NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Ohio’s dream season came to an end Friday in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. But not without one more thrilling comeback attempt.
The Florida Gators defeated Ohio, 67-62, in a game that they led by 20 points.
The Gators jumped out to a 55-35 second half-lead and looked to have put the Bobcats away. But Ohio put together a comeback that mirrored the one staged six days ago in the MAC Championship game in Cleveland.
“We’re not boring,” Ohio coach Tim O’Shea said. “Consistently, our teams have managed to make comebacks all year long and doing it in the NCAA Tournament game against the SEC champ, and a team that just came off a 17-point win over Kentucky. I thought we represented the MAC very well today.” The 25-5 run was fueled by 3-pointers. A Sonny Troutman 3-point shot cut the deficit to 56-40. A Mychal Green 3-pointer a few possessions later cut the deficit to 15 at 58-43. Green made another 3-pointer to cut the deficit down to single digits, 58-49.
“We just never gave up,” Troutman said. “We’ve been in that situation a couple times this year when we were down by 17, and we managed to come together, just pull together as a team to make a comeback.” Green was the key factor during the run, making three 3’s. His pull-up 3-pointer brought Ohio all the way back to tie the game, 60-60 and brought the Ohio fans to life.
Ohio had the ball on two different possessions with a chance to take the lead. However, the Gators would be the team to break that tie.
David Lee put up an air ball, only to see the ball go right to Anthony Roberson. Roberson went back up with the shot and was foul.
“It’s tough to rebound an air ball like that,” Green said. “You just have to be at the right place at the right time.” Jeremy Fears had a difficult game for the Bobcats, scoring nine points on two-of-10 shooting. The most critical miss for Fears came on a missed dunk. With the lead down to three points at 60-57, Fears stole a Florida pass with a clear path to the basket before missing a dunk.
Green picked up the slack for Fears. Ohio’s leading scorer this season played one of his best games of the season. Green scored 24 points and connected on an NCAA Tournament first-round record-tying six 3-point shots.
“Coach always tells me to keep shooting,” Green said. “I kind of struggled with my shot in the MAC Tournament. He just told me to keep my head up and my time was going to come.” O’Shea said that the second half run had Florida on the ropes, but regretted the fact that Ohio could never take the lead.
“I thought if we could’ve got the lead the pressure on them would’ve been almost unbearable,” he said.
Ohio and Florida played a back-and-forth first half, with Florida taking a lead then Ohio coming back. The Gators made three consecutive 3-point shots to take a 16-7 lead. Ohio battled back to take a three-point lead, 25-22, on a Troutman 3-pointer. However, Florida finished the half on a 14-3 run to take a 36-28 lead at halftime.
Florida quickly extended the lead in the second half by scoring the first seven points of the half. The Bobcats didn’t score in the second half until the 16:43 mark, when Troutman scored to cut the lead to 43-30. It was the Bobcats’ first field goal in 8:46.
By the time Florida pushed the lead to 20 points, they had compiled a 33-10 run. Matt Walsh led Florida in scoring with 18 points in spite of shooting just 3-of-13 from the field. He scored nine of his points from the foul line.
Troutman said the loss was disappointing, but the team is already looking forward to next year.
“We got a lot of players coming back, and we’re just going to be ready to play next year,” he said. “We can’t just hang our heads and dwell over a couple plays down the stretch, we got to move on.”
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Mychal Green dribbles the ball down court just before he knocks down one of his many threes. Green put in a valiant effort againts the Gators but the Bobcats could not hold them down.
Ohio comeback attempt falls just short
