The Western Michigan Broncos trotted over the Ohio men's basketball team last night, 96-73, taking an early lead and never looking back.
The Bobcats (5-13 overall, 2-6 Mid-American Conference) struggled from the start, as nothing seemed to go right for them in Kalamazoo, Mich. The Broncos (14-2, 7-1 MAC) ran away with a comfortable lead in the first half, and Ohio's attempts to bounce back fell short as Western Michigan forward Levi Rost came out of nowhere to find his groove.
Rost nailed three 3-pointers in the first five minutes of the second half and pushed Ohio farther down the hole, hitting a total of six 3s for the game and finishing with a career-high 26 points. His previous high was 12.
He is 6-9 so when he steps up the 3
it's going to be hard to stop him because he is so tall Ohio coach Tim O'Shea said. They did a good job getting him the ball. We had the same thing happen two years ago up there - they had a great night shooting the 3 and it was the same way this time.
A dismal first half for the Bobcats was too much to recover from. The Broncos went on a 13-0 run to push past Ohio early on, when the Bobcats held their last lead of the game at 6-5.
It was just way too much to come back from
Ohio guard Thomas Stephens said. We gave up 49 points in the first half
and we can't do that. You can't win the game in the first half
but we definitely lost the game in the first half.
Turnovers were a major factor in that early deficit, O'Shea said. The Bobcats turned the ball over five times in the first five minutes to set the tone for the first half.
We didn't do a good job handling the ball
and when we did get the ball inside we didn't do a good job with it
O'Shea said.
Frustration settled in as Ohio finished the period with 14 turnovers and shot only 36 percent, taking a 49-24 deficit to the locker room. Ohio's leading scorer for the season, guard Jaivon Harris, scored his first points of the game on a 3-pointer with less than a minute remaining in the first half. He finished with nine points. Thomas was the only Bobcat to reach double digits, finishing with 11 points.
Ohio trailed by as much as 35 points, and the Broncos remained in control despite the fact that Ben Reed, who averages 18.5 points per game, went scoreless in the first half and finished the game with only two points.
That did not matter because Western Michigan shot better than 50 percent from the field, including 55 percent from behind the arc. Forward Mike Williams and center Anthony Kann gave Ohio trouble inside, adding 18 and 15 points, respectively.
We came out kind of flat on defense
and at times didn't play any defense
Ohio forward Delvar Barrett said. We can't play that way against teams like Western Michigan. They just run over you.
Ohio takes a break from the road to face Central Michigan at 1 p.m. Saturday in The Convo.
