Ohio lost on a last-second shot to Belmont Saturday, but it came back from an early deficit.
After arguably the most devastating loss of its young season, it’s hard for Ohio to come out with even higher expectations for the season moving forward.
Ohio traded baskets throughout the second half against Belmont on Saturday, but couldn’t find an answer for junior guard Craig Bradshaw’s a career-high 42-points. Fittingly, Bradshaw was who won the game with 0.2 seconds left.
After trailing by as many as 10 points in the first half, the Bobcats became more aggressive and improved their shot selections to enter halftime down by just three points.
Although coach Saul Phillips didn’t see Ohio’s 83-81 loss as a moral victory, he said there is still a lot of motivation for the future.
“My baseline for where this team can get to and what we can accomplish didn’t get any lower tonight, it got higher,” Phillips said. “That doesn’t make me feel good, doesn’t make the team feel good, but it’s a fact.”
Belmont (6-1) began with a mission to shut down senior forward Maurice Ndour, which forced Phillips to put the game in the hands of his guards. Senior guards Stevie Taylor and Javarez “Bean” Willis became a focal point to get Ohio (2-2) back into the game in the first half, staying with Belmont in the second half and then eventually tying the game with 5.8 seconds left.
Willis scored a career-high 25 points on 10 of 19 shooting, including making 5 of 13 from beyond the arc. Taylor, who was held scoreless in Ohio’s last game, added 17 points by making 7 of 15 shots. The starting backcourt duo accounted for more than half Ohio’s points.
Ryan Taylor, a freshman guard, added 16 points. Combined with Stevie and Willis, the three accounted for more than 70 percent of Ohio’s points.
Ndour was held to just nine points. Despite facing a double-team on him throughout the game his 10 rebounds put him just one point short of consecutive double-doubles.
“We played really well off each other today,” Stevie Taylor said. “With us being seniors, we’ve got to get this thing going, along with (Ndour).”
Phillips said Stevie Taylor "might have been discouraged" after his scoreless night against Arkansas-Pine Bluff last Tuesday and Stevie said “it’s been a rough start” to his last season.
“Going away for Thanksgiving kinda took my mind off basketball and I wanted to come with a different kind of focus for this game,” he said. “It’s about time I need to start pulling my weight, I think tonight I did a good job of that, but at the end of the day I’m not happy, I’m not satisfied because we did lose the game.”
Willis, Stevie Taylor and Phillips were all dissatisfied after the game, but they all agreed the team grew through competing with Belmont.
Phillips said Belmont and Florida Gulf Coast — the two teams the Bobcats lost to — will be in the NCAA Tournament at the end of the season, which eases losses given the credentials of the programs.
“We all played together, we haven’t really done that all year and it was good to see it in this kind of game,” Stevie Taylor said. “At the end of the day, we’re a young team. It’s going to take time, but at the same time, we’re not going to be satisfied.”
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