There was a scene in Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of Ring when one of the protagonists, Boromir, was shot in the chest with an arrow but continued to fight. It took two more arrows to eventually bring him down.
Much like the fictional character, it is difficult to bring Ohio down as it enters a pivotal matchup with Mid-American Conference-leading Western Michigan.
Despite injuries that sidelined two starting guards, Stevie Taylor and Ricardo Johnson, and double-digit second-half deficits in six conference games, the Bobcats remain alive in the MAC title hunt.
But coach Jim Christian doesn’t exactly buy into the fact that Ohio is suffering any more than the rest of the MAC is.
“Every team in the league has adversity,” Christian said. “We focus on ours because we’re Ohio. … We’ve responded well to it. I’m proud of that. It doesn’t make ours any more unique.”
Christian’s squad will take on a Western Michigan squad that handed Ohio a 90-74 defeat two weeks ago in what he said was the worst his team had played on defense in two months.
The Bobcats were abused for 38 points in the paint, allowed 24 points off 16 turnovers and capped it off by allowing the Broncos to attempt 35 free throws.
Junior forward Maurice Ndour, who led Ohio with 20 points in the first meeting, said Ohio couldn’t keep up with Western Michigan on the defensive end, resulting in lazy fouls and the high free throw total.
Western Michigan has continued to cruise through conference play since beating Ohio, chalking up three straight wins against the likes of Northern Illinois, Akron and Miami.
And the formula for winning those games looked similar to how the Broncos beat Ohio, averaging 30 points in the paint per game. The low post presence of forwards Shayne Whittington and Connar Tava is what Christian said makes the Broncos so effective on offense.
“They have two legitimate low post scorers,” Christian said. “That’s probably one of the reasons why they get to the free throw line (so often). They can attack you at five feet from both spots. Not many teams in the league can do that.”
Now that the Bobcats get another chance at the Broncos and their daunting front line, Ndour said that he and his teammates are eager to change the narrative from the last time the two teams played.
“We’ve got to show them that this is a different team that they’re playing against,” he said. “The first time around, we came out with no energy and no feel for the game. We’ve got to show that this is how (we) play. This is Bobcat basketball.”
ch203310@ohiou.edu
@c_hoppens
