Ohio fell to Belmont by a score of 81-62 Saturday on the road. The Bobcats (20-7, 11-1 Mid-American Conference) remain winless in non-conference road games this season. Read our chronological coverage of the game below.
Pregame
Instead of focusing on proving its at-large resume to those tuned in to its BracketBuster game against Belmont Saturday, Ohio is looking to ensure itself that it has the moxie to compete with high-level teams outside of the Mid-American Conference.
The Bobcats have one final crack at taking their first non-conference road game of the season against Belmont, as they fell by a combined score of 327-273 in their first four attempts. The Bruins are perfect at home this season, however, and have been an NCAA Tournament team in each of the last two seasons.
"We haven’t gone on the road in the non-conference and beaten a quality opponent this year," Ohio coach Jim Christian said. "(This) is a huge challenge for us and it’s the last chance we get to do it."
Christian dampened talks of a win potentially bolstering the Bobcats' chances of earning an at-large invitation to the NCAA Tournament if it weren't to nab the MAC's automatic bid, but said there's plenty on the line for Ohio (20-6, 11-1 MAC) Saturday.
"It’s a big momentum game against a really good basketball team," he said. "The bottom line is if you want to get to a postseason and win games you have to beat good teams. We need to prove to ourselves we know we’ll beat a top-50 team."
The Bruins (21-6, 12-2 Ohio Valley Conference) are one of the nation's top perimeter shooting teams, and are led by senior guard Ian Clark, who shoots 55 percent from the field and leads the nation with a 48 percent mark from three-point range.
They also rank No. 21 in the country with 16 assists per game.
The man behind Ohio's NCAA-leading 18.8 assists per game, senior guard D.J. Cooper, is only 48 points, six assists and four rebounds from becoming the first player in NCAA history to produce 2,000 points, 900 assists, 500 rebounds and 300 steals in his career.
He has averaged 13.7 points, 7.8 assists and 3.2 rebounds per game this season.
Look back at the Bobcats' last game, a 23-point win against Eastern Michigan, here. Read beat reporter Jim Ryan's game preview here. Follow him and The Post Sports on Twitter for game updates.
First Half
For the sixth-straight game, Ohio's starting five consisted of Cooper, redshirt senior guard Walter Offutt, junior guard Nick Kellogg and forwards Reggie Keely, a senior, and T.J. Hall, a junior.
Hall hit a three-pointer on Ohio's first possession to start its scoring on the night.
After a Belmont offensive putback, Kellogg took advantage of a Cooper steal and converted a layup for Ohio's second scoring play of the game.
Three turnovers from each team marred the first four minutes of play.
Clark evened the score about five minutes into the game before sophomore guard J.J. Mann hit a long two to give the Bruins their first lead of the game with 14:37 remaining in the first half.
Ohio senior forward Ivo Baltic, junior forward Jon Smith and junior guard Travis Wilkins checked in at the first media timeout, at which the Bobcats trailed 7-5.
The Bruins pushed their lead to seven by the 12-minute mark, when Mann hit an open corner three.
Offutt fired back with a layup and trip to the line, however, to bring the margin to three.
A pair of Belmont three-pointers soon thereafter pushed the Bruins' lead to nine, however.
Ohio junior guard Ricardo Johnson made his first appearance at about the 10-minute mark.
Kellogg snapped a three-minute Ohio scoreless streak with a runner with the shot clock winding down.
Clark continued the Bruins' hot streak on their next trip down the floor, though, taking the ball coast-to-coast to give them an 11-point lead with eight minutes to play in the half.
Ohio sophomore guard Stevie Taylor spelled Cooper for the first time at that point.
He made it a nine-point game on his first offensive possession, as he hit a three from the wing to bring the score to 24-15.
Belmont junior forward Trevor Noack scored six-straight points over the next minute of play, though, to bump the Bruins' lead to 13.
Cooper stopped the bleeding once the Bruins' lead was extended to 15 with a contested three-pointer with just more than three minutes remaining in the half.
Clark missed a wide-open layup inside the 2:30 mark and collapsed to the floor with an apparent lower body injury. He walked off the court under his own power, however.
