Teams rarely take the opportunity to fall apart twice, but the Bobcats did just that.
They blew two leads, one in regulation and the other in the last minute of overtime, in a 67-66 loss to Ball State yesterday at The Convo.
It was certainly a game that was winnable and that we had in the palm of our hands a couple different times
coach John Groce said.
Kenneth van Kempen scored on a rebound with 2:27 remaining in overtime to give Ohio a 66-63 lead, but those were the Bobcats' final points of the game.
Ohio had the ball with 43 seconds remaining and a timeout to spare. The Bobcats wasted 20 seconds before Asown Sayles missed a layup, and the Cardinals' Randy Davis scored 10 seconds later to pull Ball State within one.
Following a timeout by Ball State, D.J. Cooper committed a five-second violation, unable to get the ball back into play on the defensive end or call the timeout. That gave the Cardinals the ball in Ohio's end with 13 seconds left in the extra period.
(Cooper) just must not have felt like it was that close to the five-second count Groce said. He knew (and) our guys knew we had one timeout.
Ball State's Jarrod Jones sunk the inside bucket on van Kempen from the in-bounds play, giving the visitors a come-from-behind win.
(Van Kempen) did a good job there staying between (Jones) and the basket made him shoot a jump hook over him
Groce said. It was a big time shot.
The Bobcats managed to get an 11-point lead at the 8:44 mark of the second half, but went 7-21 from the field and scored only 19 points in the second half, giving Ball State opportunity to claw back into the game.
The Cardinals went on an 8-2 run from 6:56-5:27 and would eventually tie the game at 59 with 2:59 remaining after a Brawley Chisholm jumper.
We kind of slowed it down in the half court
guard Tommy Freeman said. I don't know if we were trying to be more deliberate or play with the lead
but we kind of went away from what got us the lead in the first half.
Ohio had two chances in the last minute of regulation to finish the game, but after it looked as if Armon Bassett was fouled while shooting, Cooper missed a deep 3-pointer with less than five seconds left to send it to overtime.
Both teams went back and forth for much of the first half. Following a 3-pointer by Freeman with nine seconds remaining, Ohio cruised to a 40-32 halftime lead.
But it was Ball State's Terrence Watson who kept the Cardinals in the game. He ripped the Bobcats for 12 points on 5-7 shooting from the field in the first half.
Watson finished with 20 points and 16 rebounds for the game.
I thought (Watson) was terrific
Groce said. He really imposed his will on the game.
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Sports
Matt Wagner
