Ohio scores in bunches late to pull away in scrimmage versus Indiana Tech.
It wasn’t just some timeout adjustments, and it certainly wasn’t just fatigue on the part of Indiana Tech’s defense.
It was more likely a combination of both that allowed Ohio to fire off 28 points in the final 7:50 of an exhibition matchup, after a flurry of hard-luck shooting spells left Ohio with just 45 points in the first 32 minutes of the contest.
The 28 points helped the Bobcats eventually pull away from the Warriors with a final score of 73-57 in front of a Dads Weekend crowd at The Convo.
It was during that final stretch that Ohio transformed a 16-for-47 shooting performance into a 26-for-59 line, sending the Bobcats to the locker room with some much-needed confidence to close the preseason’s second and final scrimmage opening its regular season against Florida Gulf Coast next week.
“First game nerves kinda got in the way a little bit early,” Ohio forward Kenny Kaminski said. “But we got those out of the way now. We were getting our looks today, and we’re not worried about offense at all.”
Treg Setty led the way for Ohio with 17 points on a 7-for-13 shooting afternoon to go along with five rebounds and two assists. Ohio also got a double-digit scoring day from Kaminski, who finished with 14 points despite a 2-for-8 showing from behind the arc.
The Bobcats’ rebounding effort was led by Antonio Campbell, who brought down nine boards to go with nine points. Guard Jaaron Simmons, meanwhile, turned in a solid afternoon, scoring 11 points to go with seven assists.
Indiana Tech’s Jalen Huff led all scorers with 18 points, while the Warriors’ Dominique Walls led all rebounders with 13.
Perhaps the biggest red flag for the Bobcats on Saturday was losing a rebound contest to a smaller team. Ohio was outrebounded 49-37 in the game despite being a team whose size should realistically be one of its better assets going into the season.
"With us, it's maintaing positive body language, lifting your teammates up when they get down and that's what we're expected to do from coach," Setty said. "We'll get on rolls, we'll get five minutes spurts when we're not hitting, but that's basketball. You can't make basketball life or death, you just gotta go out and play and have fun."
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Even with the struggles in the rebounding game, however, coach Saul Phillips came away from the game pleased with his defense.
“We got crushed on the boards, I’ll be frank,” Phillips said. “But what we didn’t do is panic on the defensive end. We’re not one of those teams you see in this conference who grind it out on defense, that’s just not our identity. But we got that kind of performance in a game that we needed it, so I’m happy with that.”
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