With junior forward Maurice Ndour out because of a lingering back injury, freshman Antonio Campbell was thrust into the starting lineup and a forced to take on a bigger role on both sides of the ball.
And Campbell followed through with the task he was given, helping provide a spark in Ohio’s convincing 72-61 road victory against Bowling Green. The Bobcats snapped their two-game losing streak despite losing a third member of their opening game starting lineup.
“I feel like, when we’re away, it’s more of togetherness,” Campbell said. “There’s more hunt with (our) team, where as I found at home, we’re being hunted.
“In away games, we’re hunting a team.”
Tuesday’s contest wasn’t the smoothest start for Campbell, a freshman forward who had his pocket picked en route to a Falcon transition bucket on his first offensive touch. And then there was another turnover paired with a shot that went off the side of the backboard.
But Campbell regained his composure after coach Jim Christian told him to calm down, combining a powerful dunk, an emphatic blocked shot and his first three-point basket of the season to score seven first half points and send his teammates on the bench into a frenzy.
Campbell continued his strong play into the second half, finishing the game with 11 points, four rebounds and two steals.
“He was almost giving the defender too much credit,” Christian said. “He was making three moves when he just had to turn the ball and lay it in. … He slowed down, he ran the floor very well and he broke out his three-ball attack.”
One thing that was noticeably different about Tuesday’s contest was the great deal of emotion the Bobcats displayed.
Nick Kellogg, a senior guard, wore his passion on his sleeve and redeemed himself after not making a field goal during Saturday’s Senior Day defeat against Kent State and used an anecdote from his father Clark.
“My dad always told me a story when he was college,” Kellogg said. “He said he only had like two points, just like me. And he said the next game, he came back and scored like 38. So any time I have a bad game, I just have it in the back of my mind to come out hungry the next game and leave that behind you.”
Kellogg led all scorers with 25 points on eight of 13 shooting and led the team with a 34.39 usage rate — a statistic that measures how much a player is involved in the offense when he’s on the floor.
He threw his body in the paint, converting on several difficult interior shots and later had some words with the Falcon bench which resulted in a stern talking-to from the officiating crew.
And when Bowling Green trimmed what was once a 17-point lead down to seven points, Kellogg drove the lane and converted a three-point play with 1:09 remaining to bring the Bobcat lead back to double digits.
“He’s an all-conference player,” Christian said. “There’s no doubt in my mind. He’s one of the marquee players in this league. He’s played well the whole year.”
Senior guard Travis Wilkins also added some fire to his finesse approach, letting out an uncharacteristic scream after nailing his second 3-pointer on consecutive possessions to provide Ohio with a 46-29 lead with 16 minutes remaining in the game.
Wilkins later swung a no-look pass that resulted in a slam by Campbell, putting a cherry on top of his nine points, four rebounds and three assists.
Ohio’s 3-point shooting emerged out of a two-game slump with the Bobcats hitting 10 of their 18 perimeter opportunities. In the previous contests against Buffalo and Kent State, Ohio shot less than 35 percent.
There was a period of time stretching from 14:11 of the first half to the 14:10 mark of the second half where Ohio made seven consecutive threes.
FAST FACTS
Ohio 72 (19-10, 9-7 MAC)
Bowling Green 61 (12-17, 6-10 MAC)
– Nick Kellogg scored a game-high 25 points to pair with six rebounds.
– Ohio shot 10 of 18 (55.6 percent) from beyond the arc.
– In his second career start, freshman Antonio Campbell scored 11 points.
ch203310@ohiou.edu
@C_Hoppens
