Ohio shoots just 37 percent from the field in a road trip to Mount Pleasant, Michigan.
The Bobcats are expected to excel offensively every game. And, so far this season, they have.
But against Central Michigan on Saturday, the expectation did not turn to reality. Not a whole lot went well for the Bobcats in Mount Pleasant, Michigan, where they fell to the Chippewas, 72-49. Before this weekend, Ohio averaged 78 points a game.
“You gotta be able to score more than 49 on the road if you’re gonna win, says captain obvious,” Ohio coach Saul Phillips said.
Ohio (11-7, 2-4 Mid-American Conference) went 37 percent from the field on the day. Its sharpshooting trio — guards Jaaron Simmons, Jordan Dartis and forward Kenny Kaminski — shot a combined 5-of-24.
The lone bright spot in Ohio’s attack was Antonio Campbell. Campbell finished the game with 17 points and 12 rebounds on 8-14 shooting.
Throughout the game, Campbell benefited from having weight advantage on Central Michigan’s forwards Luke Meyer and DaRohn Scott.
Campbell showed he could bully them down low early in the first half, until the continuous help and double teams arrived and shut him out as a scoring option for most of the second half.
His ninth season double-double performance was not enough to compensate for his teammates' inability to create on offense, especially in the second half, where Ohio only shot 28 percent from the field.
Defensively, the Bobcats had more success.
Central Michigan (10-9, 3-3 MAC), normally a strong 3-point shooting team, only shot 5-for-20 from beyond the arc, which Phillips said he was pleased with because Ohio’s game plan focused on cooling down its opposing shooters.
But the majority of the Chippewa’s points came inside the paint, which stemmed from the Bobcats’ failure to communicate through screens and lack of active help-side defense.
With seven-and-a-half minutes left, and the Bobcats only down 13, Central Michigan guard Chris Fowler picked Ohio’s defense apart.
Fowler put his head down, forced his way into the lane and lofted up a tough, off-balance shot as he bounced off the chest of Campbell.
The Chippewa guard watched the ball go in for an and-1 and leaped up to celebrate, while Ohio's Campbell and Dartis looked around in confusion.
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The next time down the court, Fowler directed Meyer to slip a screen and rifled a pass to the big man who finished it off with a wide-open dunk.
The slam crushed the rim, along with any chance the Bobcats had of making a comeback.
“You just get energy sucked out of you when you’re never putting the ball in the hoop,” Phillips said. “Tough-minded teams fight through that. We weren’t tough enough to do that tonight."
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