With Ohio's win Wednesday night, the Bobcats have at least a share of the Mid-American Conference regular season title.
The Bobcats are champions, or at least co-champions.
With an 86-52 win over Kent State on Wednesday night in The Convo, Ohio clinched a share of the Mid-American Conference regular season title. The team only needs one more win in the next three games to have sole possession as the champion.
It couldn’t come at a better time.
While the Bobcats wanted a perfect record in conference play, that streak was snuffed out by the Bulls.
Ohio’s next opponent, which will more likely than not seal the regular season title, will be Buffalo.
Revenge will be delivered on Ohio’s own home floor.
But first, here are three things that stood out from Wednesday’s win.
The score
A clear blowout, the Bobcats have played their best basketball since that loss to Buffalo.
After one postgame press conference, a member of the media asked if Ohio was still angry, playing in spite of the loss.
Maybe. But the reality is that since the loss, Ohio has dismantled each team that takes the court beside it.
With just three games remaining, the Bobcats are building momentum at the perfect time: entering the MAC Tournament in Cleveland next month.
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Hannah Boesinger
Boesinger, a junior, has been used as a utility player throughout her career at Ohio. Usually that means less flashy box scores, but influential minutes.
Against Kent State, she put up a season-high 15 points, which was second only to senior Kiyanna Black’s 19.
Boesinger has always played well against Kent State. When Ohio played at Kent her freshman season, she tied a career-high 18 points.
On Wednesday, one of the team’s quietest players had one of the loudest performances.
Never settling
Even though the Bobcats only need one win in the next three games, that doesn’t mean Ohio won’t take the rest of the regular season seriously.
The Bobcats wanted to finish MAC play undefeated. That didn’t happen, so now they’ll get as close to perfection as possible.
There’s even an argument that Ohio may have needed a loss to generate the best performances from the team moving forward.
But the Bobcats have reasons to close the season with authority.
First off, they want to beat Buffalo because, well, the Bulls beat them.
They also want to go into the MAC Tournament playing consistent basketball. Recently that’s meant consistently good basketball.
The last reason, and perhaps the one that isn’t talked about often, is that the Bobcats need to win to not only get into the NCAA Tournament, but also to get a decent seed.
For a team that is as strong as it was last year when it made the NCAA Tournament, Ohio could push for a seeding higher than the No. 14 label it received before losing to Arizona State in the first round last year.
@charliehatch_
gh181212@ohio.edu
