After three games in five days, Ohio finally ran out of gas.
Out-hustled, out-paced and out-played is how you can describe Ohio’s 86-66 loss to Buffalo on Saturday in The Convo. After beating Akron on Tuesday and Eastern Michigan on Thursday, the Bobcats (13-7, •-5 Mid-American Conference) simply didn’t have enough energy to contend with the Bulls.
“They (Buffalo) came in and out-toughed us,“ Ohio guard Jason Preston said. “They were just ready to play.”
Ohio, who had the excitement of a six-game winning streak and fans in the crowd for senior day, seemed eager for its rematch with the Bulls (12-7, 10-5 MAC). Ohio beat the Bulls on their court back in January and knew it’d be in for a tough game.
Who knew that it’d basically be over by halftime?
The Bulls’ energy on both ends of the court was a handful for Ohio. In the first half, Buffalo forced 14 turnovers, which resulted into 15 easy points. Ohio never backed down, but every time it had a chance to trim Buffalo’s lead to single digits, the Bulls would go on a run.
“When you’re down that much, you really spend so much energy trying to get back into it,“ Ohio coach Jeff Boals said. “I didn’t think our legs were there. I thought we got some really good looks, but we didn’t make a 3 in the second half.”
Going into the half down 52-32, Ohio emphasized taking care of the ball. The Bobcats only turned the ball over once in the second half but still couldn’t make shots.
Ben Roderick led the Bobcats with 15 points, but after back-to-back good games from 3-point range, the sophomore sharpshooter couldn’t find his touch (1-for-7 3s). His teammates weren’t much better. As a squad, Ohio shot 37.3% from the field (25-67) and 16.7% from 3-point range (4-24).
In Buffalo’s case, the situation was the exact opposite. Led by junior forward Josh Mballa with 23 points, the Bulls had four players in double digits. While the Bulls’ speed gave Ohio problems, most of Buffalo’s points came in the paint (52).
“We missed shots that we normally make,“ Preston said. “We just had an off night.”
It’s been a while since Ohio’s had an off night. Before Saturday, the Bobcats hadn’t lost since Jan. 16 against Kent State. Ohio faces the Golden Flashes again on the road Tuesday. When Ohio was beaten by Kent State, Ohio went back into the lab, fixed what was wrong and went on its longest win streak since 2013. Preston says the Bobcats are eager to get back to work.
Boals knows he means that.
“They’ve been doing it all year,“ Boals said. “We ran into a team that was ready. We beat them on their floor, and they threw the first punch, and we didn’t respond. You’ve got to regroup. It’s an unforgiving league, so we’ve got to be ready to go on Tuesday, and that starts tonight.”
