The Bobcats lost 71-58 on Thursday in their final game of the Diamond Head Classic in Honolulu, Hawaii.
Although Ohio played its best and worst games of the season during its first two matchups in Hawaii, it’ll head back to Athens with a better idea of the type of team it’ll be the rest of the season.
Ohio played its third and final game of the Diamond Head Classic on Thursday in a Christmas Day matchup with Nebraska, a consolation game for fifth place. The Bobcats, despite not playing well against some of their more marquee opponents thus far, remained within single digits until midway through the second half, but eventually lost 71-58 to finish the tournament with a 1-2 record.
“We come out of this tournament a much better team than we were when we came into this tournament. I don’t think there’s any question about that,” Ohio coach Saul Phillips said. “Nebraska’s not just a Big Ten team, they’re a Big Ten team that’s supposed to win a lot of games.”
Ohio (4-6) trailed by just two points at halftime as neither team gained much momentum in a back-and-forth first half, but senior forward Maurice Ndour committed a pair of fouls within a 14-second span two minutes into the second half.
Ndour first fouled Nebraska’s Terran Pettaway, who then missed a free throw attempt, which a Nebraska player rebounded before drawing Ndour's fourth foul.
After Ndour’s third foul, Phillips called for redshirt junior forward Treg Setty to head to the scorer’s table and check into the game, but he didn’t get there before the missed free throw and Ndour’s next foul.
“You know what? A little of that’s dumb luck,” Phillips said. “I mean the odds of that (committing back-to-back fouls) happening are astronomical.
“I was debating on taking him out even. I figured to beat Nebraska we had to get Maurice to 30 minutes and I was going to play a little risky to him.”
Ndour finished with 12 points in 25 minutes and his energy through forcing turnovers and scoring helped the Bobcats remain in contention. But his absence was apparent while he sat in foul trouble for seven minutes and the Bobcats’ once two-point deficit soon reached double digits.
“I thought for stretches we did a really good job on them defensively,” Phillips said. “It seemed like there were a lot of plays we were on the brink of making we just didn’t make.
“You tighten up one area and we got a chance to win that one — we’re just not quite there.”
The Bobcats never led, lost the turnover battle 15-12 and were out-rebounded 39-28. Phillips said part of Ohio’s struggles could’ve been from fatigue playing its third game in four days or could’ve been because they just weren’t as big and fast as Nebraska.
“That’s the difference between a Big Ten and a MAC team,” Phillips said.
Regardless, redshirt senior Javarez “Bean” Willis’ seventh double-digit scoring outing of the season wasn’t enough to allow the Bobcats to get back to .500 overall. Willis finished with 15 points, eight rebounds and four assists — each of which were team-highs.
Nebraska (8-4) had a pair of players, Petteway and Shavon Shields, score 22 points. It also held Ohio to 38 percent shooting, which was the seventh time in 12 games the Huskers held an opponent under 40 percent.
Ohio will have a few days off, as it travels back to Athens before hosting North Carolina-Wilmington (5-4) on Tuesday. The Seahawks will be the Bobcats’ final non-conference opponent until it begins Mid-American Conference play on Jan. 7 against Northern Illinois.
“If you’re wondering what we’re gonna bring here, you’re gonna like this second semester and you’re gonna like this second part of the season,” Phillips said. “This is heading in the right direction.”
@chadlindskog
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