Ohio Bobcats at Buffalo Bulls Women's Basketball Takeaways Recap: Defense is back!

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Robby's Takes

1. We saw good offense and defense in this game

Don't get me wrong, the defense was spectacular, but the offense was pretty good as well. I'd love to see almost 50% shooting every game but I'll take the 43% (which isn't a huge drop off) that we saw in this game. I enjoy watching this team much more when they slow the tempo down because that's when they play their best. The offense looked much smoother then when we had our "let's play defense first" mindset early in the year. If we play like this every game, the rest of the MAC should watch out.

2. Will Karin Moss step up and be that missing piece?

Moss looked like a completely different player than the one we've been watching for the majority of this season. If she can produce a consistent effort like that one, we may finally have that missing piece in the puzzle. It would be easier to sleep at night as a UB fan if it isn't a two person Smith-Reid show all the time.

Player of the Game: Karin Moss

I can easily say Joanna deserves this, but we've seen a ton of games where she dominates and we still lose. I'm not taking a jab at her but for somebody else to finally step it up deserves POTG in my book.

Matt's Takes

1. Throwback... Wednesday?

That game looked a lot like UB Women's Basketball circa Fall 2015, and that's a good thing. I've said it in a few places now, but against a team that likes to run and bait opponents into playing fast, the Bulls stayed disciplined throughout to make Ohio's mediocre-efficiency offense more of an issue in the game.

The offense has improved over the course of the season, and UB didn't win this game without some uncharacteristic cold stretches from the Bobcats, but this should be a clear, clear signal that Buffalo needs to go back to the grinding, defense-first attitude that worked in OOC play.

2. But...

That said, the offense functioned quite well by UB's standard, let alone against the conference's most efficient defense. Only three games this season have seen Buffalo shoot better from the floor, and while neither the assists nor turnover totals were stellar, neither was a backbreaker, either.

3. Rotation

Quietly, another tight rotation for the Bulls. An added advantage of the slower pace: Coach Jack can afford to leave players out longer, and there's fewer opportunities to get into momentum- and rotation-disrupting foul trouble.

The next step will be to see if next game sees a similar top eight, or if a different name re-enters the conversation for a surprising 20 minutes. By this point in the season, that shouldn't be the case.

Player of the Game: Moss

All the more impressive and surprising given Steph Reid's off night.