RebKell's Junkie Boards

[Joe Foss]

Central Michigan may have lost redshirt junior Jewel Cotton to a knee injury in yesterday's win over Akron. She missed all but four games last season with a knee injury. Head coach Sue Guevara said after the game that she hoped Cotton would be able to return this season, which doesn't sound very encouraging. It would be a big loss for CMU, as Cotton is an athletic 6'2" forward who sometimes starts but lately has been coming off the bench as the first reserve post. The Chips are already pretty thin in frontcourt depth this year.

http://www.cm-life.com/article/2016/01/womens-basketball-rapid-reaction-akron-1-23-16

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Ohio Bobcats WBB Fan

[Joe Foss]

Ohio held a block and three-point party here in Athens tonight at the expense of the Akron Zips. 14 blocked shots took Akron completely out of its offense, and 14 made 3-pointers generated plenty of points for the Bobcats. It was a 39-19 lead at the half, and although Akron played better in the second half, the lead never got below 14 as Ohio went on to win 75-55. A very good night defensively for Jasmine Weatherspoon, who altered or blocked almost every shot near the rim. When she was out, Kelly Karlis came in to continue the defense, and also contributed three treys on her way to scoring 11 points.

Akron head coach Jodi Kest was not here for the game. No one I talked to at the game seemed to know why. Hopefully the dean of MAC coaches will be returning soon.

A lighter than usual Wednesday night in the MAC, as four teams had the day off. Other scores: Central Michigan 53, Western Michigan 51; Bowling Green 67, Eastern Michigan 63; Kent State 95, Northern Illinois 85.

The Kent State win was the first of the MAC season for the Flashes. They were led by 37 points from Larissa Lurken, who was 7-8 from three.

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Ohio Bobcats WBB Fan

[Joe Foss]

Injury update: Central Michigan's Jewel Cotton did not play in last night's game, and says she expects to be out for a couple of weeks. The current injury is to her right knee. She had an ACL injury to her left knee last season.

http://www.cm-life.com/article/2016/01/basketball-wmu-preview-1-27-16

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Ohio Bobcats WBB Fan

[Joe Foss]

Ohio moved its record in the MAC to 9-0 with a comeback 68-67 win over 6-2 Ball State in Muncie today. I thought Jill Morrison had sealed a win with a three-pointer with about 3 minutes left that gave the Cardinals a 9 point lead. But the Bobcats, led by Lexie Baldwin, came back to tie. 2 made free throws by Morrison with 14 seconds left gave the Cardinals back the lead. Ohio coach Bob Boldon called a timeout with 7 seconds left when the ensuing Ohio possession seemed to be going nowhere, and drew up an inbounds play that got Baldwin open under the basket. She made the shot, was fouled, and made the FT for the one point lead. Morrison's long three at the buzzer hit the rim, but bounced away.

Lots of whistles in this game, and Ohio had several players in constant foul trouble. Two of them were self-inflicted, as Kiyanna Black was T'd up for barking at a ref and Jasmine Weatherspoon given a T for flipping the ball in the air after being called for going over the back -- her third and fourth fouls in the first half. But then in the second half, Ball State head coach Brady Sallee gave Ohio a gift two points when he was T'd up. Two more points came when Morrison said something that got her a T after she and Black chased a ball down the sideline out of bounds. As it turned out, those were critical points in the Bobcat win.

If there is a rematch, it will be at the tournament in Cleveland. I hope both teams can maintain their composure better if it happens. It would also be OK with me if that game had a different set of refs that would be less whistle prone and more willing to close their ears to some things that are said in the excitement of the game.

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Ohio Bobcats WBB Fan

[Joe Foss]

Standings after yesterday's games:

Ohio 9-0
Central Michigan 7-2
Ball State 6-2
Toledo 5-3
Akron 5-4
Western Michigan 5-4
Bowling Green 4-5
Eastern Michigan 4-5
The University at Buffalo, The State University of New York 2-6
Miami 2-6
Northern Illinois 2-7
Kent State 1-8

Two close games yesterday in addition to the Ohio/Ball State game: Akron beat EMU 75-72 in the Zips second game without head coach Jodi Kest; and NIU beat Buffalo 76-74 on a long three as time expired by Cassidy Glenn. Her shot made the SportsCenter Top 10 at #4!

And two more injuries that I'm aware of. Ohio's Jasmine Weatherspoon went down with what looked to be an ankle injury in the second half; was helped off the court, and did not return. WMU's starting guard LaTondra Brooks hit the back of her head on the floor and was stretchered off the court. No word on her condition.

