Ohio was again unable to stop the bleeding against the Bulls during its now seven game losing streak.
BUFFALO, New York — Ohio looked like it needed another 31-point effort by Maurice Ndour to have any chance against Buffalo on Tuesday.
The Bobcats, which received a game-high 25 points from Ndour, a senior forward, were dominated by the Bulls, 93-66.
In the teams’ earlier meeting on Jan. 24, Ndour sent The Convo into a frenzy after a last-second game-winning dunk. But this time around, it was Buffalo who electrified its crowd after a last-second 3-pointer, to cap a 27-point victory.
Ohio (9-19, 4-13 Mid-American Conference) was unable to control the MAC’s leading scorer Justin Moss, unlike when the it held him to just 11 points in January. On Tuesday, Moss recorded a double-double, with a team-high 22 points and 17 rebounds, on 9-of-15 shooting — which sent the Bobcats back into the frigid snow outside Alumni Arena without any positives with to take back to Athens.
Ohio coach Saul Phillips said they “did a better job of a lot of different things” in the first meeting.
“We got clobbered in every way imaginable,” he said. “They played like a team that’s playing for a championship. We played like a team that’s sitting at the bottom of the MAC East.”
But it was Shannon Evans who caught the Bobcats off guard, when he also added a double-double for the Bulls, with 16 points and 11 assists, including a posterizing dunk over Stevie Taylor just under midway through the second half. He knocked down three 3-pointers during the first half, two of which came amid a 16-9 run to close the opening half.
When Buffalo (20-9, 11-6 MAC) started to run away during the second half, Phillips said it was another case of not reacting to the current situation, something that has continued to plague the Bobcats throughout the season, and most recently their losing streak, which has now increased to seven — the longest since 1981.
After the loss on Valentine’s Day to Miami, Phillips noted the way the players reacted and failed to pick each other up when things were going downhill, and a month after the team’s largest loss of the season, 77-40 against Eastern Michigan, the same things took place once Buffalo gained a 20-plus point lead throughout the majority of the second half.
“Probably the most acute case of poor reaction to adversity that I’ve seen from this group,” Phillips said. “What’s frustrating is its a month later and we haven’t been able to right the ship that way. It bothers me.”
And after allowing its past three opponents to dominate in the paint, outscoring Ohio 88-70 and grabbing 43 offensive rebounds (14.3 per game), the woes continued. The Bobcats were beat on the boards 42-29, including 12-3 on the offensive end. They were also beated 46-22 in the paint.
With sophomore forward Antonio Campbell adding a mere two points and four rebounds — after recording double-doubles in each of his last three games — the struggles inside continued, especially after he fouled out with 4:12 remaining.
Ndour said the struggles came from not facilitating the ball enough in the offensive zone. The Bobcats took 56 shots and turned the ball over 16 times, compared to just six for Buffalo. The Bulls, in turn, cashed in for 24 points on those turnovers.
“We just didn’t do a good job of sharing the basketball, that costs us a lot today,” Ndour said. “When you do that, you’re going to pay. They made us pay today.”
@AlexBusch91
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