After a tough first loss Monday, Ohio looked to rebound against a highly touted Illinois State team and would do so by scoring 50 points inside the paint on the way to its 72-68 win. The game was physical, but a motivated Ohio team looked to score down low from the opening tip. The first bucket of the game came from the hands of redshirt junior forward Javan Simmons, who was a force all night.
The big matchup of the night was between Simmons and Chase Walker of Illinois State, and these two have a history dating back to childhood. Alongside Simmons was redshirt senior forward Jalen Breath, and the frontcourt tandem went to work in the paint, forcing Walker into foul trouble and eventually out of the game.
“He's tough to go one-on-one against, I’ll give him that,” Simmons said of Walker. “He's good at using his feet and everything, but once I saw my big brother over here (Breath) started going through people's chests, that's what I started doing too. And you know, it was just an emphasis to get him in foul trouble, and that's what we did, and (Walker) fouled out.”
These two combined for 30 points on the night but really roared to life in the second half after a crucial timeout by Ohio head coach Jeff Boals. He instructed the players to take advantage of the matchup and try to draw some fouls.
“We knew that both of the bigs had two or three fouls each, and we were told to just attack them every chance we got,” Breath said. “And I mean, the pick and roll was working, and we took advantage of it.”
“I go against the best post defender in the MAC every day,” Simmons said of Breath. “I consider myself a pretty good scorer. You know, iron sharpens iron. We go at it every day. We're prepared for anybody. We're ready to eat.”
The Bobcats shot a record low of eight three-pointers on the night, only making one. The Illinois State defense took away the perimeter shot all evening, allowing the Bobcats to have one-on-one matchups down low. Ohio found success and did not need to take the three-pointers, due to solid ball movement.
“They do a great job of taking the three away by their pressure," Boals said of Illinois State’s defense. “They got hard close-outs. For us, paint touches were going to be huge, and to have 50 points in the paint, we took advantage of how they were guarding us, and we told our guys to be patient.”
The strong presence down low for any team can never be fully possible without the help and trust of guards. Senior Jackson Paveletzke had six assists along with his 19 points. Paveletzke was very poised with the ball and did not get flustered by the pressure, waiting for his man to get open and firing a nice pass to his bigs for a strong finish.
“We told our guys (to run) a short rollout of our five men, and (Paveletzke) was able to get around their five man and have a pocket bounce pass,” Boals said. “We call it right to Breath, and he had probably three or four great finishes. Then, once we got Walker in foul trouble, we were going to continue to go inside.”
The best frontcourt players are the ones who finish through contact with strong efficiency. Ohio’s frontcourt had 43 points and were best down on the block with only one man to beat. Numerous times during the night, it was just the stronger man at the rim that would win the battle, and more often than not, the Bobcat big men came out on the winning side of it.