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Ohio Bobcats WBB Fan

[Joe Foss]

Final Buffalo 51, Ohio 43. The Bulls hand Ohio its first conference loss of the season by shutting down the Bobcats' three-point attack. Ohio was just 5-29 from three, struggling against an extended 2-3 zone. That defense has given Ohio a lot of trouble this year, and the Bulls have enough athleticism and quickness to execute it well. There really isn't a plan B on offense when the threes aren't going down for the Bobcats, particularly when Kiyanna Black is having a bad night, which she did tonight with 4 of 21 shooting.

The Bulls didn't light it up offensively either, but they were much more efficient, hitting on about 43% of their shots overall and 33% from three. Joanna Smith, the league's leading scorer, was held under her average, but still put up 16 points. She had help from the bench, as Karin Moss put up 11 of the 19 points from the reserves. Ohio got almost nothing from its bench, who totaled 3 points.

Ohio had the look of an exhausted team tonight, and they were shorthanded as well, as Jasmine Weatherspoon didn't make the trip with an ankle injury. She may be out for some time.

Northern Illinois and Bowling Green had the night off. Other scores:

Miami (3-6) 55, Kent State (1-9) 52
Central Michigan (8-2) 66, Eastern Michigan (4-6) 65
Toledo (6-3) 80, Western Michigan (5-5) 68
Ball State (7-2) 78, Akron (5-5) 71

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Ohio Bobcats WBB Fan

[BallState1984]

Not sure if they still had a hangover from the bullshit game against Ohio, but Ball State looked flat in their victory against Akron tonight. I did hear Renee Bennett played sick yet she did go 5 of 7 from the floor with several of those shots near the three point line. Four other Cardinals scored in double figures and Carmen Grande had a 10/3 ATO ratio tonight.

Hannah Plybon and Dee Gibson burned the nets from downtown for the Zips who had four players in double figures. Both teams lines were nearly identical lines and the deal maker for Ball State was having the better shooting night. Also telling it took 18 shots a a couple trips to the line for Anita Brown to get her 19 points.

I was convinced, and I even told her so, if Angie Enlund called the game Saturday there would not been one technical, let alone four. That incompentent crew missed so many calls and let the game get out of hand right out of the gate. The T on Jill Morrison was a head scratcher; she and the Ohio girl were jawing at each other all game and surprisingly, there were no F Bombs dropped in that go around.

I know this is early, but I would not be surprised to see Ball State and Ohio devour each other in the tournament and Akron win it all. The Zips are for real.

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Terminally afffected with Our Girl Syndrome and proud of it!

[Joe Foss]

Final Ohio 95, Northern Illinois 70. It was the Huskies' bad luck to be scheduled to play in Athens today. Ohio was freshly motivated by the kick in the butt administered by Buffalo on Wednesday, and was buoyed by the return of Jasmine Weatherspoon to the starting lineup today. The result was a dominating performance by the Bobcats. All the shots that were missed on Wednesday fell in today, and the Huskies, rattled by the biggest Ohio crowd of the season (about 2000 by my guess), couldn't do anything right. Ohio finished the first quarter up 30-8. They continued stretching the lead in the second quarter, and when Kelly Karlis made one of the prettiest tip-ins you'll ever see at the buzzer, went into halftime with a 52-23 lead.

The fire was out of Bobcat bellies in the second half, and Northern got their feet under them and played much better. Still, Ohio stretched the lead to 75-41 at the end of three, and it wasn't until the fourth quarter, with Ohio playing all of its bench, that the lead was cut to 25 by game's end.

Ohio was led by Quiera Lampkins with 23 points and Kiyanna Black with 21, on just 12 shot attempts apiece. Karlis finished with 13. Mikayla Voigt had 16 and Courtney Woods 15 for the Huskies.

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Ohio Bobcats WBB Fan

[Joe Foss]

Standings after yesterday's games:

Ohio 10-1
Central Michigan 9-2
Ball State 8-2
Toledo 7-3
Akron 6-5
Eastern Michigan 5-6
Western Michigan 5-6
Bowling Green 4-6
Miami 3-7
Buffalo 3-7
Northern Illinois 2-8
Kent State 1-10

There were several close games yesterday. EMU beat WMU in 2OT, 70-66, with Cha Sweeney scoring 9 points in the second OT period. Central Michigan's Presley Hudson drove the lane and scored as the buzzer sounded to give the Chips a 76-75 win over Bowling Green in a game that marked the return from injury of Jewel Cotton. Toledo won at Kent 67-64 when a Tyra James three point attempt at the horn came up short. Ball State came back from a 14 point halftime deficit at Buffalo to win 59-57. And in a game that wasn't so close, Akron defeated Miami 77-65.

