Ohio Women Announce Themselves as MAC Contenders With B1G Win Over Purdue

The Ohio Bobcats women’s basketball were sitting at 6-0 when they took on the 6-2 Purdue Boilermakers tonight. The Boilermakers were coming off a win against a ranked other Miami squad. This was a huge game for the Bobcats, because while they were the only undefeated women’s team left in the MAC, they certainly aren’t getting the press that Buffalo and CMU were.

That is going to start to change. While not exactly world beaters, Purdue is a well regarded team that the Bobcats dispatched with a score of 80-73.

The Bobcats used a big second quarter to pull ahead 41-26 at the half. Purdue picked up the pace to close the gap in the third, but never could quite make it a game.

CeCe Hooks had a career high 31 to lead the Bobcats. She also had 7 rebounds, 5 assists, and 5 steals. Doseck, Burris, and Johnson, three other starters, all scored in double figures. The other starter, Amani Burke, went 1-7 from the floor and finished with 5 points. I don’t bring this up to shame Ms. Burke, quite the opposite. On the season she averages 14.7 points and 4.3 rebounds on the season. Going into the game, she hit 46.3% from the field, 42.9% from three (wow), and 82.4% from the free throw line. She is a heck of a player, and shooter, she just had a bad game. Everyone does from time to time in a game where you are chucking a round ball at a cylinder that is only twice it’s size from 20 feet away.

If Burke played like she usually does, and will for most of the rest of the season, this game would have been a huge blowout. This bodes well for the future of this team.

The Bobcats have 4 more non-conference games that they should win. Ironically or not, they face Buffalo and Central Michigan in their first two conference games. I would not be shocked if we see a ranked Ohio team in mid January.