Ohio lost its fourth consecutive game and seventh conference game on Saturday in a 65-54 final at Ball State.
This marks the Bobcats’ (10-12, 2-7 Mid-American Conference) longest losing stretch of the season and their worst start to conference play since the 2017-18 season when they also opened MAC play at 2-7.
Even with some of their losses there had been a sense of optimism and confidence within the program that it can turn the losses into wins. For that to happen, however, coach Jeff Boals has mentioned that their needs to be a sense of consistency – an attribute yet to be seen, but has shown flashes of being there.
A closer look at numbers that stood out in Ohio’s loss.
17.9 – Ohio went a staggering 5-for-28 (17.9%) on 3-pointers. Its starters went 2-for-17 with the two buckets made by Lunden McDay and Jordan Dartis. Ben Vander Plas and Jason Preston went a combined 0-for-9 from deep. The Bobcats bench went 3-for-11 as Nate Springs had two 3s and Ben Roderick also scored from behind-the-arc.
19 – The Bobcats only scored 19 points in the first half, which is the least amount of points they’ve scored in half since they scored 17 against Purdue on Dec. 18. Preston and Lunden McDay led all Ohio scorers with 5 points each.
15 – Turnovers have been one of the Bobcats’ biggest pitfalls this season and it proved to be the case again on Saturday with 15 compared to Ball State’s nine. Of the 15, six of them belonged to Preston.
7 – Luckily for Ohio, it doesn’t have to worry about the stress of preparing for a Tuesday game as it has a scheduled bye. The next seven days will feature perhaps the most rest the team has gotten since the season started, and given the recent skid it’s been on, the rest will allow for Boals and staff for a more critical look at the team.
