Ohio (11-17 overall, 8-9 Mid-American Conference) picked up its second road win of the season on Wednesday night when it took down Akron (10-18 overall, 5-12 Mid-American Conference) 72-63.
Ohio officially clinched a spot in the MAC tournament, something that looked out of reach coming into this season. After a 6 win season the year prior and the transfer of star guard Yaya Felder, Ohio has made its way back to Cleveland after a convincing win over Akron.
Ohio’s game plan was clear from the jump: do whatever it takes to slow down Akron’s star center Reagan Bass. While Bass did finish the game with 22 points, Ohio didn’t make it easy for her, as it was constantly swarming her around the paint and denying her the ball in the opening quarter.
Without Bass as a safety blanket, Akron was held to just 9 first-quarter points that came on a dismal 20% shooting from the field.
Ohio’s Kennedi Watkins finished the game with a game-leading 24 points on 8-15 shooting from the floor, and her hot first-quarter start that saw her finish the opening frame with six points put her on the right track for her big day.
The second quarter saw the Zips fight back, due mostly to their ability to make the open threes the Bobcats were letting them shoot.
With the game plan so heavily focused on stopping Bass and filling the paint, the perimeter was often a second thought for Ohio, leaving Akron’s guards free rein to fire from behind the arc.
In the first quarter, it worked, with Akron only shooting 1-7 from distance. In the second quarter, Akron shot 3-9 from deep, a noticeable increase that showed on the scoreboard, with Akron chipping away at Ohio’s lead and going into the half down three.
Ohio’s third quarters have typically been lackluster this season, but the third quarter Wednesday night was anything but lackluster.
The Bobcats scored 24 points in the third, the most in any quarter by either team and they did it by running the offense through Jaya McClure and Kennedi Watkins.
McClure and Watkins were able to get to the free throw line early for some easy points and when McClure wasn’t knocking down floaters or mid-range jumpers, she was finding teammates like Bailey Tabeling for open looks from behind the arc.
The third quarter allowed Ohio to regain a comfortable 10-point lead going into the final quarter.
In the fourth quarter, Ohio did everything right to hold onto its lead. The Bobcats were excellent at shooting the ball from all levels in the final frame, shooting 50% from the field, 60% from three, and most importantly 75% from the free-throw line to hold their lead and not allow Akron to gain momentum.
With the win, Ohio clinched a spot in the MAC tournament with one regular season game left to go at Miami. While the tournament implications aren’t as high, Saturday’s Battle of the Bricks in Oxford remains an ever-important game.
