The first time Ohio lost back-to-back games this season, it was at the hands of Bowling Green. When the two teams meet again Wednesday night, Ohio will be looking to avoid losing a third consecutive game.
The Bobcats (19-6, 7-4 Mid-American Conference) are undefeated at home in conference play, and in order to keep it that way, coach John Groce said his squad needs to get back to playing defense the way it did during its recent six-game winning streak.
“Right now, we can’t afford to give up 50 percent from the field and 67 percent (on 3-pointers) unless you’re going to shoot about the same yourself,” Groce said. “That hasn’t been consistent enough for us at this point.”
Ohio is coming off back-to-back road losses to a pair of sub-.500 teams. The Bobcats allowed their opponent to shoot better than 43 percent from the field in each game and gave up 70 points in a game for the first time during MAC play.
Adding to Ohio’s struggles, the offense has been plagued by scoring droughts, including one that lasted more than 10 minutes to open the game at Eastern Michigan.
Groce said the team’s offensive woes have increased the burden of the team’s defense.
“If you make shots left and right, you can overcome some of those things. But that’s not the M.O. of this team,” Groce said. “We have to find a way to rebound and defend every night. If we don’t have those two things in place, it’s difficult to win.”
The Bobcats played the majority of Saturday’s game without starting forward Ivo Baltic, who was busy nursing an injured knee, but Groce said Baltic should be ready to go on Wednesday.
Without Baltic, Ohio had difficulty against Eastern Michigan’s zone defense, and Groce said attacking the zone would be a priority leading up to Wednesday’s game.
With each loss, Ohio dropped one spot in the MAC East standings and now sits tied with the Falcons (13-11, 7-4 MAC) for fourth in the division.
A second loss to Bowling Green would nearly squelch any hope the Bobcats have of grabbing one of the top two seeds in the looming MAC Tournament.
“It’s always important to protect home court,” Baltic said. “We’ve got to get these. Obviously for seeding purposes, we’ve got to get this.”
In each of Ohio’s four conference losses, the Bobcats have allowed 67 points or more, including in the 67-57 defeat at Bowling Green to open MAC play.
In that game, Ohio allowed Bowling Green to shoot 52 percent from the field and 50 percent from 3-point territory while turning the ball over 18 times. Those are uncharacteristic numbers for a team that leads the league in turnover margin and ranks third in scoring defense.
Baltic said that the team needs to turn it up a notch heading into the second swing through the MAC East.
“Everybody knows what everybody does at this point, so it’s just going to be a matter of executing,” he said. “Basketball is about execution. We can know our stuff but you still have to execute, and you still have to do it.”
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