March 7, 2008

Complete Release in PDF Format

ATHENS, Ohio - The Ohio women's basketball team will play in the first game of the 2008 MAC women's hoops tourney Sunday night against Central Michigan at 7 p.m.

Official Tourney Title: 2008 Kraft MAC Women's Basketball Tournament
Date: March 9-11, 14-15
Location: Cleveland, Ohio (Quicken Loans Arena)

Radio: All Ohio games can be heard via ohiobobcats.com. Click the online broadcast link on the sidebar of the women's basketball page. Thomas Hodson will be calling the action.

Internet: The MAC will be providing livestats and online video streaming.

Seedings: Ohio (17-12, 10-6 MAC) is the No. 3 seed in the MAC East Division. Central Michigan (6-22, 2-13 MAC) is the No. 6 seed in the MAC West Division.

Series: It is the fourth straight year that Ohio and Central Michigan and have met in the first round of the MAC tournament. Ohio has won the last three opening-round contests between the squads and holds an 80 percent winning percentage (4-to-1) against CMU in MAC tournament altogether.

Ohio holds a 25-23 advantage in the all-time series between the teams. The teams last met in Mt. Pleasant earlier this season. The Bobcats topped the Chippewas, 71-64.

Notes - Ohio won its first MAC tournament championship in 1986 against Central Michigan, 92-85, in overtime.

A Win Sunday Would ...
- make the Bobcats 18-12 overall.
- make Ohio 26-23 vs. all-time CMU.
- make Ohio 5-1 vs. CMU in the MAC tournament.
- make Ohio 11-22 all-time in the MAC tournament.
- make Crawley's record 36-24.
- make Crawley 2-1 in the tourney.

Regular Season Wrap-Up
The Bobcats finished the regular season with 17 wins and 12 losses. The 17 wins is in a three-way tie for fourth place in the program's all-time winningest seasons list. It is the first time ever that a squad has put back-to-back seasons on the list. Last year, Ohio's 18 wins ranks third all-time.

Senior Lauren Kohn led the team in scoring during the season and comes into the tournament as the MAC's second leading scorer with averages of 16.3 ppg overall and 17.1 ppg in conference games only.

Three's a Charm
The 2007-08 Bobcat squad has set a new all-time record with 209 three pointers made this season. The `Cats broke the previous record of 189 set by the 2001-02 squad. The Bobcats have been nationally ranked as one of the top-6 teams in the nation in three-point percentage for the last seven weeks. Senior Simone Redd is third all-time in Bobcat history with 119 three-pointers made her career, while senior Lauren Kohn is fourth all-time in the category with 106 and senior Quintana Ward is fifth all-time with 102.

New Kid on the Block
With 28 blocks in her rookie campaign, Kamille Buckner is already one of Ohio's all-time blocks leaders. She is currently in eighth place on Ohio's all-time career blocks list. She passed Latreece Bagley's (2000-04) 27, and is currently sixth on the single-season list. Ohio's 93 blocked shots this season is the best total in ten seasons. The 2006-07 squad is the closest with 69.

Welcome to the Club
Seniors Lauren Kohn and Simone Redd both have scored more than 1,000 points in their collegiate careers. Kohn has accumulated 1,387 points, including 955 in her two years as a Bobcat and 432 at Syracuse. In addition, Redd reached the 1,000-point mark with 12 points scored against Kent State on Jan. 9. She now has 1,106 points in her career and is Ohio's ninth all-time leading scorer.

Executive Assistant
Senior Quintana Ward is Ohio's top disher of the 21st century. With 449 careers assists, Ward is Ohio's second all-time assists leader, trailing Marty Heckman (810), who played for Ohio from 1982-86. Ward holds two spots on Ohio's single-season list with 134 in 2006-07 and 120 in 2005-06. Against Ball State earlier this season, Ward dished out a career-best 10 assists. She averages 3.83 assists per game in her career.

Bush
Sophmore Jennifer Bushby scored a career-high 23 points at Buffalo this season. She shot 75 percent 6-of-8) from the three-point line, tying her third all-time in the Bobcat record book for best three-point field goal performance in a single game. It was the best performance from beyond the arc for a Bobcat since Cathy Szall shot 75 percent against Eastern Michigan on March 3, 2001. Szall also made 6-of-8 attempts. With a .447 three-point percentage in her career, Bushby currently stands atop the all-time list for Ohio. She has made 63-of-141 attempts.

Koo-Koo for Jenny Poff
This season junior transfer Jenny Poff returned to the hardwood after sitting out a season because of NCAA transfer rules. Poff didn't waste any time getting reacquainted with her game. Poff tallied a career-high six steals against Ball State, becoming one of four Bobcats to ever do that. She also filled up her career stat sheet with her first career block against Kent State on March 1. She is currently third on the team in scoring, averaging 7.8 points per game and has scored in double figures 12 times this season, including a career-high 15 points against Akron. She is one of two Bobcats to reach double digits in assists this season and led the `Cats in assists ten times.