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ATHENS, Ohio – The Ohio women's basketball team (0-1, 0-0) kicked off their 2022-23 season with a home loss against the Long Island Sharks (1-0, 0-0). The non-conference matchup proved to be a tough challenge for the Bobcats as many of their players took the court for their first contest in months due to injuries. Ohio was led on the offensive end by Caitlyn Kroll, who scored 15 points and grabbed four rebounds. Ohio was led on the boards overall by Ella Pope and Yaya Felder, who snagged eight rebounds each. Jaya Mcclure and Kailah Johnson reached double-figures with 11 and 12 points.

The Bobcats struggled to score in the first period only putting up a combined seven points. Pope hit a three to bring Ohio back within seven at a score of 14-7 with just over two minutes left to play in the first quarter. Both teams went scoreless in the final two minutes to make it a 14-7 contest after the first ten minutes of action. 

It was a turnaround for the Bobcats in the second quarter, as the Bobcats came crawling back to take the lead with a huge three from Johnson with three minutes left in the quarter. The Bobcats' outscored the Sharks 22-17 in the second quarter. The Sharks bounced back quickly and took yet another lead with a and one basket made by Mbulito with under a minute left in the half at 31-29, which was the last basket before the Bobcats headed into the locker room.

Kroll led all scorers for the Bobcats through the first 20 minutes, putting in 8 points on 1-5 shooting from the field, but 6-6 from the free throw line. As a team, the Bobcats finished the first half having shot 28% (7 for 25) overall, including 25% (5 for 20) from beyond the arc. Ohio's defense forced 10 turnovers, but was only able to turn those takeaways into five points. 

Ohio started the second half with Mcclure hitting a huge three to retake the lead early in the third quarter, however Long Island was able to take it back once more by the midpoint of the quarter, 40-33. Long Island pushed their lead to as large as thirteen with just under a minute to play in the 3rd quarter at 55-42, and the margin stayed the same as the two teams headed into the final 10 minutes of action. 

Ohio struggled the first half of the final quarter falling to a fourteen point deficit. Ella Pope brought the Bobcats back to their feet with an-and-one basket to cut the deficit to nine with just under five minutes left in the quarter. The Sharks opened up a twelve point margin with under three minutes to play, 70-58, courtesy of another Mbulito layup. The Bobcats got as close as four points with 40 seconds remaining, but Long Island answered with tight defense and made free throws to close out the Bobcats with a final score of 74-67.

Coach Bob Boldon comments on the contest, "obviously we lost and we're disappointed that we lost and we tried like crazy to win, but there was a lot of value in this game. A lot of kids played a college basketball game tonight that hadn't played in a long time. And they got that done today and they stuck with it. It wasn't as stark as we'd hoped for, but we got ourselves back in it and were able to take the lead a couple times … I'm excited to come in and coach them tomorrow and try to do better on Thursday, but it wasn't a lack of effort tonight and from a coaching standpoint, you can be pretty happy with that."

Up Next:

Ohio will hit the road for the second regular-season game of the season, as they travel to take on Longwood on Thursday afternoon. The game is scheduled to tip-off at 7 p.m.

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