Dec. 19, 2008
Final Stats | Notes
ATHENS, Ohio - Senior forward Lauren Hmiel tied her career high with 19 points to lead a quartet of Bobcats in double figures on Friday evening as the Ohio University women's basketball team captured a 76-66 victory over Cleveland State at the Convocation Center.
Ohio's 76 points were a season high, and came on 51.2 percent (22-of-43) shooting, marking the fourth time this season that the Bobcats (4-5) have connected on better than half of their field goal attempts. The Green & White also dished out 16 assists on its 22 field goals, getting a game-high five from junior guard Jennifer Bushby (Gahanna, Ohio).
"It was exciting to come home and perform in front of our home fans," Ohio head coach Semeka Randall. "This was a big win for us in our home opener. While it's always great to win a game, we're constantly looking to improve and we'll take some key things away from this game to work on for our next game."
Hmiel (York, Pa.) knocked down 11-of-12 free throws on the night, tying for the seventh-best single-game total in school history, and notched 12 of her career high-tying 19 points after the break. She was 4-of-10 from the floor in her third-straight double-digit scoring performance, and also picked up a team-high six rebounds, three assists and two steals in 36 minutes of action.
Junior guard Jenny Poff (St. John's Mich.) netted 16 points on the night to reach double figures for the fourth-consecutive game. She drained a career-high five three-point field goals in the victory, moving herself within five of tying for the 10th-most trifectas in school history.
Senior center Chandra Myers (Sugarcreek, Ohio) chipped in with a dozen points to go along with five boards, while Bushby used a 3-of-3 performance from beyond the arc to finish with 11 points.
Ohio was led on the defensive end of the floor by sophomore forward Kamille Buckner (Chicago, Ill.), who helped the Green & White limit Cleveland State (4-6) to just 35.3 percent shooting with a career-high six blocks. The output moved Buckner into a tie for fourth on the program's career blocked shots list with 50 rejections in little more than one full season of action. She also contributed seven points, five rebounds and a career-best three steals in the victory.
The Bobcats were white-hot from beyond the arc to open the game, hitting their first eight three-point field goal attempts en route to a 15-of-24 performance from the floor in the opening period. Poff connected on her first five attempts from long distance, leading all players with 15 first-half points, while Bushby sank all three of her three-point tries in the opening 20 minutes to head into the locker room with nine points.
The Green & White reeled off runs of 11-0 and 15-0 in the opening frame, while outscoring CSU, 29-10, over the final 9:09 of the half. Ohio's 45 first-half points and 26-point halftime lead were season single-half highs, as were its overall (62.5) and three-point (80.0) field goal percentages.
"I was proud of the way we played in the first half," Randall said. "We really shot the ball well. We ran the floor, set our feet and knocked down some big shots."
While Ohio's offense was firing on all cylinders in the first half, its defense was also clicking to the tune of a season first-half low 22.6 (7-of-31) field goal percentage by Cleveland State. The Bobcats held CSU to just a 10.0-percent (1-of-10) clip from beyond the arc, and forced 10 Vikings' turnovers before the break.
The Bobcats led by as many as 31 points in the second half, but saw Cleveland State battle back to within 11 late in the period. After CSU hit a pair of free throws to narrow the gap to 68-57, Ohio embarked on a 5-0 run, featuring a pair of Hmiel free throws, to move in front by a score of 73-57. The Vikings responded with a 7-0 run to pull within nine, 73-64, with less than a minute left in regulation, but sophomore center Thia Gholson (Louisville, Ky.) and sophomore guard Allie LaForce (Vermillion, Ohio) combined to sink three free throws down the stretch to seal the 76-66 victory for Ohio.
"I was disappointed with our effort in the second half," Randall said. "We need to learn how to make adjustments and execute down the stretch. Again, it all comes down to whether or not you learn from your mistakes, and I hope we can use some of the things that happened in the second half to help us improve as a team."
Ohio will face a quick turnaround as it travels to face Syracuse at the Carrier Dome on Saturday in the first-ever meeting between the two schools. Tip-off is slated for 4 p.m. ET, with pregame coverage set to get underway at 3:30 p.m. ET on WOUB AM 1430.
