If coach Sylvia Crawley didn’t know any better, she might have thought she was coaching a different t eam on Saturday.
Not only were the Bobcats wearing different colored jerseys — pink for breast cancer awareness — but they allowed Eastern Michigan to score 18 points on 21 turnovers and their normally strong bench was outscored 24-1 as the Eagles made a late run to beat Ohio 62-56 Saturday in The Convo.
“This was not Ohio basketball,” Crawley said. “(I’m) very disappointed in (today’s) game ... It’s hard to turn the ball over 21 times and win a ballgame.”
The loss ended the Bobcats six-game winning streak, which had been the team’s longest since the 1997-98 season when they won nine straight. It was their second conference loss at home this season and knocked them back to second place in the Mid-American Conference East Division as Bowling Green defeated Northern Illinois 85-65.
“It’s hard to stomach,” said guard Jennifer Poff, who had 14 points, nine rebounds and five assists. “We didn’t step up when we needed to ... it hurts.”
Ohio (13-9, 6-3 MAC) led by double digits for most of the game and was up by as much as 16 in the second half. They led by nine with 4:39 to play when forward Lauren Kohn scored her first and only bucket of the second half to put Ohio up 52-43.
But that’s when the wheels came off for the Bobcats.
Eastern Michigan (12-9, 6-3 MAC) went on a 13-0 run during the next three minutes and closed the game out on a 19-4 run. Ohio was down just two with 1:17 to go, but guard Brittany Tyson threw her bench into a frenzy when she hit a tough jumper that put Ohio away for good.
“It’s just frustrating,” said center Chandra Myers, who recorded her second double-double of the season with 12 points and 13 rebounds. “They put up shots and they were falling ... they wanted it more.”
Ohio shot just 26 percent from the field in the second half and went 0-5 from 3-point range and 5-of-15 for the game. Going into the game, the Bobcats were second in the nation in 3-point field goal percentage at 41.9 percent.
The Bobcats turned the ball over five times in the last five minutes, including three from Poff, who finished with a career-high seven turnovers. The Bobcat guards were unable to handle the intense ball pressure of the Eagles.
“We didn’t match their intensity,” Poff said.
“You got to give them props, they kicked it in the second half. They increased their pressure and we kind of just backed off.”







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