By: KSU Sports Information
Box Score Play-By-Play
Postgame Notes
Photo Courtesy: Joel Hawksley/Ohio University Athletics
ATHENS, Ohio- Delbert Love and Markeith Cummings scored 19 points each to give the Ohio Bobcats all they could handle, but would fall on Friday night in their eighth straight road game, 71-63, at the Convocation Center on the campus of Ohio University.
In a hard-fought battle throught the contest, the Owls (3-10) didn’t trail by double digits for any of the first 30 minutes and were behind just 27-26 heading into halftime. After Nick Kellogg, Ohio’s leading three-point shooter, made his first two threes of the evening to start off the second half and put the Bobcats (12-1) up by seven, the Black and Gold traded baskets with the home team for the next five minutes before making their big push to stay in the contest.
Down, 42-35, with 14:14 left in the game, Lewis Preston’s squad would reel off seven straight points to tie things up at 42 with 12:30 remaining. Love was responsible for the first five points of the spurt, draining on of his five threes on the night before swiping the ball from Ricardo Johnson on the defensive end, eventually resulting in a pair of made free throws by the freshman. After a stop on the other end, Cummings would drive into the lane and finish one of his patented picturesque layups to even the score, temporarily quieting the crowd of 5,863.
“Tonight was the best 40 minutes we have played all year, despite the outcome," Owls head coach Lewis Preston commented after the game. "Did we play perfectly? No, but we played with the energy and passion that I have expected from us since we started practice in October. Now the challenge is to do this on a consistent basis.”
It was at that point that the Bobcats, who are currently receiving votes in both major Top-25 polls, began to pull away, scoring eight unanswered points over the next 1:33 to take the lead for good. The game-changing run was highlighted by the third and fourth threes of the evening by Kellogg.
While the Owls were within striking distance for most of the game, it looked like the Bobcats would have a chance to run away with it relatively early. The Owls led, 14-11, with 12:10 left in the first half, when Ohio’s swarming, full-court defense began to effect the Owls. Over the next 4:17, Kennesaw State would commit five of their 10 first half turnovers, while the Bobcats made four out of five shots and added a pair of free throws from big man Ivo Baltic, who finished with 15 points and nine rebounds on the evening, to make it a 22-14 game.
“They put a lot of pressure on us when we had the ball, but I thought a lot of our turnovers were self-inflicted during that stretch," Preston remarked. "We were dribbling too much against their pressure instead of making the extra pass, or we got trapped instead of having a teammate come back for the ball.”
The deficit was 26-19 with 3:49 left in the half when a thunderous dunk by Cummings off of a pass from Dixon started a 7-0 run by the Owls before the Bobcats ended the half leading by a point. The dynamic duo of Dixon and Cummings would team up again early in the second half, Dixon lobbing a perfectly-placed ball to the right of the rim 30 feet from the basket for Cummings, who emphatically finished the alley-oop.
Falling behind by as many as 15 points in the second half, the Owls worked to the very end, scoring during each of their last six possessions to make it a single-digit game. Cummings scored six of the Owls last 12 points, in a game in which he played all 40 minutes.
Both squads shot 9-for-20 in the first half before the Owls allowed the Bobcats to shoot 13-for-23 (56.5 percent) in the second half. The Owls, for their part, were 13-for-29 after the break.
“Tonight was one of our better defensive efforts with regards to rotations," Preston said.”I thought we did a very good job sharing the ball, making the right decisions defensively as well as offensively."
Love was 5-for-12 from beyond the arc, snagging six rebounds and snagging two steals in the effort. Aaron Anderson led the Owls on the glass with seven rebounds, while Spencer Dixon was the third Owl to score in double figures, scoring 14 points while dishing out a team-high five assists.
Ohio, who has now won nine games in a row, saw four players score in double figures and were led by junior Walter Offutt’s 17 points. Fellow junior D.J. Cooper scored 14 points and also handed out a game-high seven assists.
Friday night put an end to the Owls December-long road swing, in which they played all eight of their games away from the KSU Convocation Center. They return to their home court on Monday evening when they host the Stetson Hatters in their first home game of the season against an Atlantic Sun Conference opponent. Tip-off is slated for 7 p.m.
