March 4, 2007
ATHENS, Ohio - The No. 3 seed Ohio women's basketball team advanced to the quarterfinals of the 2007 MAC Women's Basketball Tournament with a 55-51 win over No. 6 Central Michigan in the first round at the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Ohio.
"It wasn't exactly a pretty game, but we'll take a win however it comes," said Head Coach Sylvia Crawley. "We are fighting to win more and more games, and have a goal to win a MAC Championship. I am extremely proud of the way the players pulled it out. Central Michigan is a very scrappy, very aggressive team. I thought our players were aggressive with the rebounds and taking care of the ball late."
Ohio advances with an 18-11 overall record and Central Michigan ends the tourney 10-17 overall. The `Cats finished 10-6 in the MAC and the Chippewas were 3-12.
Senior Domenica Silva (Sao Paulo, Brazil) was Ohio's leading scorer with 16 points, 12 of which she recorded in the second half. Silva shot 8-of-12 from the floor and put up seven rebounds.
"Whenever we establish an inside game, good things happen for this ball club," said Crawley. "We tweak some of our plays so that we could get the ball inside to Domenica. When she is being aggressive, she is hard to stop. She was ready to defend tonight."
Junior Lauren Kohn (Adrian, Mich.) recorded 11 points, including hitting 3-of-7 from behind the arc. Junior Simone Redd (Warrensville, Ohio) and sophomore Rachel Frederick (Gibsonia, Pa.) had eight points each. Redd was 4-of-9 from the field and Frederick added a game-high 11 rebounds and accounted for all of Ohio's free throw attempts with a 4-of-4 effort from the line.
Junior Quintana Ward (Park Forest, Ill.) had six points to go alone with eight assists. Freshman Jennifer Bushby (Gahanna, Ohio) had four points and seven rebounds while Chandra Myers (Sugarcreek, Ohio) chipped in two points and one block in the ten minutes she saw on the floor.
Central Michigan was led in scoring by Sharonda Hurd with 16 points and Candace Wilson with 13 points.
Ohio shot 43.6 percent from the field, connecting on 24-of-55 attempts while holding Central Michigan to a 19-of-56 effort from the floor. The `Cats also outrebounded the Chippewas, 36-31.
Central Michigan took a 12-4 lead to start the first half, eight points coming from Hurd with two three-pointers and a lay-up, she finished the half with 12 points.
Buckets by Myers, Ward and Kohn sparked a 6-0 run that brought Ohio within one point, 12-11, with 10:58 on the clock. Central Michigan increased its lead to six, 17-11, but the `Cats pulled within two, 17-15, with 8:11 on the clock from a jumper by Redd and a deuce of single shots from Frederick.
Ohio took control of the game at the 5:18 mark with its first lead, 21-20. Jumpers by Bushby and Redd and a lay-up by Silva rallied a 6-3 run that led to the `Cats advantage, as they went into intermission up by four, 27-24.
After finishing the opening frame with only four points, Silva sparked the Bobcats' offense in the second half and put up six points in the first four and half minutes of the half as Ohio took an 11-point lead, 39-28, at the 15:40 mark.
"We needed some baskets so I tried to take advantage of my size inside," said Silva. "I have really focused on defense. If I could stop them, I could play more freely on the offensive end."
Central Michigan responded with an 11-4 run that brought the Chippewas within six, 43-27, with 9:50 remaining in the game.
Two back-to-back three-pointers from Kohn increased the Bobcats' lead to 12, 49-37, at 8:35 and Ohio held a double-digit lead until the Chippewas cut it to eight, 51-43, at 5:08. Central Michigan scored four unanswered points to cut Ohio's lead in half, 51-47, at 3:16.
Silva made a lay-up at 2:20 to increase Ohio's lead to six, 53-47, but Central Michigan rallied a 4-0 run that pulled them within two points, 53-51 with 1:05 remaining in regulation.
A block by Kohn with 14.2 seconds left in the game led to an Ohio possession that ended with Frederick being fouled and hitting two three throws that sealed Ohio's win.
"I knew when she dribbled over the wing, she was going to try and take me one on one," said Kohn. "I took it upon myself, because I knew she was a lefty, so she was probably going to swing back left and I just kept my feet moving and tried to go straight up so I didn't send her to the free throw line."
The Bobcats match-up against No. 2 seed Eastern Michigan on Tuesday night at 7 p.m.
Crawley said, "Our players will be confident as we move further in the tournament. We will face teams that we have already beaten before. It is going to be a matter of them coming out and starting to get intense from the beginning."
