First, there was a celebration, an ode to the past, a birthday party. Then reality set in, two basketball teams took the floor, and 7,887 fans were sent home amid a letdown by stagnant offense.
Fans, students and alumni gathered in droves, some former Bobcat basketball players, to watch Ohio play Akron in The Convo on Saturday afternoon. The buzz around the arena hit its peak for the season, but it was all tossed to the side once an official tossed the ball into the air for the opening tip.
Ohio hit one field goal in the first eight minutes and 29 seconds. The Bobcats sputtered for 40 minutes offensively and never led in their 65-53 loss to the Zips, and the celebration of Ohio’s rich basketball history turned into a sour disappointment.
“Sloppy,” senior forward Doug Taylor said of the Bobcats’ start. “Very sloppy. We have to be more prepared to start a game.”
Ohio shot 37.7 percent from the field and 23.8 percent from 3-point range. The Bobcats had only 22 points at the half, and they never seemed to find an offensive rhythm, while Akron threw various man and zone principles at them.
It wasn’t for a lack of trying, however. The Bobcats attempted 53 shots, 21 of them from beyond the arc. Good shots, though, were hard to come by. As Akron trapped guards just after Ohio advanced the ball over midcourt, Ohio couldn’t crack the code. It helped the Zips in never allowing the Bobcats to find a groove.
These flaws in offense, while coachable and fixable, continue to arise. In January, Ohio was held to 52 points in back-to-back games, both losses. Saturday’s 53-point showing wasn’t much better, especially after only scoring 60 earlier in the week at Northern Illinois — which was also a loss.
A seemingly defeated Saul Phillips wasted no time expressing his dissatisfaction with his offense.
“We need more point production out of more people,” he said.
Phillips is right. Of the nine guys who played in the game for Ohio, one was in double figures. Jason Carter, Phillips’ most consistent offensive weapon all season, finished with 18 points and 10 rebounds.
But Carter’s nightly average isn’t going to win games without a supporting cast. Teyvion Kirk finished with nine points on 13 shots. Gavin Block had only six points before exiting with an injury. Carter thinks its a simple fix, but it’s one Ohio must focus on mentally, not physically.
“Just playing tight, lack of confidence,” Carter said. “We’ve just got to get back to enjoying the game, enjoying that end of the floor. I just see a lot of guys lacking a little bit of confidence, not taking shots that they should be.”
But sometimes, bad offense is a product of bad shot selection. Ohio (11-10, 3-6 Mid-American Conference) started the second half with two missed 3-point attempts, one from Kirk and one from Block. Phillips was far more upset with those missed 3s than any other during the game because they were the first two shots Ohio took out of the break.
That’s not what he envisioned in his second half start.
“We talked at halftime about what we wanted to do,“ Phillips said. “And it certainly wasn’t to settle for two 3s right off the bat.”
The day, overall, wasn’t what Saul Phillips had in mind. This was supposed to be a game in which Ohio basketball celebrated the 50th birthday of The Convo, but it got crashed.
By Akron’s (13-8, 5-3) defense, by bad shot selection and by a flat offensive performance that dropped the Bobcats to a near low point in the season.
“It hurt me really bad to see the score and see the crowd,” Taylor said. “I just felt like me and the team let everybody down. We should have put on a better show for the people who came out. Just because of the 50th anniversary. That was the most people we’ve seen in The Convo in a while, so we have to have more intensity.”
