Despite height, women tired of coming up short

by Blake Whitney
Assistant Sports Editor

The Ohio women’s basketball team might not be short on talent. It might not be short on experience. It might not be short on coaching expertise.

But it is short — on height.

With Ohio’s 12 players averaging a height of 5 feet 10.25 inches, coach Lynn Bria said she knew she would have to make adjustments for this year’s team to be successful.

Her realization — shorter players are quicker ones.

Bria said this year’s team would stray from its traditional two-post offense and utilize a one-post system, allowing the second post player to roam the perimeter and play facing the basket.

“We’re facing the basket and are quicker to the basket as far as cutting, setting screens and shooting,” forward Erin Isbell said. “We have more people that can go to the basket, crash the boards and we can still feed in to our post.”

Bria said another goal of the new system was to allow for more offensive spacing. The roaming post player should draw taller post defenders away from the basket — and away from their comfort zones.

“I think it’s a great offense,” Isbell said. “I really do like it, as opposed to what we were running last year. I think it will really work for our team, the style we play and just the size of our players.”

Bria enters her fourth season at Ohio in search of her first winning season. Last season’s marks of 13-16 overall and 7-9 in the Mid-American Conference were both bests for Bria.

But to improve upon that mark, Ohio must find a way to replace guard Cathy Szall and forward Lori Moorman — two of the top-five all-time scorers in school history. The duo averaged a combined 31.0 points and 9.4 rebounds per game last season.

Bria said the responsibility of replacing Szall on the perimeter lays with two-year starting guards Andrea Gay and Candace Bates.

Bates, the team’s top returning scorer, averaged 11.3 points per game and shot 40.9 percent from three-point range.

But Bates said she usually was able to get open last year because defenses were focusing so much on Szall and Moorman. She said she must work on dealing with being the focus of opponents’ defenses this season.

“Last year Cathy and Lori scored so much, so I was in to score and try to take the pressure off them,” she said. “(This year) I’m focusing on being more aggressive and consistent offensively,” she said.

Bria also said guard Andrea Johnson, who led the team in scoring several times during a summer exhibition tour of Europe, should see more of a role in the offense.

Replacing Moorman inside will be by committee. Gay said practices have been much more intense this season since playing time — and starting positions — are up for grabs inside.

But Bria said one emerging player is Isbell, a 5-11 forward whose playing time increased as last season progressed.“Erin is a very aggressive, physical player,” Bates said. “Her freshman year she came in and worked very hard and was physical, but this year she’s finishing more shots around the basket and she’s playing really well within the offense.”Bria said the smaller, quicker team should also be better defensively. Ohio allowed 76.8 points per game, second-to-last in the MAC.

“This is the most athletic team we’ve ever had, no doubt about it,” Bria said. “Defensively we’re so much better than we were. Last season … it probably took until mid-January to get to where we are (now defensively).”

With games against three NCAA Tournament teams from a year ago — including No. 4 LSU — Ohio’s schedule figures to have plenty of tests. The games should bolster Ohio’s strength of schedule, which last season was ranked 309th out of 321 Division I teams by College RPI (http://www.collegerpi.com).

“We’ve upgraded the schedule because I think we can,” Bria said.

Ohio opens its regular season against Morehead State. Game time is scheduled for 6 p.m. Nov. 27 in The Convo.