Off to a great start with a 72-66 win in the MAC/SBC Challenge with a 72-66 win at Texas State.

Newcomer Elli Garnett led the way with 20 points on 6/9 shooting. Returning junior Asiah Baxter scored 14 and led with 6 rebounds. Bailey Tabeling isn't supposed to be running the point this year, but she led the team with 4 assists and the same number of steals despite a cold shooting night.

OUr Bobcats were out shot and basically broke even on the rebounding, but were able to turn their Bobcats over with regularity and shot 17 more free throws. Perhaps the most stunning stat to someone who didn't see the game would be the huge lead in points in the paint by OUr small Bobcats, but a lot of that was transition scoring at the rim.

In addition to Garnett, who appears very quickly to be carving out her own name beyond being Abby's little sister, and Baxter and Tabeling, the other two starters were Clemson transfer Bella Ranallo and Aliah McWhorter.

Good to see last year's starter Monica Williams back. She made both threes she attempted off the bench.

Had that typical one bad quarter a game (third) but thankfully we're able to over one it by playing well the rest of the game.

My initial worry was given how bad we were last year, we were paired with the worst in the SBC and this isn't exciting. But Texas State was 13-17 (7-11) last year, so getting a road win here seems like reason for optimism.

Great work in the paint. 23 turnovers is too many but they had 34 (!!!). Tough one vs Columbia (an NCAA at-large selection last year) on Sunday.

92-74 loss to Columbia. I don't how much Columbia returned from their tourney team last season, but they were picked to finish second in the Ivy league this year. This seems like a game we would have struggled to score 55 in the past, so the offensive output is encouraging. You should see the shot spray chart on ESPN. It's like a typical NBA chart. Threes and the paint, but that's it. They forced a lot of turnovers again, but were dominated on the glass by a team that isn't all that huge.

Another poor third quarter where they were outscored by more than their halftime deficit. It's a pattern at this point and they have to figure it out. How does this team continue to come out of halftime so flat?

I heard Bob bought all the kids whose school would allow it, some Donato's.

The energy was wonderful from the kids but even they came out flat in the third. Maybe next year's game can be moved up an hour and they can eat after!

Great win, but I'll echo what Bob said in the third quarter: "Groundhog Day." Seriously.

Dani Scully is TOUGH.

Kentucky, who is ranked, beat Morehead by the same margin. And Morehead beat Bellarmine badly; Bellarmine came to town last year and whipped us. (Of course, Chancellor Dugan just retired.)

Only bad thing about yesterday's field trip game is our scoreboard went from 66 to 68.

Thank you for the good news. It warms my Bobcat heart!

Ohio Women made Sportscenter's Top 10 Plays (#8) on Friday with a 55 foot 3-point shot from the far side of the Paw Print.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSytKVWN2Ng

At Xavier Thursday, who just lost to Kent State and is a pretty terrible team in the Big East. Then Wright St at home next week, another winnable game. These 2 will show us a lot of how they can compete in the MAC.

Well things did not go well last night, losing 74-53. Jacked up 37 threes and only made 8 of them. Wasn't much better from 2 or from 1...just real bad shooting across the board.

Aside from a lopsided rebounding margin, they put up a brilliant effort losing by five at Davidson who is expected to do well in the A-10 and even lost by only two to top 10 Baylor. Two point shooting wasn't great but Ohio shot confidently from three going 10-24 and were about even on turnovers.

After playing 11 players at Texas State, Ohio played only eight today, including the freshman from Europe who did not play at TSU. I couldn't tell who was dressed and who was in street clothes, but no Williams, Jennings, Moultre, or Laffler (she's always hurt it seems). Are we on our annual injury kick?

Road win against Radford 72-67 last week.

Wasn't it Shab who has been calling for years to put the Women's game first BEFORE the Men's game when they do a doubleheader? He is finally getting his wish. 1:00 start before the Men's 4:00 game. I plan to at least get there by half time of the ladies game. Should be a good one against Saint Louis, who I think is a pretty even match.

A win would move the Bobcats to 6-3. As a reminder, last year they finished 6-23.

During a game three years ago, Bob Boldon was bitching about one of the refs to his team during a timeout. The ref, standing on the other side of the court, yelled that she could hear every word he was saying. Boldon replied, "Hey, it's not my fault nobody attends women's games."

That St. Louis program was an absolute piece of work. Arrogant, entitled, and worst of all, violent. Their method of play was to seemingly just run over everyone like Marvin Heemeyer in the killdozer, then cry about it when fouls got called during three of the game's four quarters. Were it not for a first quarter in which literally zero fouls got called on them, I'm convinced OU would have won, and probably handily.

They destroyed two of our players in dirty plays, particularly Elli Garnett, which could be heard all across the building. Then when they got called for another dirty play, their coach started crying that a foul shouldn't have been called because the girl finished 19th in the nation last year in blocked shots. Then she started crying that her team was going to "win anyway" and "play through it," as if being punished for the consequences of her team's deliberate strategy--and only some of the time at that--was somehow some kind of "adversity," which her players than acted out afterwards, carrying on as if they were the USA men's hockey team defeating the Russians.

It was really sickening to watch. I hate that we did not beat that team. That was a poor excuse of "basketball" they were allowed to play, and were rewarded for. Acted like the Legion of Boom, fouling multiple times per play and daring the refs to call it, then crying when they did.