Ohio claimed a 95-70 win against Northern Illinois on Saturday.
The Bobcats had 43 points in Wednesday's loss at Buffalo: They surpassed that total with about three minutes left in their Saturday 95-70 win — their regular-season high in points — against the Huskies.
That was helped primarily by the litany of turnovers that Northern Illinois gifted Ohio in the first quarter, during which the Bobcats scored 16 points off of the Huskies' 11 turnovers.
"I thought our intensity was pretty good, thought we tried really hard," coach Bob Boldon said of the first quarter.
Ohio has averaged about 18 points in the first quarter this season. It had 30 on Saturday and held NIU to just eight.
The Huskies were able to almost double that point total in the second quarter, but by then the Bobcats led by 29 points and the game seemed out of reach.
Ohio dominated for a multitude of reasons, but it all started with getting junior forward Jasmine Weatherspoon back on the court.
She was absent in Wednesday's loss to Buffalo and having her back — and watching junior guard Quiera Lampkins receive recognition for reaching her 1,000th point when the Bobcats last played the Huskies in Dekalb, Illinois, on Jan. 23 — invigorated Ohio on both sides of the court.
"Terrific," Boldon said of having Weatherspoon back on the floor. "You go through stretches and that's part of the season. We played without Jas, we played a game without Hannah, we've played a game without Kelly, you've got to deal with it. ... It's great to have your whole roster available to you."
Lampkins was adament about what Weatherspoon means to Ohio.
"We needed her," Lampkins said. "We really do need her to have our back. She's our backbone."
Weatherspoon's presence under the basket deterred many of the Huskies from venturing inside, and she and the other forwards easily rebounded over the smaller Northern players and gave Ohio multiple opportunities at second-chance points.
Points were plentiful across Ohio's roster, as every player, except redshirt senior Mariah Harris, scored at least one point. That kind of contribution from everyone on the bench must make Boldon confident in his team snagging another conference championship by the end of the season.
"It's a good feeling," Boldon said. "These kids, one, they work hard in practice so you want to try and get them some game minutes. Two, you don't know what's going to happen next week, next month, the tournament. You don't know who you're going to have to call on to get minutes.
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"I think it's great that we can play the amount of players that we played tonight."
One downside of the game occurred when junior guard Yamonie Jenkins limped off the court in the third quarter, but Boldon said it was just precautionary and she should be good to go for the next game.
They may not be undefeated in conference play anymore, but with a set of games against a Toledo, who can't cope with the best teams in the Mid-American Conference, on Feb. 13 and a middling Miami team back at The Convo on Feb. 17, the Bobcats look like they'll be leaders in the MAC East for at least a couple more weeks.
@KellenBecoats
@kb749012@ohio.edu