The Bobcats came out of the stoppage with four-straight points, the first two of which were on a Keely layup. Hall added the other basket with an offensive putback.
Mann buried a three-pointer at the buzzer to head into halftime with a 17-point advantage.
Halftime: Belmont 41, Ohio 24
Ohio shot only 36 percent in the first half, and converted only three-of-13 from beyond the arc.
The Bobcats, which had eight first half turnovers, were led offensively by Hall, who had seven points on 3-for-4 shooting, while Offutt had a field goal and pair of free throws for four points.
Noack led the Bruins with 13 points.
The Bobcats were slow to rotate defensively and were burned by the Bruins' offensive attack in the first half.
Second Half
Offutt began the Bobcats' comeback attempt with a charge on the offensive end, and was sent to the bench with three fouls.
Johnson then cashed in a three-point play for the Bobcats, which was followed up by a Keely layup.
The score was 44-29 with 17:22 remaining.
Keely then showed a bit of range by taking an open jumper from just inside the three-point arc. It was countered, however, by a layup by Noack on the other end.
Johnson continued his and Keely's back-and-forth with a layup off the glass in traffic on Ohio's next offensive play.
Baltic hit a jumper from the top of the key to bring Ohio within 11 coming out of the first media timeout.
A free throw from Cooper brought the Bobcats within 10, but Mann brought the Bruins' lead back to 13 with a three-pointer less than 20 seconds later.
Kellogg hit an open three from the wing to cut Belmont's lead to 51-39 with 11:58 to play.
Christian called a timeout less than two minutes later, however, after the Bobcats allowed Belmont to convert on two-straight layups in transition.
Offutt committed his fourth foul just outside the 10-minute mark, at which Christian sat him in favor of Johnson. Offutt had only four points at that juncture.
Ohio trailed 59-41, and was on a 13-5 run at that point.
Kellogg was whistled for his fourth foul less than two minutes later, as well. Both teams were in the bonus by then.
Clark was inserted back into the game at that point and quickly drained a pair of three-pointers — the Bruins' seventh and eighth of the night, respectively.
The game was well out of reach for Ohio by the five-minute mark, as the Bobcats trailed by 20 at that point.
The Bobcats' improved their deficit by only a point heading into the final media timeout with 3:55 remaining.
Although Smith hammered home a pair of back-to-back dunks heading into the two-minute mark, the Bobcats were unable to significantly close the Bruins' lead as time wound down.
Final: Belmont 81, Ohio 62
The Bobcats were unable to muster a second half comeback en route to their fifth non-conference road loss of the season Saturday, representing a complete 180-degree turnaround from Wednesday's 23-point win against Eastern Michigan. They were never within single digits of the Bruins in the second half, and moved to 6-4 overall in BracketBuster play.
Statistics
Keely: 12 points, eight rebounds
Hall: 10 points, eight rebounds
Offutt: Seven points
Kellogg: Seven points
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Clark: 18 points, six rebounds
Mann: 17 points, eight rebounds
Reactions
"We were disappointed about how we played. We just have to get better. It’s over. We can’t play the game tomorrow, so we have to get ready for Wednesday night and play harder and play more together." — Christian
"I thought we guarded them better for the majority of the second half, but you can’t go down that many points and expect to be around in the game." — Christian on Ohio's defense
"I though if we got it under ten we could have made a real run, but then we made three straight mistakes and they got three straight layups." — Christian on Ohio's second half play
Twitter Notes
Ohio never trailed by less than 10 in the second half...
Belmont's offense was firing on all cylinders Saturday...
Taylor has no harsh feelings toward Vince Gill...
It's shortsighted to say the loss is inconsequential for Ohio...
Akron's in town for a big one Wednesday. Ohio's response will be interesting...
Up Next
Ohio (20-7, 11-1 MAC) will host Akron Wednesday in its return to conference play. The Zips (22-4, 12-0 MAC) are in the midst of an NCAA-best 18-game win streak and beat the Bobcats by 14 points in the teams' first meeting on Feb. 2.
