Ohio, which reached 20 wins last Saturday, prepares for a visiting Eastern Michigan.
Ohio has beaten Eastern Michigan before, but that doesn’t mean it’s taking Wednesday’s rematch lightly.
The Bobcats will return to playing inside the confines of The Convo after a two-game road trip to take on an Eagles team recovering from an early season tragedy.
On Jan. 25, Eastern Michigan forward Shannise Heady and student Jordan Hopkins were found dead after being involved in a fatal head-on car crash at around 1 a.m. Heady, a starter for the Eagles, was 21 years old.
Ohio defeated Eastern Michigan 82-59 in Ypsilanti, Michigan, on Jan. 14, as sophomore forward Hannah Boesinger scored 18 points. Heady finished with six points.
“It’s going to be a very emotional game, given the circumstances of what happened to them a few weeks back,” redshirt junior Kat Yelle said. “It’s going to be different than the first time we played them, definitely.”
Eastern Michigan beat Miami in Oxford on Tuesday before making the trip to Athens.
Boldon said the Eagles playing consecutive days could cause some fatigue, but the Bobcats (20-3, 11-1 MAC) also have some mid-season weariness.
“On some level, there is a bit of fatigue,” Boldon said following Ohio’s 67-45 win against Miami. “There’s a lot of stress on your body that you probably don’t realize. As a common person you wouldn’t think about, but there’s a little added stress.”
The Eagles are coming off a full week of absence form basketball because of the untimely death of Heady, while the Bobcats’ starters practiced against a mix of zone defenses from their scout team during practice this week.
Boldon said the Eagles have started to play more zone defense as of late and their energy could be prevalent early on.
“I think they played hard (when we played them) and they still play hard,” Boldon said. “They’re a team that has recently played more zone than man, they played us with a little bit of man. I thought there’s some things they did well down the stretch, they would like to recreate those.”
Over his two seasons at Ohio, Boldon’s teams have notoriously been known for perimeter shooting, but Ohio has also continued to work on its post play on the offensive end.
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Tuesday, the Bobcats practiced some two-on-one drills, in which the guards drove into the lane and passed across the key to a post player.
Against Miami, the Bobcats struggled to get into the paint against a RedHawks team that features one of the worst defenses in the MAC. Ohio scored 28 of its 67 points inside the paint.
“Obviously shooting the ball makes things look a lot better than they really are,” Boldon said. “We tried to prepare for a little bit of everything today.”
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