Although Ohio bested Massachusetts in football, the teams’ contest on the hardwood was a different story as the Bobcats fell 83-71 on Wednesday.
Ohio (7-3) trailed the entire game and were not able to overcome the No. 22 UMass' (10-0) lead, which was a maximum of 19 points in the contest.
The Minutemen were unfazed on the road, but Ohio had many opportunities’ to make a statement at home in its first home game against a ranked opponent since 1997.
However, Ohio failed to build on some momentum it created in the second half.
Coach Jim Christian said defensive breakdowns and getting caught up in the emotion of the game haunted the team and allowed the UMass to extend their lead after Ohio runs.
“Every time we got back in the game we made a double mistake,” Christian said. “We had a bad possession on offense it compounded by a bad defensive possessions so I give (UMass) credit they made us pay when they had open shots they knocked them in. When we had key shots we didn’t (make them) and that’s what you have to do to win these games.”
Ohio began with energy after a thunderous alley-oop from junior forward Maurice Ndour five minutes into the contest, but the Bobcats were cold much of the first half, while the Minutemen were often given open looks from outside the arc and in the paint.
Senior forward T.J. Hall said the Bobcats’ inability to hit three-pointers hurt the team’s comeback efforts.
“We had a lot of open looks,” Hall said. “I had two myself and missed them … we need those shots to beat teams like UMass and Oakland and other teams that we lost to.”
Ohio shot 41.8 percent from the field and 23.8 percent from behind the arc,opposed to the Minutemen who finished 61.5 percent and 64.3 percent, respectively.
The Bobcats cut their deficit to seven points with 11:34 left in the first half, but the Minutemen quickly answered with five points to extend their lead to 11 by the break.
“Defensively we had a lot of breakdowns,” Ndour said. Coming into the game we were trying to keep them out of the lane. They were getting to the basket way too easy and we did a poor job defensively.”
Ohio opened the second half with back-to-back threes by senior guards Stevie Taylor and Nick Kellogg, as Ohio post a 13-6 run which cut the Minutemen lead to six points with 16:12 left in the contest.
But UMass then proceeded to quiet the crowd and went on a nine-point swing to pad their lead to 14 points just one minute of gameplay later.
The Bobcats again managed to trim their deficit to eight points midway through the second half, but like the rest of the contest UMass responded and put the game out of reach.
The Minutemen put their final stamp on the game, as they went up by 19 points with after Williams hit a three-pointer and was fouled with 2:54 remaining.
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