems to work hard more regularly.”
It’s too early in the year to say this is a new Ohio squad, but there’s definitely a sense of responsibility and collectiveness that was missing throughout the team’s first season with Bob Boldon.
“I think at this time last year, we were trying to figure everything out,” junior guard Kiyanna Black said. “There was a new coaching staff, and we were just trying to make some trust…we’ve started off good, but there’s a lot of things we need to work on. To be a great team, we need to build from here, and it will get better.”
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