Although Ohio’s Wednesday contest against Ball State wasn’t the most aesthetically pleasing game, the Bobcats did enough to earn their second win in Mid-American Conference play.
The Bobcats (12-4, 2-1 MAC) trumped the Cardinals for a 71-51 victory despite committing 12 turnovers and 22 fouls.
Ohio junior forward Maurice Ndour led all scorers with 16 points, and senior forward T.J. Hall chipped in 13 points as the Bobcats pulled away from the Cardinals (3-11, 0-3) in the second half.
Much like the Bobcats’ last contest against Akron, Ohio opened the game with a lethargic start on the offensive end. They shot six of 21 from the field and 11 percent from behind the arc in the first half.
Early foul trouble also forced the Bobcats to make lineup adjustments before the break.
Ohio redshirt sophomore forward Treg Setty and freshman forward Antonio Campbell stepped up for the Bobcats off the bench and combined for 10 points.
Setty said though the Bobcats weren’t able to get in a groove defensively, he felt like he and Campbell were able to step up on both sides of the ball.
“That’s how we always get it going, is off our defense,” Setty said. “A lot of times our offense just follows suit. And in the beginning of the game, we had a lot of foul trouble. ... (Campbell) and I kind of looked at each other and knew we had to step up to kind of give ourselves a spark off the bench.”
Ohio struggled early, as several errant passes added to the Bobcats’ inability to get in a rhythm. Consequently, Ohio had trouble generating much offensive separation.
The Bobcats’ largest lead of the first half was seven points, and they clung to a 27-21 lead heading into the break.
“We executed pretty well in the first half, take away the turnovers,” said Ohio coach Jim Christian. “When we ran our stuff, we got good shots, but it was good to see our guys who stepped in with some confidence. And that was our whole message at halftime is be who we are. … We’re playing here every day. (We need to) have some confidence, knock shots in, move the ball the way we have.”
The Bobcats’ second half defensive adjustments permitted the Cardinals a 33 percent shooting percentage and just better than half that from beyond the arc.
Ndour scored the Bobcats’ first five second-half points, and junior guard Stevie Taylor added a layup to the barrage to give the Bobcats a 7-2 run to begin the second half.
Ohio shot 50 percent from three-point range after halftime, compared to 11 percent in the first stanza.
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