Ohio's win streak reaches 12 thanks to Lexie Baldwin's late-game heroics.
The play was executed exactly how coach Bob Boldon drew it.
With Quiera Lampkins inbounding the ball, Lexie Baldwin stood at the free throw line. Baldwin evaded her defender and had an open layup.
“I anticipated that they would try and foul me,” Baldwin said. “I just knew I had to make the basket.”
Baldwin made the shot and was fouled. The score was now 67-67 with 4.3 seconds left.
The Ohio bench was delirious. Boldon punched the air with one hand while the other still held the clipboard with the drawn-up play.
Baldwin made the free throw, and Ohio evaporated its nine-point deficit in the span of three minutes to beat Ball State 68-67 on Saturday afternoon in Muncie, Indiana.
The win keeps the Bobcats (17-3, 9-0 Mid-American Conference) undefeated in MAC play, giving them a two-game lead above the Cardinals and the rest of the conference.
But the win also gave future opponents a stark realization: Ohio is a complete team on both sides of the ball.
For as much credit as this sentiment means in Saturday's win, the same could be distributed to Boldon and his coaching staff.
With a 32-29 lead at halftime, the team was sinking into serious foul trouble. Starters Jasmine Weatherspoon and Kiyanna Black had four fouls and three fouls, respectively; Baldwin and Yamonie Jenkins had an additional two each.
Ohio started the second half as defensively aggressive as it left the first but kept the foul total down. Hannah Boesinger, who had three fouls at halftime, was the only player to foul out.
In the three years Boldon has been at Ohio, a lack of personnel depth and rising foul totals have forced him to alter his schemes and adapt to the game flow. His team did the same against Ball State but didn’t lose any intensity.
The biggest moment for Boldon came from the play drawn on the clipboard.
When he called a timeout with 5.7 seconds left, he had to make arguably his toughest play call in his time at Ohio.
He didn’t call on Black, who is consistently the leading scorer and already had a team-high 23 points.
He also didn’t call on Lampkins, who already had 14 points, including her 1,000 career point from a free throw midway through the third quarter.
Instead, he had Lampkins inbound the ball and feed it to Baldwin.
Ohio struggles around the rim. Boldon, knowing Ball State might expect a 3-pointer, deliberately attacked the low post.
His play worked.
Multiple times this season, the Bobcats have proven their dominance in the MAC. Usually, the lopsided score lines provide lucid indication.
That wasn’t the case in Muncie. Rather, the win took adjustments from Boldon, who is still plotting unmapped scenarios along with his team.
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Boldon and the Bobcats have now won 12 consecutive games. That’s the longest run by the program since 1985-86.
Usually, the team can win comfortably and Boldon can quietly guide on the side.
On Saturday, the team needed another spark of innovation, and it happened on a clipboard that translated into the best play this season.
@charliehatch_
gh181212@ohio.edu
