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The Basics:
Score: Ohio 76, Marshall 68
Location: The Convocation Center, Athens, Ohio
The Short Story: 32 points from senior guard Kiyanna Black led the Ohio women's basketball team (25-6) to a 76-68 victory over Marshall (21-12) in the first round of the Women’s National Invitation Tournament at the Convocation Center in Athens, Ohio on Thursday (March 17). 

OHIO STARTERS: #4 Kiyanna Black, #5 Quiera Lampkins, #10 Lexie Baldwin, #12 Yamonie Jenkins, #15 Jasmine Weatherspoon

MARSHALL STARTERS: #0 Talequia Hamilton, #1 Leah Scott, #11 Taylor Porter, #20 Norrisha Victrum, #22 Kiana Evans

How It Happened:
- Ohio won the tip but Marshall would score the first basket early into the game on a three-point basket from Leah Scott.
- The Bobcats notched their first field goal on a layup by Quiera Lampkins followed by a Kiyanna Black three-pointer to ignite the offense.
- Black would score three from behind the arch to lead Ohio on a 17-0 run while The Herd suffered a 8:18 long scoring drought.
- The Bobcats led Marshall 19-5 after the first quarter.
- Marshall opened the second quarter fighting back offensively, going on a 8-0 run for the first three minutes and would bring Ohio’s lead to one-point at 23-22 with 5:30 to-play in the half.
- Marshall would take the lead for the first time on a layup from Scott at 4:00 making it 24-23.
- Ohio would fight back to regain the lead and go into the locker room up 36-32.
- Ohio shot 34.1 percent (14-of-41) from the field in the half and 27.3 (6-of-22) from beyond the arc.
- Marshall shot 37.9 percent (11-of-29) from the field and 5-of-12 (41.7 percent) from three-point range.
- Black would lead all scorers in the first half with 14 points on 5-of-11 from the field and 4-9 from beyond the arc while grabbing four rebounds.
- Yamonie Jenkins would score a three-point basket to start the Bobcats’ second half offense.
- At the first media timeout of the second half, Ohio would lead The Herd 45-40 with 4:56 remaining in the third period.
- Lampkins would add a layup to Ohio’s score between two Black three-point baskets to give the Bobcats a 54-43 advantage with 2:29 remaining in the third.
- Ohio led Marshall 55-46 after three quarters.
- Ohio turnovers would allow The Herd to begin to make a run until Tmisht Stinson knocked down a three to increase the Ohio advantage to 60-49 with 7:39 to-play.
- Marshall countered drawing fouls under the basket and getting to the line making it a 10-point game at 62-52 with 4:33 remaining.
- Hannah Boesinger would block a Marshall attempt and receive a technical foul to give Porter two attempts from the free throw line allowing The Herd to remain in the game trailing Ohio 65-55.
- Lampkins would earn a fifth foul with 2:15 to-play.
- Marshall’s Shannon Porter would sink a triple to bring the Ohio lead within four points at 67-63 with 1:09 remaining in the game.
- Jenkins would find herself at the line with two after The Herd’s Victrum earned a technical foul with 54 seconds in the game.
- Porter would come down and sink another three-point basket to give Marshall a chance to come back making it a four-point game at 70-66 with 45 seconds to-play.
-The Bobcats would find themselves behind the line to make the game out of reach for The Heard.
- Ohio defeated Marshall by a final score of 76-68.
- Ohio shot 34.3 percent (24-of-70) from the field, 31.6 percent (12-of-38) from three-point range and 88.9 percent (16-of-18) from the charity stripe.
- Black led the Bobcats with 32 points on 10-of-22 from the field and 8-of-17 from behind the three-point line while adding seven rebounds, two assists and two steals in 40 minutes.
- Kelly Karlis scored 13 points with eight rebounds and one block in 26 minutes.
- Jenkins tallied eight points and grabbed four rebounds along with four assists and three steals in 36 minutes.
- Stinson scored seven points and hauled in three boards.
- Lampkins and Weatherspoon both recorded six points on the game. Lampkins also tallied five rebounds, six assists, two blocks and four steals. Weatherspoon grabbed eight boards and recorded one assist and one block.
- Marshall shot 35.1 percent (20-of-57) from the field, 39.1 percent (9-of-23) from behind the arc and 79.2 percent (19-of-24) from the free throw line.
- Leah Scott led The Herd with 17 points on 4-of-15 shooting while hauling in six rebounds.
- Marshall guard Shayna Gore scored 12 points and recorded six rebounds in 33 minutes.
- Taylor Porter scored 10 points on 3-of-8 shooting. 

BEYOND THE BOX SCORE
- This game marks as the first WNIT appearance and win for the Bobcats.
- This is the first postseason tournament win outside of the MAC Tournament for the Bobcats.
- The win gave head coach Bob Boldon his 61^st at Ohio.
- This is the 526^th victory in program history.
- This is Ohio’s third 25-win season in program history.
- This advances Ohio to the second round of the WNIT for the first time ever.
- Black has now scored 123 three-pointers to improve her MAC and program record for threes made in a season.

QUOTABLE 
“It’s tough when you have to deal with the disappointment of loss and this team has dealt with disappointment very well all season so I shouldn’t have been surprised but there’s still always a little bit of concern.” Head Coach Bob Boldon on coming back off of a loss.

“I thought she was awesome. I am very much going to miss her.” Head Coach Bob Boldon on Black’s performance.

"I think it’s a big accomplishment for this program to continue to move forward. I know we were pretty upset when we lost in the tournament, but just to know that this team didn’t win a post-season game before is just a little bit exciting and makes things a little bit better. We’re a little bit more focused and work a little bit harder. Coming here, I didn’t plan on starting off my freshman year like I did but I think it’s all just part of the process. Being here those two years and we just lost almost every game and then being here now and we win, it just makes everything much sweeter.” â€" Senior guard Kiyanna Black on the progress the program has seen.

“I think everyone was ready to play, we’ve had a great week of practice so I think that mindset from having a good practice this past week really helped bring energy, especially to the first quarter” â€" Redshirt freshman forward Kelly Karlis on the preparation for the game.

“In order to build this program and make it even better we had to move past it and hope for the best so we can push ourselves to make some noise in this tournament too.” â€" Kelly Karlis on dealing with the loss in Cleveland.

“Ohio is a really good basketball team, clearly, and the country knows that. Even on selection Monday when they were one of the first four teams out and I found out that we were in, we had an inkling that this might be the game that was coming.” â€" Marshall Head Coach Matt Daniel opening statement

“No magical formula, no messages, just to go out and play better. We knew we needed to play better and settle in and play. Once we kind of got the flow of the game we were better than in the first 10 minutes and I think that’s evident by the scoring margin the rest of the game.” - Marshall Head Coach Matt Daniel on the turnaround in the second period

“She got started early and she has the ability to shoot the ball in your face so you have to get in her space. We wanted to force them to drive it a little bit and we knew they were going to penetrate and kick but we didn’t have enough pressure or an early start and she got into a rhythm. When you’re guarding good shooter or good scorers, you don’t want them to get into a rhythm early, you want to make them figure it out and through your schemes at them. She was able to get loose and we weren’t in her space enough and we struggled with it early.” - Marshall Head Coach Matt Daniel on guarding Kiyanna Black

UP NEXT
The Bobcats will battle with Virginia Tech (18-13) in the second round of the WNIT Sunday, March 20 at 2 p.m. in the Convocation Center.

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