The Ohio men's basketball team rallied from a poor first-half performance to defeat Ball State in a hard-fought Mid-American Conference battle.
A balanced Bobcat offense in the second half propelled Ohio (8-2, 2-0 MAC) to a 71-60 victory over Ball State (4-6, 0-2) yesterday in The Convo.
I think we were fresh down the stretch
Ohio coach Tim O'Shea said. That made all the difference.
The Cardinals jumped out to build an early lead as Ohio committed many turnovers.
Forwards D'Andre Peyton and Skip Mills led Ball State's offensive attack early, scoring 12 and 10 points, respectively, during the first half.
First half they got a lot of open shots forward Sonny Troutman said. We knew Skip was going to come in and look for his shot because he's their leading scorer. We just weren't focusing on him as much in the first half as we did in the second half.
As a team, Ball State shot 62 percent from the field during the first half, and Ohio shot a mere 38 percent from the floor. Ohio fell behind by as much as a 10-point margin before halftime but entered the break down only 32-26.
At halftime we were real upset forward Johnnie Jackson said. We were upset with our defense and rebounding. We weren't playing our top basketball.
The Cardinals continued to pressure the Bobcat offense out of the locker room, building another 10-point lead at 18:26. Ohio responded by turning up its offensive output.
Forward Jeff Halbert brought the Bobcats deficit down to five with a three-pointer from the wing that brought the crowd to life.
Despite Ohio's attempts to rally back, Mills single-handedly ran the Cardinals' offense, scoring 11 points in the first five minutes of the second half.
Ohio rallied again with two three-point baskets on consecutive possessions courtesy of Troutman and Whitney Davis.
As a team
I think we settled down in the second half when it really counted
Leon Williams said.
The Bobcats tied the game at 49-49 on a Mychal Green bank shot with 10:30 remaining in the game. Continuing its offensive assault, Ohio grabbed the lead for the first time in the game on a Halbert three-point field goal that ignited the crowd to a deafening roar.
Ohio's 18-2 run gave the Bobcats a seven-point lead with six minutes left in the game as Ball State's shots failed to hit.
They had tired legs
and we were fresh
O'Shea said. We were able to get our run and put the game away.
Ball State missed an opportunity to come back when Williams fouled out with five minutes remaining. Williams finished with a team-high 13 points.
A Jeremy Fears three-pointer with three minutes left pushed the Ohio lead to eight points. Following Fears' field-goal, Ball State was forced to foul the Bobcats, but Ohio sealed the game at the line.
(Fears) hit the biggest shot of the game when he hit that three
O'Shea said. That three took it from five to eight. I think that was sort of the breaking point for Ball State. That kind of put it out of reach for them.
Jackson's breakaway dunk and free throws in the final 30 seconds gave Ohio its largest lead of the game, 13 points, before the final buzzer sounded.
Ohio continues MAC play on the road Wednesday at Eastern Michigan.
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