Figured I'd start a new thread. The ladies MAC tourney run beings tonight at 6:30 against Ball State. Will be on ESPN+. Ohio split with Ball State this season, the loss being an OT loss as home and the win being a blowout at Ball State in which Ohio hit 17 three pointers even with Erica Johnson out.

If there was a Vegas line, given our injury situation I would guess we would be very slight underdogs. Falling short of the semis will feel like a disappointment, really hope they can at least get a shot at the semis. Go Bobcats!

I think if my cousin Thelma Dís Ágústsdóttir doesn't light it up, well do just fine. Got to put our best defender on her! ;-)

A personal note of interest to those who study genealogy and perhaps 1 percent of BA posters: I asked a much closer cousin in Iceland to go online to their national genealogical database and calculate his relationship with her; however, he mistakenly calculated his relationship to her on his mother's side, we are related on his father's side. He was a 7th cousin, three times removed on his mother's side. [sarcasm on] He's probably a much closer relationship on our shared paternal line -- looking at the basketball talent we share. Alan and SBH can attest to that! [/sarcasm off]

Guys weren't kidding. Erica's running on one and a half wheels.

Bobcats down by four at halftime. Ball State is playing good, smart defense. They're a playing way off of Hooks to keep her from driving past and have gotten her to take seven 3-pointers (she's made two). Hooks does have 16 points but is 6 of 16. No one else has been able to do much. Five points for Burris, two for Mace. That's it. Ohio is 9 for 38 shooting. Players other than Hooks are 3 for 22. Johnson is 0 for 6. Like usual, Ohio is forcing turnovers (14 so far) to stay in it.

If Johnson has long-term knee concerns that's a huge blow to her chances of getting a shot at pro ball.

And Erica responds with 14 points in the third quarter.

Count me as still excited Erica is back on the floor. Way to pull out a tough win.

Great win for the ladies! Erica gets the POG award from me, but everyone, including Hooks, Burris, Mace, Hale, Kroll and Bumblebee Bambule did their parts. It was a team victory.

I did not get to watch this one, seems like an ugly one and Erica's sharp shooting in the 3rd quarter was the difference. 23 points at halftime, oof. Cece with 20 missed shots and only 2 assists with 4 turnovers, one of her worst stat lines and yet she still scores 21.

Hopefully Erica's injury continues to improve or at least doesn't get worse with the 35 minutes played yesterday. CMU feels like another toss up.

Central Michigan is stressing that they only brought 8 players to Cleveland and that a third of their roster was left in Mt. Pleasant due to COVID concerns. Although that sounds devastating, the four players left behind are all lightly used freshmen, with all of the starters and usual reserves available for the tournament.

Probably of more concern to CMU is the lack of a dominant post presence that has been a staple of Chips' teams over the last several years. 6'1" Kyra Bussel was on fire to start the season, but her production has steadily slipped from 13.6/7.5 in early January to 9.1/4.7, possibly due to a nagging injury. She's trying to rely more on a 3-point game, but has only hit 1 in the past 6 games. She has not even attempted a free throw in the past 9. The only other available post is 6'0" Jahari Smith, who is mobile and a good rebounder, but not a great scorer. In the quarterfinals, those two only played about 30 minutes combined, as CMU went to a more guard-oriented lineup.

The Chips still have plenty of 3-point firepower, plus last season's POY Micaela Kelly. It will be interesting to see if Ohio's defense goes away from the usual double teams on the post in favor of concentrating more on slowing down the perimeter attack.

Ohio's own injury/illness concerns are not limited to the status of Erica Johnson. Until the quarters, Caitlyn Kroll had not played for nearly a month, and missed all 7 of her shot attempts against Ball State. Kaylee Bambule missed the last regular season game against Miami, and went 0-3 in the quarters, all from three-point range. A return to form from either or both of those starters would go a long way toward boosting Ohio into the finals.

Holy cow both teams are really shooting well, very impressive first half so far.

45-42 @ half, CMU on top.

CMU 9/17 from three, 60% fg overall
OU 6/14 from three, 53% fg overall

Cece 12, 3, 3 & 4
Erica 13 on 5/7 shooting including 3/4 from three

Go Cats.

Cece fouls out on a charge. Fine if you want to call that a charge, but inconsistent with how they've called block/charge all game.