Bobcats respond from loss with win against Arkansas-Pine Bluff.
With fellow senior guard Stevie Taylor held scoreless by the swarming Arkansas-Pine Bluff defense, Ohio turned to Javarez Willis to break down the Lions' defense.
The Bobcats seemed intent on trying to work the ball inside early. Although they had trouble penetrating the Lions 2-3 zone, their persistence paid off with a 69-60 victory on Tuesday.
Arkansas-Pine Bluff’s defense allowed them to stay in the game until the final five minutes of the game. With the game tied at 54, Ohio won the game at the line sinking nine free throws to finish the game on a 15-6 run.
Midway through the first half Ohio seemed to be suffocating from the pressure of the Arkansas-Pine Bluff defense. The Lions forced 11 turnovers in the first 12 minutes, which led to fast break chances on the other end.
The Bobcats settled in though and only committed two turnovers in the final eight minutes working through the middle of the zone with senior forward Maurice Ndour and sophomore forward Antonio Campbell.
“Today, we were just aggressive on the offensive boards and on defense too,” Ndour said. “That’s going to help us a lot because I think we outrebounded them by ten or so.”
The combination of Ndour down low and Willis outside ultimately solved the Arkansas-Pine Bluff defense. They combined for 37 of the team’s points as Ndour’s length and Willis’
Arkansas-Pine Bluff’s two leading scorers senior guard Marcel Mosely and junior forward JoVaughn Love both picked up three fouls in the first half.
“I would say they stayed pretty aggressive all night,” coach Saul Phillips said. “They are one of the better teams statistically in forcing turnovers. All I know is if that’s the lesson we had to learn tonight that’s the lesson we had to learn.”
With Mosely and Love on the bench, the Lions looked to sophomore guard Ghiavonni Robinson. Robinson had eight of his 15 points in the first five minutes of the second half. This helped them take the lead for the first part of the second half.
After spending some time on the pine, Mosely felt ready to take over the scoring load down the stretch for Arkansas-Pine Bluff forcing up almost a third of the Lion’s shots for the game.
“We definitely put a lot of emphasis in stopping Love probably too much considering the fact he only played 12 minutes. Bottom line is he got going on us a little bit and he’s a good player," Phillips said. "I thought the looks we forced him into — three of 11 from beyond the arc — he hit a couple on transition and I really thought we did a good job switching on him late.”
Ohio yet again had trouble holding onto the basketball to start the second half. Instead of trying to get the rim, the Bobcats decided to bomb away from the outside with Willis providing their only real option.
He was the only Ohio player to hit a three all game as he went 4 of 7 while the rest of the team was 0 of 10 from behind the arc.
“We aren’t passing the ball enough to get the defense out of position,” Phillips said. “It isn’t because of a lack of attention and it isn’t because those guys are fighting me. It’s because they are all trying so hard like they are trying to squeeze the life out this thing.”
@Kovarandrew
ak840511@ohio.edu
