Junior guard Kiyanna Black and the Bobcats will travel to Oxford seeking their 20th win on the season.
With eight points against Bowling Green on Wednesday, junior guard Kiyanna Black became the 14th player in program history to score 1,000 career points.
With seven games left in Ohio’s already-historical season, who knows where Black may end up in terms of all-time scoring.
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“She wants to win, she has a strong desire to win and she knows that in order to win,” coach Bob Boldon said. “That’s one of the things that help us win is her ability to put the ball in the basket, and she works at it.”
Black’s offensive production has been Ohio’s catalyst for the majority of the season, and Saturday’s matchup against Miami (•4-18, 1-10 Mid-American Conference) could be predictable — in terms of Black’s performance.
Black averages over 15 points per game and has lead the Bobcats (19-3, 10-1 MAC) in scoring 11 times this season. The Redhawks, who have the worst scoring offenses and one of the worst scoring defenses in the MAC during conference play, could be a solid matchup for Black and the Bobcats.
“It’s not always going to be pretty, we’re not always going to start off on a 25-point run. Teams want to beat us so they’re going to come out and give us their best effort every night,” Black said. “It’s not always going to be easy.”
Miami is coming off a 69-53 win over Kent State — its first conference win. RedHawks guard Baileigh Reid leads the Redhawks in scoring this season with just 9.6 points per game.
Black and the offense slumped early against the Falcons, only scoring 10 points in the first 10 minutes of play, before going on a 28-18 run to finish the first half.
Boldon, however, seemed confident the slow starts against Bowling Green and Kent State on wouldn’t become a habit.
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“The kids take things one game at a time and realizing that in victory, or defeat, we got things that gotta do better,” Boldon said. “When we shoot the ball poorly, we work hard and fix it.”
The Bobcats are on a nine-game winning streak — their longest this season — and a win against the Redhawks could symbolize the Bobcats’ complete turnaround from last season. This time a year ago, Ohio was amidst a 10-game losing streak.
“Everybody we play is practicing just as much as we’re practicing and they’re trying to come up with a plan to beat us,” Boldon said. “And I know that because last year we were the worst team in the conference and we still practiced and we still tried to come up with plans, sometimes we didn’t come up with very good plans … we still tried to win the game we were playing.”
A win would also give Ohio its 20th win of the season — the first time since 2007-08.
“Every game we play is going to be a big game because everybody wants to beat us so we just have to come out and bring it every night and not underestimate anybody,” junior guard Mariah Harris said.
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