Ohio’s victory in the Mid-American Conference opener was one that tested the Bobcats, as their focus changed several times throughout the game.
Ohio (11-3, 1-0 MAC) defeated Kent State on Wednesday 59-53 in a game where the defense secured the victory late in the second half.
The Bobcats held the Golden Flashes to 28 percent shooting from the floor and held Kent State’s shooters to just 4 of 22 from beyond the arc. Kent State junior guard Devareaux Manley hit just two of his eight three-point attempts.
“We were making good decisions with the ball, we executed our stuff, but sometimes the ball doesn’t go in.” coach Jim Christian said. “When it doesn’t you better find ways to stay in the game, so it was defense (that led us).”
Redshirt senior forward Jon Smith registered three of Ohio’s eight blocks and senior guard T.J. Hall grabbed nine rebounds.
Ohio’s stops on defense came from the team’s 10 steals, including three from senior guard Nick Kellogg. The Bobcats capitalized on the Golden Flashes’ miscues with 14 points off of 12 turnovers by Kent State. Ohio won the turnover battle 14-12.
The Bobcats had to stay out of foul trouble when junior forward Maurice Ndour picked up two quick fouls in the first half, followed by another foul early in the second half. Ndour played 23 minutes, despite being in the starting lineup.
“We had to gut it out,” Kellogg said. “It wasn’t pretty the whole time, but everyone that came in contributed, played hard minutes and did the little things to help us get the win.”
Kellogg recorded a team-high 19 points, six rebounds and shot 42.9 percent (6 of 14) from the floor. After Ndour came back in the game at 12:27 remaining in the second half, he helped lead the team on both sides of the ball towards a win. He finished with nine points and six rebounds, along with two blocks.
Senior guard Travis Wilkins came off the bench and added seven points, seven rebounds and 3 of 5 shooting, including two straight three-pointers at 7:24 and 6:08 remaining in the second half.
“Travis has been in the gym probably more than anyone I’ve ever had,” Christian said. “It doesn’t always go in on your time, you just have to keep putting the work in and it’ll go in when the opportunity is presented. Those back-to-back threes for us were huge.”
Despite the offensive power that the Bobcats can bring to the floor, Kellogg said that defense is in the team’s DNA, which is what brought them to victory on Wednesday.
“I think it’s just being hard-nosed. We always hang our head on defense and our guard play on defense is something that we’re really strong at,” Kellogg said. “We just tried to get after guys and make it tough for them. They’re really good players, so we just had to make them take contested shots and we did a good job of that.”
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