Dec. 22, 2005
Final Stats
CLEVELAND, Ohio - Back in her hometown, Cleveland-native Simone Redd matched a career-high with 26 points, while Rachel Frederick hit for 25 to lead the Ohio women's basketball team to a 76-64 victory Thursday over Cleveland State in Goodman Arena.
Frederick (Gibsonia, Pa.), a true freshman, matched the offensive production of the entire Cleveland State offense in the first half, going to the break with 17 points and leading the Bobcats (3-7) to a 37-17 advantage. She'd finish with 25, two points short of her career-high set at East Carolina.
Redd (Warrensville Heights, Ohio), who attended Cleveland's Regina High School, scored 17 of her 26 points in the second half. Her effort helped hold off a resilient Viking attack that outscored the Bobcats 47-39 in the second frame. Redd's 26 points tie a career-best, a mark she originally set Feb. 19, 2005 against Northern Illinois.
Redd chipped in eight rebounds, as did Domenica Silva (Sao Paulo, Brazil), who made just her third appearance of the season after missing the beginning of the slate with a hand injury. Silva also scored four points, the first of her career as a Bobcat.
Erin Martin scored 17 points, Omega Harrington kicked in 13, and Nicole Thomas grabbed a game-high 13 boards for the Vikings (2-8).
The Bobcats went to the break having completed one of the most dominant halves of basketball of the 2005-06 season. Frederick was the catalyst for an Ohio squad that took a 20-point lead into the break at 37-17. Frederick hit for 17 points in the half, knocking down 6-of-10 tries from the floor and 4-of-5 free-throw attempts.
Trailing by a point in the early going, Ciara Iglehart (Mission Viejo, Calif.) scored six-straight points to give the Bobcats a lead they'd never relinquish. Ohio trailed 6-2, then scored 23 of the game's next 26 points and took over the momentum of the contest.
Ohio led by nine, 18-9, as the clock dipped below the 13-minute mark when Frederick heated up. She scored 11 of Ohio's next 13 points, a run that pushed the Bobcat lead to 31-15 with just more than four minutes left in the half.
Ohio took its largest lead, a 24-point edge, on four different occasions in the second half. The Vikings did, though, rally back in the second stanza. After connecting on just 7-of-25 (28 percent) of its tries in the first half, Cleveland State hit 19-of-36 (52.8 percent) attempts in the second frame to tighten the lead.
Cleveland State cut the Ohio lead to 10, 68-58, at the 2:45 mark of the second half. A three-point play for Frederick and five points by Redd in the final 82 seconds, however, sealed the Bobcat win down the stretch.
The Vikings entered the contest with the nation's current-longest streak of games with a three-pointer at 367. The Bobcats held Cleveland State empty from the three-point line in the first half, but the Vikings were able to knock down five in the second frame to up the mark to 368, moving them into sole possession of second place all-time.
Ohio now has a seven-game winning streak over Cleveland State.
With the longest road trip of the season in the books, Ohio will now return to Athens for three-straight. First, the Bobcats will take a weeklong holiday break. Ohio returns to the floor Friday, Dec. 30 in The Convo. The Bobcats will meet Duquesne at 6 p.m.
