OCF, I saw in another thread that you are recovering from COVID. Hope things are going well for you.

The winning play for the Bobcats was pretty spectacular. With two seconds left, and Ohio down by one, Abby Garnett inbounded a perfect lob to Yaya Felder, who caught it in mid-air and scored in one motion. The only problem was that she scored so quickly that there were still 1.6 seconds left. NIU called time to advance the ball, and almost stole the game by lobbing the ball in to the best center in the MAC, A'Jah Davis, who had a 22 and 17 double-double today. The lob was perfect, but Davis somehow missed the layup. She got the rebound and put it back up just before the horn sounded, but the ball spun on the back of the rim and fell out. Game over.

Felder didn't have a great game in the first three quarters, scoring just 8 points. But in the fourth, she scored 15 on 6-8 shooting, including the game winner. Lots of help in the game from her teammates, including 15 from Caitlin Kroll, 11 from Jasmine Hale, and 9 from Garnett.

I think a tournament spot is still possible. Ohio is tied at 3-9 with CMU at the bottom, but there are at least three other teams at 4-8, and there may be four depending on the outcome of the EMU/WMU game today. So although its a logjam, the Bobcats are only one game behind in the race for the critical 8th spot.

Yes, the women's rules were changed in 2015 or 2016 to move from two halves to four quarters. An additional rule change allowed a team to advance the ball to the frontcourt following a timeout after a made basket in the last minute of the fourth quarter or any OT periods.

The same package of rule changes eliminated the one-and-one free throw. After the fifth team foul of the quarter, two free throws are awarded. Fouls reset to zero at the end of each quarter.

I didn't think I'd like the changes when they were made, but now I think they're the way to go.

Not surprising that we disagree on this rule. It seems to me all that it does is reward a team in a way that they really haven't earned. If the ball is in the far court when your opponent scores with time running out, why in the world should you be able to call a timeout and then get the ball back in your own front court? It's kind of like saying, well your defense wasn't good enough to stop them on that last basket and you didn't really keep track of how much time is left and use the clock wisely in the last minutes of the game, but heck, we want to keep the game exciting so we'll give you one more change just for kicks.

Over the years, Boldon has drawn up final last second plays that have been successful, although I'm too old to remember any of them specifically.

It sounds like Caitlyn Kroll is done for the season with an injury she sustained in the Ball State game on Wednesday. She was backpedaling, stepped on a Ball State's player's foot and went down immediately in a lot of pain. Today her foot was in a boot and she was using a scooter to get around, so obviously it's a pretty significant injury. I don't think she has any eligibility left, so this may be the end of her playing career.

Jaya McClure took her place in the starting lineup and was phenomenal, scoring a career high in points. Exactly how many she scored depends on which of the several box scores Ohio Athletics has released is accurate. The initial version discussed at the post-game press conference and picked up in stories in The Post, WOUB, and the CMU website, credits her with 28 points, and Yaya Felder with 29. Another version that appeared for a while on the Ohio Athletics website gives Jaya 24, and Yaya 33. The "Official, Final" box says Jaya scored 22, and Yaya 32. However, that box only lists one official (Angie Enlund), and I could swear there were three refs on the floor. So maybe, upon further review, there will be a new box tomorrow.

Those five plus Antonova are out, so the roster has just 8 effectives. Marty Bannister said during the broadcast that Felder has been playing through some knee issues as well. Just four regular season games left, with the two this week on the road. Wednesday's game at Kent State will tell us a lot about the team, I think. The Flashes won easily in Athens, and the Bobcats are going to have to bring the same determination to win that they showed against CMU. If they show up looking hopeless and helpless like they did at Ball State, they'll be meat. But if they win, the last three games are against teams that are only one game ahead of them at this point.