Ohio finally has its signature win.
But more importantly, Friday’s 90-81 defeat of Akron was Ohio’s third win in a row, moving it back to .500 in Mid-American Conference play and giving it some separation from the pack fighting for the final few spots in the MAC Tournament.
The Bobcats are now 11-1 inside the friendly confines of The Convo, and after picking up their first MAC road win on Tuesday, they are in a better place than they have been all season.
Just two weeks ago, when Ohio’s second half comeback in the first matchup against Akron fell short, it seemed as if Ohio simply didn’t belong with the best of the MAC.
Friday’s win, however, proves how much the Bobcats have improved over the past two weeks and that they can still be a force to be reckoned with in the MAC.
“I think we had to do a little bit of soul searching after Eastern Michigan,” Jaylin Hunter said. “That was a tough loss for us, and we looked at ourselves harder on the defensive end. We know we’re not going to be perfect defensively, but those effort mistakes, we can control that.”
Perhaps no player represents Ohio’s turnaround over the past couple of weeks more than Hunter, who is playing his best basketball of the season.
In the four games since that loss to Akron, Hunter is averaging 22.3 points per game on 56.4% shooting and 51.7% from beyond the arc. Hunter put in his best scoring performance of the season Friday, dropping 25 points on 7-of-14 shooting and 4-of-7 from three.
He also had two of the game's most important plays: a 3-pointer and transition dunk that blew the roof off The Convo and gave Ohio an 18-point lead with less than four minutes to go.
“I couldn’t believe I dunked it,” Hunter said with a smile. “That was a big momentum swing, I saw a play and was able to make it.”
While Hunter’s performance was a major difference between Ohio’s two games against Akron, there were plenty of similarities between the two games, which only makes Ohio’s improvement that much clearer.
In the first matchup, Akron’s two best players, Xavier Castaneda and Enrique Freeman, combined for 48 points. Freeman led the way with 32 and Castaneda scored 16 despite a poor shooting night.
Friday, however, the roles were reversed. The pair combined for 55 points this time, but Castaneda led the team with 34 and Freeman provided the help with 21.
“Those two are really good, probably two of the top five players in our league,” Ohio head coach Jeff Boals said. “We had a heavy dose of Castaneda the whole game, but I thought we did a really good job on Freeman for the most part.”
One other similarity was Dwight Wilson III getting in foul trouble. After fouling out in the first game, Wilson picked up two early fouls Friday, which led to him playing just eight minutes in the first half.
However, he did Friday what he was unable to do two weeks ago, and responded in the second half with 13 points and five rebounds in 12 minutes.
The Bobcats still have a long way to go to catch the MAC’s top teams in the standings, but if nothing else, Friday night’s win proved that on their best night, the Bobcats can take down any team in the conference.