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Ohio Bobcats WBB Fan

[Joe Foss]

Ohio, Akron, Eastern Michigan and Kent State all were off yesterday, but there were four games played, involving three of the four top seeds. Central Michigan tightened its grip on the second seed by winning its seventh straight game at Ball State, 74-65. Toledo moved into a tie for the third seed with Ball State with a home win against Buffalo, 71-60. Western Michigan defeated Bowling Green 65-49, and Northern Illinois defended home court against Miami 92-73. It was the fifth straight game that Miami played without Baleigh Reed, an all-freshman team member from last season.

The new MAC tournament format gives less of an edge to the top 2 seeds, and does not penalize seeds 5-12 as heavily as in the past. Last season, the top 2 seeds got triple byes into the semifinal round, and seeds 3 and 4 double byes into the quarters. All other seeds would have had to win five games, with the last four on consecutive days, in order to claim the championship. No 5-12 seed managed to win the tournament in the four years it used that format.

This year, the number of rounds has been reduced from five to four, and each of the top four seeds receives a bye into the second round (quarterfinals). The tournament has also added an off day, so no team has to play on more than two consecutive days.

Seedings after yesterday's games:

1. Ohio (10-1)
2. Central Michigan (10-2)
3. Ball State (8-3)
4. Toledo (8-3)
5. Akron (6-5)
6. Western Michigan (6-6)
7. Eastern Michigan (5-6)
8. Bowling Green (4-7)
9. Northern Illinois (3-8)
10. Miami (3-8)
11. Buffalo (3-8)
12. Kent State (1-10)

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Ohio Bobcats WBB Fan

[Joe Foss]

Final Ohio (11-1) 77, Toledo (8-4) 57. No Ohio player had been born the last time the Bobcats won in Toledo, which was in 1987. But Kiyanna Black was in a zone today, and her teammates willingly gave up their own shots to get her the ball. She ended up with 38 points, tying a MAC record for made threes in a game with 10. She got help from Lexie Baldwin, with a double-double of 16 and 10, and Yamonie Jenkins, who scored 14. The Rockets had been playing well lately, and were on a four-game winning streak. But they don't have the team speed to match Ohio, and they rely pretty heavily on freshmen, whose inexperience showed. One of the freshmen, Kaayla McIntyre, played well in the post, and should make an impact in the league as she gains experience.

Other scores:

Kent State (2-10) 59, Ball State (8-4) 50. Upset of the day. Larissa Lurken scored 24 for the Flashes, 12 in the fourth quarter. Nathalie Fontaine led the Cardinals with 28 and 10.

Central Michigan (11-2) 73, Northern Illinois (3-9) 67. Huskies missed a chance at an upset of their own, as the Chips came back from an 18 point second half deficit, led by Da'Jourie Turner's 24 points.

Western Michigan (7-6) 69, Akron (6-6) 65. Another comeback, as the Broncos were down 13 in the fourth quarter but outscored the Zips 27-10 in the period.

Eastern Michigan (6-6) 70, Miami (3-9) 46. Wire to wire win for the Eagles, who were credited with 17 steals as part of Miami's 29 turnovers. Cha Sweeney with 24 for EMU.

Buffalo (4-8) 63, Bowling Green (4-8) 50.

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Ohio Bobcats WBB Fan

[Joe Foss]

Kiyanna Black's performance yesterday earned her a spot on the ESPNW Highlights of the Night.

http://espn.go.com/espnw/video/14775449/espnw-highlights-night

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Ohio Bobcats WBB Fan

[shadowboxer]

Will admit I was confused by Coach Cullop's choices in players and which positions they were placed in against OU- such as Monakana placed as almost a Center in first half. Toledo was also pulling in a lot of less experienced freshmen, like St. Forte who looks promising but unsure she should have been a first choice in starting.

Was thinking she put in less scouted players and went for small ball shooters, with only 2 players attempting, making one 3 pointer each, with no other 3 pt shots attempted in whole game. Monakana, who has been excelling recently, got into foul problems early, had to be pulled until 4th quarter.

Toledo seemed to want to own the inside shooting, yet they did not put Kayla MacIntyre in as Center until 3rd quarter, who has great hands and will be a force inside for yrs to come. By that point, OU was already 18 pts ahead and w/o stops by the defense, which did not happen, and anemic offense, the Rockets were never a threat to OU.

[colt13]

Ohio will be a fun team to watch in postseason. I don't see them as a balanced team, but if they keep the turnovers down, they will shoot so many threes that they can stay competitive.

