Coming off consecutive road losses, Ohio (14-13 overall, 8-6 Mid-American Conference) returned home Tuesday night and avenged an early conference loss against Ball State (8-18 overall, 3-10 MAC). The Cardinals packed a punch in Muncie in mid-January, but Ohio flipped the script with a 69-57 win to take some momentum into the final stretch of its season.
Ball State was more physical early on, grabbing a pair of offensive rebounds, but did not convert on the first handful of possessions. Ohio finally got the scoring started with a transition bucket. It started with a block from senior forward Aidan Hadaway, who stormed down the court and threw an alley-oop to freshman guard JJ Kelly for a ferocious one-handed slam.
The score sat at 6-6 coming out of the first media timeout, and both teams looked for an edge. Ohio grabbed three points at the free-throw line from senior guard Ajay Sheldon, but the Cardinals immediately connected from beyond the arc to knot it back up at nine.
Quality possessions came at a premium in the first half. Both teams had multiple turnovers and took a few poor looks as the first period crossed the 10-minute mark. The unforced errors continued for both sides, but Ball State did scratch four points, including a floater from former Bobcat Elmore James.
With just over seven minutes to go in the first half, freshman guard Jesse Burris hit a jumper from the left elbow to break an eight-minute scoring drought for Ohio, which was only shooting 22.2% from the field and hadn’t made a 3-pointer, now down 13-11. Ball State was not shooting much better, only 33.3% overall and 10% from 3-point range.
“Coach (Boals) was telling us to stay with it,” Hadaway said. “I mean, we work on these shots, and sometimes shots just don't fall (throughout the game).”
The Bobcats finally found a bit of offense as redshirt junior forward Javan Simmons made a layup and Sheldon made Ohio’s first 3-pointer of the night. During the next Bobcat possession, senior guard Jackson Paveletzke swung the ball to Kelly for another 3-pointer and Ohio went up 19-13.
The 3-pointers continued to fall as the Ohio run stretched to 13-0 after a corner three from Hadaway. It was now the Cardinals struggling to get shots to fall, not scoring in nearly five minutes of action, prompting a timeout.
Ohio continued to play with a lot of energy, and the scoring run pushed on out of the stoppage. Hadaway added a tough layup and a 3-pointer to make it 18 consecutive for the Bobcats. Following a 3-pointer from Simmons, Ball State finally got a bucket to fall after over eight minutes of scoreless play.
“Everybody's getting shots,” Paveletzke said on Ohio’s big run to close out the first half. “We were getting stops and playing in transition. When we get stops, and we get a chance to get out and run, that's probably some of our best offense, so that was a big.”
Paveletzke scored a tough layup in the final seconds of the half to cap off a strong defensive period for the Bobcats, who were looking to bring the same intensity back out of the locker room and defend their 32-15 lead.
The Cardinals came out to start the second half. They went on a quick 9-0 run, with buckets from four different players, which kept Ohio off-balance on defense and cut the lead to 32-24 in just a two-minute surge. Ohio head coach Jeff Boals had seen enough and called a timeout for his team to regroup.
Both teams went cold for a couple of minutes, but then Simmons found Paveletzke on a fast break for an easy layup to end the Ball State run. Hadaway continued to do it all, scoring another bucket and then on the ensuing possession finding redshirt senior Jalen Breath for another make, as Ohio now led 38-26.
The scoring slowed again, but both teams added on slowly with some free throws, with the Cardinals getting a bit closer. Paveltzke got the Bobcats rolling from the field again with a jumper, and then a few possessions later, he found Sheldon in the corner for another 3-pointer, pushing Ohio’s lead back to double figures at 46-36.
“That’s kind of a big part of my game, just trying to get paint touches and either score for myself or find these guys moving around on the perimeter,” Paveletzke said.
Paveletzke kept passing and found Hadaway, who kept his hot night going with another 3-pointer to give him 15 with still eight minutes to play. Hadaway added a pair of free throws as Ohio looked to pull away, now with a 51-38 advantage.
The Cardinals then went on a fast 5-0 run to cut the lead to eight. They were upended quickly after as Sheldon hit a long-range 3-pointer and the crowd erupted inside The Convo. After that, Paveletzke scored 3-pointers the old-fashioned way, drawing the foul on a floater and converting the and-one opportunity to put Ohio up 57-46.
Three and a half minutes to go, and Ohio was up 10 coming out of the final media timeout and hoping to shut the door on Ball State. The Cardinals continued to fight with a 3-pointer from guard Devon Barnes to give him 17 on the night, but it was not enough because the Bobcats began to drain the clock.
Paveletzke put it away for Ohio with a fadeaway jumper, plus the foul to put his team up 67-54 with just over a minute left in regulation. He made another slick layup to close out the 69-57 Ohio win.
