Final Stats

PDF Box Score

The Basics:
Score: Ohio 75, Bowling Green 58
Location: The Convocation Center - Athens, Ohio 
The Short Story: Kiyanna Black’s 29-point performance helped lead the Ohio women's basketball team (23-5, 15-2 MAC) to a bounce back win Wednesday (March 2) night, defeating Bowling Green (10-16, 6-11 MAC), 75-58 to clinch the outright Mid-American Conference regular season title for the second-straight season. 
OHIO STARTERS: #4 Kiyanna Black, #5 Quiera Lampkins, #10 Lexie Baldwin, #12 Yamonie Jenkins, #15 Jasmine Weatherspoon
BOWLING GREEN STARTERS: #11 Rachel Myers, #13 Sydney Lambert, #30 Miriam Justinger, #32 Lauren Tibbs, #33 Haley Puk

How It Happened:
-Lexie Baldwin netted the first Bobcat points when she got the ball on the left block took one dribble and laid it up off the glass to tie the game at 2-2 with 8:30 remaining in the first quarter.
- The Bobcats hammered the paint in the opening period as 12 of their first 15 points came from down low in the first eight minutes of play.
- Kiyanna Black knocked down Ohio’s first three with 1:30 to go in the first quarter of play to give the Bobcats an 18-17 advantage.
- Ohio held a 20-19 lead over Bowling Green after the first quarter.
- After the first quarter, the Ohio offense settled in scoring on four of its first five possessions in the second quarter as the Bobcats held a slim 29-25 lead with 6:45 remaining in the half.
- The game slowed at both ends as neither gave up anything easy in the last six minutes of the first half. Bowling Green held a slim 34-31 margin heading into the halftime break.
- In the first half, Black, Lampkins, and Jasmine Weatherspoon each had seven points to lead the Bobcats.
- Baldwin added six points, going 3-of-5 from the field while grabbing a team-high five rebounds.
- In the first half, Ohio shot 35.3% from the field and 11.8% from three-point range.
- The start of the third quarter was all Black as she knocked down her first four shots of the half to put the Bobcats up 43-34 with just over two minutes into the third quarter.
- The Falcons refused to go away as they tied the game at 45 on a right wing three pointer with 3:25 to go in the third quarter.
- It continued to be Black’s quarter as with the clock running down in the quarter Weatherspoon found Black in the right corner as she knocked down the three pointer as the buzzer sounded to give Ohio a 51-49 lead. Black had 16 of the Bobcats 20 points in the quarter, going 5-of-10 from the field and 4-of-7 from behind the arc.
- With all of the attention on Black, it opened up the driving lane for Lampkins as she found her way to the rim three times resulting in a layup and two trips to the line. Her third make from the charity stripe in the fourth quarter extended the Ohio lead to 64-56 with 6:13 remaining in the game.
- Black’s seventh three pointer of the game came with 3:03 to go in the game as it all but put the game away as it gave Ohio a 69-58 advantage.
- Ohio went on to win the game by a final of 75-58 ending the game on an 11-0 run.
- Overall, Black would lead the Bobcats in scoring, scoring 29 points and grabbing three rebounds and an assist. 
- Lampkins had 16 points going 5-of-13 from the field, while snagging nine rebounds and dishing out two assists.
- Weatherspoon scored 14 points, going 4-of-8 from the field and 3-of-4 from beyond the arc. She also hit 3-of-4 free throws and grabbed five boards.
- Jenkins also had three assists while adding six points. 
- Overall, Ohio shot 38.7% (24-of-62) from the field, 31.3% (10-32) from three-point range and 85.0% (17-of-20) from the charity stripe. 
- The Bobcat defense forced 20 turnovers and scored 21 points off of the turnovers. 
- Ohio had five blocks, dished out 10 assists, 13 steals and turned the ball over six times. 
- The Falcons were led by Haley Puk who scored 12 points, going 2-of-4 from the field, 6-of-6 from the free throw stripe.
- Lauren Tibbs grabbed eight rebounds and scored seven points for Bowling Green. 
- Overall, Bowling Green shot 36.4% (20-of-55) from the field, 44.4% (8-of-18) from three-point range and 90.9% (10-of-11) from the free throw line. 
- Akron also dished out 12 assists and had three steals.

Beyond the Boxscore:
- The Bobcats captured their second-consecutive MAC Regular Season title for the first time in school history and grabbed fourth in program history.
- This is the 524^th victory in program history. 
- This is head coach Bob Boldon's 59th win at Ohio. 
- Weatherspoon tied a career-high as she knocked down a trio of three pointers.
- Ohio defeated Bowling Green four-straight times for the first time in program history.

QUOTABLE
“Coming into last year, we didn’t expect it. After the season we had last year though we knew that coming into this year we had goals. This is just one of the goals. The next one we have to meet is going to Cleveland and winning the MAC Championship and then making the NCAA tournament,” Senior forward Lexie Baldwin on Ohio winning its second consecutive MAC Regular Season Title.

“This year we had a target on our back and Buffalo took us down twice this year. We really had to learn from those games and the game before conference season and keep pushing,” Baldwin on Ohio having a target on its back all year.

COMING UP
The Bobcats hit the road on Saturday, March 5 when Ohio travels to arch rival Miami. Tip-off is set for 2 p.m. in Oxford, Ohio.

#BleedGreen