Ohio faces red-hot Rockets

by Blake Whitney
Staff Writer

The Ohio women’s basketball team seems to be meeting its conference foes at exactly the wrong times.

Wednesday night, the Bobcats (8-9 overall, 3-3 Mid-American Conference) were thumped 89-63 by Western Michigan, who entered the game on a four-game win streak.

Ohio returns to The Convo on Saturday, but it must face the Toledo Rockets (10-7, 5-1), whose current six-game winning streak is the longest in the MAC.

“Toledo is a good team,” Ohio coach Lynn Bria said. “We’ve got to learn from (Western Michigan) and move on.”

Toledo, the MAC’s regular season and tournament champions from a year ago, began the year with an upset of then No. 4 Duke and appeared in the Top 25 before dropping three of its next four games to fall out of the poll and below .500.

Given the current winning streak, the Rockets appear to be back on track, but Toledo coach Mark Ehlen is not so sure.

“I’d like to say we’re hitting on all cylinders, but I don’t think we are,” Ehlen said. “Obviously to win six in a row we have to be doing something well, but I don’t think we’re playing as well as we can.”

Ohio will look to get better outings from its leading scorers than it did Wednesday at Western Michigan. The Bobcats’ leading scorer, guard Cathy Szall, was held to just three points.

While Western Michigan was able to shut down Ohio by shutting down Szall, Ehlen said the Rockets are wary of concentrating too much on trying to stop Ohio’s senior leaders ­ Szall and forward Lori Moorman.

“You think (Szall and Moorman) are your two main threats but they’ve got other players,” he said. “(Forward Erin) Isbell scores 17 at Western (Michigan), (guard Candace) Bates had a couple big games, so they’ve got players besides those two who can step up and play well.

“They all shoot well so it’s tough to key on any one player.”

Isbell said while Ohio wants to improve on its last offensive outing, the team is also trying to key in on defense. Against Western Michigan, Ohio allowed at least 80 points for the tenth time this season.

“When things aren’t going our way on offense we need to get back down on the floor on defense,” Isbell said. “That’s the only way we’re going to win the game.”

The team that dictates the game’s tempo may have the upper hand. Toledo averages 68.5 points per game. Ohio, on the other hand, looks to push the tempo and is averaging 78.1 points per game.

Tip-off between Ohio and Toledo is set for 3 p.m. Saturday at The Convo.