The result on the scoreboard was an all too familiar one for the Bobcats.
Ohio's 91-58 victory over Toledo was another blowout win over a subpar Mid-American Conference West Division team at home.
Just last week, the Bobcats crushed Northern Illinois and beat Eastern Michigan at home only to lose to an 8-16 Western Michigan team on the road.
Ohio finished 3-3 against the MAC West schools, with three wins at home and three losses on the road.
By comparison, Ohio's MAC East Division counterparts went a combined 27-3 against the West Division schools, with Miami, Bowling Green and Buffalo also losing.
I think we took some steps forward and some steps backward against teams from the (MAC) West
forward Jerome Tillman said. In February I feel like we've been taking steps forward getting better and we just have to look forward to closing out the regular season.
Ohio doesn't close out the regular season with a favorable schedule.
The Bobcats, who are three-and-a-half games behind division-leading Buffalo, travel to Kent State, Akron and Bowling Green and play the top two teams in the conference, Buffalo and Miami, at home. Also included in the Bobcats' schedule is a BracketBuster game at Eastern Kentucky.
Some people are writing us off
Tillman said. They can do that. That's fine.
If we just play and play hard and compete with toughness, everything will take care of itself.
The Bobcats certainly took care of the Rockets Saturday.
After struggling against the Broncos on Wednesday
Ohio broke the game open against Toledo with a 10-0 run to start the second half.
That's honestly as good as we've played, certainly offensively, for two halves all year, coach John Groce said.
Ohio was also at its best defensively. After the Broncos lit up the Bobcats offensively
the Bobcats played with great defensive intensity.
They forced 19 Toledo turnovers and held Rockets' leading scorer Tyrone Kent scoreless.
I love the way that we responded to how we played earlier in the week, Groce said. We came out today with a hungry disposition. We worked extremely hard to get our defense back in check.
While Ohio's defense was in check
Toledo's was anything but. Ohio made a season-high 14 shots from beyond the arc
and shot 8-of-9 from 3-point range in the second half. Forward Justin Orr was 5-of-6 on 3-pointers and scored 19 points.
Toledo gave the Bobcats a number of wide-open looks from 3-point range.
We didn't play defense basically in the second half,
Toledo Coach Gene Cross said. We might as well not been there.
Toledo defenders also didn't play much defense against Tillman. He led the Bobcats with 25 points and had little trouble having his way inside.
Coach encouraged me and told me he had my back and to keep doing what I've been doing, Tillman said. To not put too much pressure on myself, just relax and get in the flow of the game.
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27099,2009-02-16 00:07:00,Men's Basketball: Ohio to face difficulty in final games after easy Toledo victory,Ohio's 91-58 victory over Toledo was another blowout win over a subpar Mid-American Conference West Division team at home.
,The result on the scoreboard was an all too familiar one for the Bobcats.
Ohio's 91-58 victory over Toledo was another blowout win over a subpar Mid-American Conference West Division team at home.
Just last week
the Bobcats crushed Northern Illinois and beat Eastern Michigan at home only to lose to an 8-16 Western Michigan team on the road.
Ohio finished 3-3 against the MAC West schools
with three wins at home and three losses on the road.
By comparison
Ohio's MAC East Division counterparts went a combined 27-3 against the West Division schools