[shadowboxer]

Toledo is having their way with BG, at BG, w/Monakana leading the charge. Score is 36-16, the Rockets. If they play w/this kind of energy and confidence, whatever OU, BST, or CMU throws at them will be countered in spades by Toledo.

They took that ugly loss to OU to heart and defensively clamped down, have not allowed any 3's by BG. Offense is sparkling as well, especially w/Janice M. dominating both ends of the floor. She has 18pts at the half.

One downside is the hopefully temporary removal of Brenae Harris from the floor after she sustained some type of injury to her leg. Hope to see her back for the 2nd half. Boyd and Harriet are both ptg's so the tempo did not change.

[BallState1984]

I'm holding my breath on the Ball State Northern game. I am hoping that bullet that Jill Morrison drilled to open the game will be the end of her three game slump. Not sure if it is a chicken or the egg situation but since the Buffalo game, which was a gift from the Gods, the Cards have been flat.

Central outplayed them; no excuses or spins here.

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Terminally afffected with Our Girl Syndrome and proud of it!

[shadowboxer]

After BG came back with a run, a few 3's, Toledo responded w/increased intensity(after a stimulating time-out w/Cullop), and closed the game out, 68-60.
Brianna Harris was able to return to the game in the 2nd half, and thank goddess for our English invasion. Janice Monakana and Bravo-Harris kept the Rockets momentum & shooting in action.Brenae Harris hit most of her foul shots during the last minute of BG's fouling. Our two freshmen who came in off the bench, Kayla McIntyre(C/F) and Hallie Printz(G) played like veterans, scoring&rebounding, and Kayla is already leading Toledo in blocks.

Toledo Rockets WBB again left BG w/an away win.

Last notation;Janice scored a career high of 27pts! And we get her back next yr, too.

[Joe Foss]

Final Ohio 72, Miami 44. Not much of a contest here in Athens. Miami is a very young team, with 11 freshmen and sophomores on their roster. They've also been hurt by injury, most notably to their best player, Baleigh Reid, who is out for the season. Last night they took another hit, as starting off-guard Jazz Smith went down in the first half with an ankle injury and spent the second half on the bench, iced and in a boot.

Miami came out in a 2-3 zone, as has become common against Ohio. This was the most extended zone I have seen, with 2 and sometimes 3 defenders over the 3-point line. It took the Bobcats some time to adjust, and the score after the first 5 minutes was just 6-4. But then Quiera Lampkins starting exploiting the driving lanes that were wide open, and Miami starting turning the ball over at an amazing rate. By halftime, the score was 41-18 Ohio, Lampkins had 17 points, and Miami had 25 turnovers, most of them on Ohio steals.

The RedHawks pinched in their zone in the second half to clog the driving lanes, but that opened things up for Kiyanna Black, who hit four threes in the third quarter on her way to 18 points in just 21 minutes. Lampkins finished with 20. Ohio played the bench, the whole bench, and nothing but the bench for almost the entire fourth quarter, and still came away with a 28 point win. There was a lively moment or two late in the game, when Miami's Tamira Ford, apparently annoyed when the Ohio band rubbed it in with the "Winning Team, Losing Team" chant, plowed over Ohio's Hannah Boesinger. The refs stepped in quickly, Ohio's Tmisht Stinson returned the favor with a hard foul on the next possession, and honor seemed to be satisfied without the need for bloodshed. Also, the game ended.

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Ohio Bobcats WBB Fan

[Joe Foss]

Finals from today:

Ball State 60, Western Michigan 54
Toledo 81, Central Michigan 79 (OT)
Eastern Michigan 84, Northern Illinois 60
Buffalo 58, Miami 39
Ohio 101, Akron 73
Bowling Green 65, Kent State 55

Ohio's top two scorers, Quiera Lampkins and Kiyanna Black, ran into early foul trouble today at Akron. The Zips parlayed that with an early scoring burst by their leading scorer Anita Brown to claim a 15-13 lead at the end of the first quarter. But the Bobcats showed they are more than a two-player team, went on a 29-12 scoring run in the second quarter, and continued to run away from the Zips in the second half.

Starters Lexie Baldwin (17 points) and Yamonie Jenkins (11) led the way, and the bench put up points as well. Hannah Boesinger ended with 11, and Kelly Karlis and Dominique Doseck totaled 10 each. Lately I've thought that other players were relying too much on Lampkins and Black to do the scoring, so it was good to see them assert themselves when it mattered.

Brown ended up with 29 points for Akron, but no other player got into double digits for the Zips.

