Ohio shares a similar trait with “Friday the 13th” character Jason Voorhees in that it never seems to die.
After falling behind by ten points with just less than 10 minutes remaining, the Bobcats stormed back to defeat the Bulls 73-70 on the road.
Saturday was the seventh time in 2014 that Ohio has come back to win after trailing by double digits in the second half.
To erase the aforementioned 10-point deficit, the Bobcats strung together a 12-0 run to take a 65-63 lead with 4:33 left in the game.
“We just stuck together and hung our hat on what we needed to do, which was get stops,” senior guard Nick Kellogg said. “And that’s what we did toward the end of that game. … We know what we needed to do and I think it was just a matter of manning up and doing it one through five.”
From there the contest went back-and-forth with an unlikely hero emerging in freshman forward Antonio Campbell, who scored each of Ohio’s final three baskets in the final three minutes and grabbed four rebounds in that same span.
Junior guard Javarez “Bean” Willis stepped into a starting role for the first time as a Bobcat and played for 38 minutes, filling in for Stevie Taylor who missed the game due to a deep calf contusion.
Without Taylor's services, coach Jim Christian utilized almost all of his options off the bench. That included rare playing time for freshman Wadly Mompremier, who hadn’t appeared in a game since playing one minute in a Jan. 18 matchup at Northern Illinois.
Christian did have senior wing T.J. Hall back at his disposal after the senior forward did not didn’t travel to Wednesday’s loss at Toledo because of academic issues. Hall came off the bench but was slowed by a twisted ankle, playing 18 minutes with seven points and four rebounds.
“It was just courageous,” Christian said of his team’s performance. “I told our team, we grew as a team today because we had to battle adversity and still find a way and hang together. And we did. And not one time did they hang their head.”
Ohio didn’t play especially well in the first half, falling behind by six points on four separate occasions, but the Bobcats stuck around with an inspired performance from junior forward Maurice Ndour.
The junior forward stretched the Bulls defense, hitting midrange shots to go with buckets in the paint and on the perimeter. He led all scorers at the half with 12 points and finished the contest with 17 points to pair with 3 boards.
Ndour and the rest of the Bobcats surged at the end of the first half to erase a nine point deficit, going on a 13-2 run in the final three and a half minutes to take a 37-35 lead into the break.
FAST FACTS
Ohio 73 (18-7, 8-4 MAC)
Buffalo 70 (14-8, 8-4 MAC)
-Maurice Ndour and Nick Kellogg each scored a team-high 17 points
-The Bobcats shot 9 of 23 from three-point range
-Buffalo forward Javon McCrea scored a game-high 18 points while grabbing eight rebounds
ch203310@ohiou.edu
@c_hoppens
