Perfect season comes to a close Saturday night in The Convo.
Ohio’s perfect season came slammed to a halt Saturday night as East Carolina outsized and outplayed the Bobcats in The Convo.
Despite both teams trading baskets for most of the contest, a 16-0 run triggered by East Carolina’s Shae Nelson’s three-consecutive three-pointers gave the Pirates a 76-68 win over the Bobcats, and their first loss of the year.
“We knew that when she touched the ball she was going to shoot,” coach Bob Boldon said. “We tried to force her into tough shots…Good teams have good players that take tough shots. I thought she made a couple big shots for them.”
But it was a three-pointer from East Carolina’s Jada Payne that put the Pirates up 64-49 with 7:50 to play clinched the loss, Boldon said.
“That one really hurts because that’s the one that you know she’s going to do it,” he said. “They’re going to live or die with that Nelson gives you, but you can’t give a kid as good as Jada Payne that look.”
The Bobcats started the game with an 11-0 run but faltered as East Carolina’s defensive press suffocated the Ohio offense, forcing 21 turnovers.
What troubled Boldon though, was another second-half allowing opposing teams to cut into Ohio’s leads, or, in the case of tonight, let the game slip away.
Eastern Carolina lead 32-30 at the break, but a 44-point second-half performance was enough give the Bobcats their first loss this season.
Three Pirates hit double digits, with Payne finishing with 22 points, while Jasmine Phillips had 18 and Nelson had 14.
“Our second half defense still sucks,” Boldon said. “For seven-straight games our second half defense has been awful, even the winning-streak continued. We’ve continued another streak of not being to guard in the second half.”
Through the first seven games this year, Ohio has given up an average of almost 32 points per game in the second half (31.9), while only conceding 24.3 points on average in the first half.
Following each contest, Boldon has admitted his team has needed to slow down opposing offenses in the second half, yet the Bobcats have walked away with wins.
Saturday was the first time it came back to hurt them.
“I just like to think of it as a test,” sophomore guard Quiera Lampkins said. “We didn’t pass it, but we didn’t fail. Last year that team would’ve totally given up when they went on that run.”
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