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Ohio Bobcats WBB Fan

[shadowboxer]

Yeah, I'd say scoring isn't an issue for OU, Joe.

Toledo played a confident, well-balanced game against CMU through all 4 quarters, but could never put enough distance point wise between themselves and CMU to prevent the tie at the end of the 4th quarter. Smart plays by Brenae Harris,and inside and outside timely scoring concluded the game's end in Toledo's favor. I am happy to say that throughout the game, even during the O/T, Cullop utilized freshmen Hallie Printz, Kayla McIntyre, and Canadian player Sarah St. Forte to add points and play regular positions, especially in Kayla'a use as the center, a useful option.

[BallState1984]

The flatness continues in Muncie yet the Cardinals dug deep enough to take down Western Michigan 60-54. The Broncos led most of the game and Ball State did not retake the lead until the two minute mark in the 4th. Of course the last minute charge was led by Nathalie Fontaine with some timely free throw shooting by Jill Morrison. Carmen Grande, who flirted with a triple double Wednesday at DeKalb, also contributed a timely basket at the end.

Morrison, who still has the shooting monkey on her back, suffered a foot injury in the opening minutes and did not play her usual high minutes. At this time, things look iffy.

Miracle Woods was MIA and rumor has it she has been suspended again.

Western got a lot of production from their two bigs, Jessica Jessing and Meredith Shipman. I was really impressed with their play.

Ball State goes to Mount Unpleasant Wednesday and hopefully the end results will be differnt.

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Terminally afffected with Our Girl Syndrome and proud of it!

[Joe Foss]

The WMU website has been silent about Miracle Woods' status. The pre-season all-MAC pick has now missed three consecutive games for the Broncos.

I'm wondering if Brady Sallee is secretly gunning for the MAC record for technical fouls by a head coach in a season. He picked up his third yesterday. No word from the league on who holds the current record, or how many it would take to break it.

Seedings after 14 games, with 4 to go (all ties broken by head to head results):

1. Ohio (13-1)
2. Central Michigan (11-3)
3. Ball State (10-4)
4. Toledo (10-4)
5. Eastern Michigan (8-6)
6. Western Michigan (7-7)
7. Akron (7-7)
8. Buffalo (5-9)
9. Bowling Green (5-9)
10. Northern Illinois (3-11)
11. Miami (3-11)
12. Kent State (2-12)

If the season ended today, first round tournament matchups at campus sites would be:

#10 NIU at #7 Akron. Winner to play #2 Central Michigan in quarterfinals in Cleveland.
#11 Miami at # 6 WMU. Winner to play #3 Ball State.
#9 Bowling Green at #8 Buffalo. Winner to play #1 Ohio.
#12 Kent State at #5 EMU. Winner to play #4 Toledo.

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Ohio Bobcats WBB Fan

[colt13]

I will go on record and say I like what Miami is doing. They are not good on the road, but have a bunch of good young kids in the program and they play hard. Hope Wright gets another year.

Have to give Toledo credit. After the Dayton game, I thought they would be .500 in conference.

[Joe Foss]

[Joe Foss]

Finals from tonight:

Ohio (14-1) 85, Kent State (2-13) 52
Eastern Michigan (9-6) 58, Toledo (10-5) 46
Buffalo (6-9) 55, Bowling Green (5-10) 52
Central Michigan (12-3) 67, Ball State (10-5) 66
Northern Illinois (4-11) 80, Western Michigan (7-8) 70
Akron (8-7) 65, Miami (3-12) 62 (OT)

Ohio was expected to win in Athens tonight, and they responded with a wire to wire win. The Bobcats did one of their better jobs of interior passing of the season, frequently resulting in open layups for the posts. Four Bobcats scored in double digits, led by Kiyanna Black with 19 and Hannah Boesinger off the bench with 15. Lexie Baldwin tallied 14, and Quiera Lampkins had 7 assists to go with her 12 points.

Despite the score, I think the Flashes may be getting better. They're using a freshman walk-on, Paige Salisbury at point, who is solid if unspectacular. Chelsi Watson played well off the bench, and scored 11. Jordan Korinek has a great scoring touch, but has had trouble staying on the floor due to foul trouble. She was again limited by fouls tonight.

In other games, NIU's Allie Lehman scored 41 points tonight. Miracle Woods was a DNP for the fourth straight game for WMU. Still no explanation from the Broncos website about her status. Teagan Reeves did play off the bench tonight for WMU for the first time in conference play. And look out for EMU - the Eagles seem to be putting together another late season run just in time for the tournament.

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Ohio Bobcats WBB Fan