Ohio’s box score from Tuesday’s 85-61 demolition of Buffalo is a coach’s dream.
12 of Ohio’s 13 active players got into the game and 10 of the 12 scored, with five of those getting into double digits. Additionally, no player scored more than 15 points and only two took 10 or more shots.
“When we’ve got five guys rolling, it’s way tougher for them to win, especially here at The Convo,” Elmore James, who scored a joint team-high 15 points, said.
Ohio head coach Jeff Boals often opens his post-win press conferences by mentioning that the game was a great team win, and that has never rang more true than it did on Tuesday.
A.J. Brown (24) dribbles past a Buffalo player at the Ohio vs Buffalo men's basketball game in The Convo in Athens, Ohio, on Feb. 14, 2023.
Many of Ohio’s best performances this season have come with brilliant individual efforts, whether it be Jaylin Hunter scoring 25 in last Friday’s win over Akron or Dwight Wilson III putting up 31 points and 11 rebounds in a gutsy win over Western Michigan near the end of January.
This is not to say the rest of Ohio’s roster played badly in those games, but Ohio has often won games this season on the back of excellent performances from its best players.
There is no shame in that, it’s why those players are on the roster, after all, but Tuesday’s win showed a different side of the Bobcats.
“We got multiple guys who can score,” Boals said. “But they just share the basketball, they’re selfless. They don’t care who scores and they play ball together.”
But the balanced scoring wasn’t the only reason that Ohio’s box score from Tuesday’s win would excite any basketball coach.
The Bobcats also made 18-of-25 free throws, including 10-of-15 in the first half, which helped them take a 12-point lead into halftime despite shooting just 32.4% from the field and 22.2% from 3-point range.
The Marching 110 cheers during a free throw at the Ohio vs. Buffalo game in The Convo in Athens, Ohio, on Feb. 14, 2023.
Since making just 9-of-20 free throws in their last loss, which was against Eastern Michigan two weeks ago, the Bobcats are shooting 81.7% from the free throw line as a team during their four-game win streak, roughly nine percentage points higher than their season average.
Jaylin Hunter spoke after Ohio’s win over Miami about how free throw shooting was a big concern for the Bobcats, and Tuesday’s win certainly shows how much work they have put in at the line.
Ohio’s balanced scoring also represented all parts of the roster. Wilson and Miles Brown, two of the longest-serving members of the team, scored 15 and 11 points, respectively. Hunter and DeVon Baker, two transfers playing their first season in Athens, scored 14 and 11 points, respectively.
James, a freshman who has seemed to get better with each passing game since entering the starting lineup against Central Michigan, scored 15 points in one of his best games of the season.
The Bobcats look good when Wilson, Hunter or Brown are dropping 25, but as Tuesday’s win showed, they are at their best when everyone gets involved.
