Ohio is off to a sizzling start in conference play after back-to-back road wins. After a slow start to the game, the Bobcats came roaring back to dominate Buffalo 88-79 for its second straight Mid-American Conference win.
Ohio (8-6, 2-0 MAC) has been prone to slow starts this season, and the game against Buffalo (5-9, 0-2 MAC) was no exception. In the game’s first 10 minutes, Ohio went on a five-minute scoring drought and saw a deficit of as many as 7 points.
Ohio’s biggest problem in the game's opening minutes was shooting. Just under nine minutes into the game, the Bobcats were shooting just 15% from the field. Senior AJ Clayton, the team’s leading scorer, started with five straight misses in the first half.
By the game’s buzzer, Clayton’s 0-5 start seemed almost impossible as he would end the game with 27 total points, 23 of which came in the second half.
Though Clayton led the game with a gaudy 27 points, it was junior forward Aidan Hadaway who did a lot of the work to get Ohio back on track in the first half. Hadaway recorded the first double-double of his season in the first half alone, ending the game with 17 points and a career-high 16 rebounds.
Once Hadaway and the Ohio offense got going, there wasn’t any looking back. With just under 10 minutes to play in the first half, Clayton drained one of his four total 3-pointers on the day to give Ohio the lead. From the point Ohio took the lead, it would go on a 28-8 run to end the half, scoring 32 of the final 40 points in the first half.
Considering the Ohio offense could only score 9 points in the game’s first 10 minutes, a 17-point halftime lead of 37-20 was a testament to the team’s ability to bounce back. With a sizeable lead at the half, Ohio leaned on Clayton in the second half to close out a dominant win.
Despite the final score showing only a 9-point Ohio victory, things were more lopsided than that down the stretch. With just over five minutes to play in the second half, Ohio held a lead of 23 before Buffalo put together a strong finish.
If you take away the game's final five minutes, Ohio put together yet another great defensive effort after holding Central Michigan to 55 points Saturday night. The defense was led by three blocks from Clayton, adding to his MAC-leading total of 26 on the season.
With the win, Ohio now has four straight wins and back-to-back wins on the road, with two big home conference games on the horizon. The Bobcats will be back in action Saturday with a home matchup against MAC foe Northern Illinois.
