The Falcon women’s basketball team faced off against the Ohio Bobcats Saturday afternoon in Athens, Ohio, where they suffered their fifteenth loss of the year, 69–58. This pushes the Falcons’ overall record to 10–15 and 2–12 in MAC play.
Despite junior Carly Santoro’s 16-point performance, which led all Falcons in scoring, the Falcons could never fully catch back up to the Bobcats. Sophomore Caterrion Thompson and junior Sydney Lambert also reached double digits in points, with 11 and 10 points, respectively,
Ohio, led by leading scorer Amani Burke with 15 points, never lost the lead at any point in this game. The Bobcats came out of the gate hot, leading 23–18 after the first quarter, and never let up. Heading into the half, the Falcons trailed by 10 points at 40 – 30.
The Falcons came out fighting in the start of the second half, trimming the lead to 43–40, but that led to a Bobcats 8–0 run, which increased their lead back up to 11. However, after going without a bucket for over four minutes, the Falcons got back on track and went on a 6–0 run to head into the fourth quarter trailing 51–46.
As the fourth quarter began, so did the turnovers for the Falcons. After receiving a turnover on the Falcons’ opening possession, the Bobcats led a 7–0 run for. The Falcons managed to get within five points of tying the game with four minutes left, but the Bobcats pulled away, which eventually led to the final score.
Falcons head coach Jenifer Roos is proud of the team’s performance, but understands they need to get better.
“Kudos to Ohio for making the defensive adjustment that they made for this game,” Roos said. “We outrebounded them, we made more 3s than they did – I thought we did a good job in a lot of areas. But, we need to take better care of the ball, and we need to handle that trap better.”
Roos said her team had plenty of chances to get back into it, but the Falcons could never fully capitalize on them.
“When the trap bothered us, we turned it over, and when we handled it, we got a wide-open or makeable shot,” Roos said. “We did a good job of getting to the foul line late, but when you go 7-of-15 at the foul line, it’s tough.”
The Falcons will return home for their next game on Wednesday night, where they will take on the current MAC East-leading Buffalo Bulls.
