Ohio lost
The Bobcats' five-game winning streak was snapped Tuesday night with an 87-82 loss at Bowling Green.
Despite the loss, Ohio keeps its lead in the Mid-American Conference East Division after Akron lost 77-64 at Miami.
"(It's) very disappointing the way the game really came down to exactly what we thought it would come down to and we weren’t able to get it done," coach Saul Phillips said.
Trouble started for the Bobcats when two consecutive fouls by junior forward Antonio Campbell forced him to sit midway through the second half.
With Campbell on the bench, Bowling Green gained its first lead of the game 10 minutes into the second half thanks to three consecutive dunks from redshirt freshman forward Rasheed Worrell. The Stroh Center was fired up.
Campbell, who was named Mid-American Conference Player of the Week for the past two weeks, dominated the first half of the game for Ohio. He finished with 29 points, shooting 12-for-17 from the field, including five 3-pointers.
“He was just on fire in the first half," Phillips said. "They did a good job of leaning on him defensively in the post. They were draped all over him pretty good (in the second half).”
Foul trouble plagued Ohio in the second half, as three starters had four fouls each at one point. Bowling Green took advantage of this as it shot nearly three times as many free throws as Ohio and made 11 more.
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Redshirt sophomore guard Jaaron Simmons kept Ohio in the game during the second half where Campbell was mostly ineffective due to foul trouble. Simmons finished with 24 points and nine assists as he hit critical shots for the Bobcats down the stretch, including a 3-pointer that put Ohio up by one with three minutes to go.
The Bobcats (18-9, 9-6 MAC) had won five straight entering Tuesday’s game and had the chance to gain first place in the MAC with Akron’s loss to Miami.
The win for the Falcons (14-14, 5-10 MAC) snapped a seven-game losing streak for them and completed a season sweep of the Bobcats for the second straight season.
@Matt_Fout
mf056713@ohio.edu
