Wednesday night in Rochester, Mich., Ohio built another big lead and held on for another big road win.
The Bobcats led Oakland 46-39 at the half, and held on for the 84-82 win.
“Oakland is a good basketball team,” Ohio coach John Groce said. “It’s not an easy place to play and our guys found a way. I’m proud of them.”
Like the win over Marshall last week, the Bobcats (6-1) built a large first-half lead before allowing their opponent to claw back into the game.
With 3:30 remaining in the first half, Ohio led the Grizzlies (6-3) by 14 points, but hot shooting from Oakland in the second half allowed the Grizzlies to quickly get back into the game.
For the final 18 minutes, the game went back-and-forth as each team took, and then relinquished the lead.
With just over a minute to play in the game, Ohio took an eight-point lead and had a chance to extend the lead on two free throws from Ricardo Johnson. But, Johnson missed both free throws and Oakland scored six points in a hurry to bring the score within two.
Poor free-throw shooting kept the Grizzlies in the game as the Bobcats routinely made only one of two free-throw attempts down the stretch.
Oakland trailed by two with 16 seconds to play and had the ball with a chance to tie or take the lead, but T.J. Hall partially blocked a shot and Ohio held on for the win.
“They really hit us in the mouth at the beginning of both halves,” Groce said. "A year ago, we wouldn’t have been able to come back from them hitting us in the mouth to start the second half.”
D.J. Cooper led all Ohio players with 18 points, but the biggest boost Ohio received came from its bench, which contributed 42 points.
“I thought we got big time contributions from our bench,” Groce said. “Every guy that came off the bench impacted the game at a high level. Ricardo did a great job on defense and Reggie (Keely), Stevie (Taylor) and T.J. all hit big shots for us.”
After falling behind 6-0 to open the game, eight first-half three-point baskets allowed Ohio to take the commanding lead. The Bobcats ended the night shooting 47 percent from the field and 44 percent from three.
The Grizzlies were led by freshman center Corey Petros, who scored 23 points and added 16 rebounds before fouling out late in the game.
Oakland is coming off back-to-back NCAA Tournament appearances as well as back-to-back seasons with wins over Tennessee.
The Grizzlies defeated the Bobcats 78-66 in Athens last season.
Groce said the win over a quality opponent speaks volumes for his team.
“They’ve won 31 consecutive conference home games here,” Groce said. “This is not an easy place to win. It’s a real quality win for us and I’m real proud of our kids.”
ro137807@ohiou.edu
