Following a loss to James Madison on Monday, Ohio is looking to clean up some of its mistakes it displayed in the first half of the season at the Georgia State Tournament.
The tournament, which will be held in Atlanta, will have the Bobcats tip off against La Salle (6-3) on Friday and Massachusetts (5-4) on Saturday.
Going in, the Bobcats (6-2) have dropped their previous two and will attempt to fix a slumping shooting percentage in their final three non-conference games of the season.
“I feel like there are always positives in a game, but we don’t take moral victories,” junior guard Kiyanna Black said. “We set the standards high for ourselves and we just don’t accept moral victories.”
Black, who had 17 points in Ohio’s 69-62 loss to James Madison, helped Ohio jump out to its best start in almost 30 years by shooting 51 percent from the field in the first two wins of the season. In the past two losses, however, Black has gone 10 for 35 from the field — a 29 percent shooting percentage.
Despite facing tougher opponents in James Madison and East Carolina, Ohio’s shooting percentage, as a whole, has declined.
In early wins against Manhattan and Morehead State, Ohio shot 55 and 45 percent from the field, respectively, but against East Carolina on Dec. 6 and James Madison on Monday, Black and the Bobcats shot 39 percent.
“(Against JMU) was very choppy and I think we can play that game. When we’re locked in we guard pretty well, and that benefits the defense when that starts happening because there is no flow in the game,” coach Bob Boldon said. “I thought defensively, we were okay but I thought offensively, we were just too stagnant. We’ve got to be more comfortable playing half-court basketball.”
Redshirt junior guard Mariah Harris, who made her Ohio debut Monday, could be more involved in Boldon’s game plan this weekend. The Bobcats already have a deep bench and Harris could provide more ball handling to a backcourt that averages just 13.6 turnover per game.
Harris transferred from Michigan State to Ohio this fall and wasn’t allowed to play in the Bobcat’s first seven games because of NCAA transfer regulations. At Michigan State, Harris played 18 total games off the bench.
“I know there were some jitters and it would have been nice to get her in against some other teams that we’ve played, but she just became eligible Friday,” Boldon said. “We’ve got three more non-conference games with her before we get to conference schedule. I don’t personally think she is a point guard, but I thought she showed her versatility and did a lot of good things for us tonight.”
The Bobcats may also see sophomore point guard Yamonie Jenkins return to action sometime soon, as Jenkins suffered a concussion in Ohio’s 76-68 loss to East Carolina and sat out Monday. Jenkins has paced the Bobcats with a team-best 26 assists and at one point led the nation in assist-to-turnover ratio.
For Ohio’s opponents, La Salle is coming off a 70-36 loss to Villanova, which ended its six-game winning streak. Massachusetts goes into the tournament beating its last two opponents by double digits. UMass’ leading scorer, senior forward Kim Peirre-Louis, leads the team in scoring with 159 total points this season.
“I think we’re small, but we can still compete with the big teams. It’s all about boxing out. It’s not height, it’s about sticking to the principals and boxing out every time,” Black said. “If you put a body on somebody, no matter how big they are, nine times out of ten its going to beat it.”
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