It was a tale of two halves Wednesday night for the Ohio men's basketball team.
Heading into halftime only a point behind the Cincinnati Bearcats, 39-38, the Bobcats looked as if they could handle their Big East opponent and possibly exit Fifth Third Arena with a victory.
That all changed when the Bobcats emerged in the second half looking like a different team. That is, a team that was unable to convert on offense and couldn't stop the Bearcats from running away from them 86-58 while handing the Bobcats their first loss of the season.
Cincinnati was more physical and they upped their defensive intensity in the second half
Ohio coach Tim O'Shea said. We had too many turnovers and they made it difficult to get the ball into the post.
The Bobcats (4-1) committed a season-high 18 turnovers -- ten in the second half -- which fueled the Bearcats' (5-2) offense and was a big reason why they were able to put together a 19-3 run midway through the second half.
It is tough to compete and be able to win a game on the road when you only score 58 points O'Shea said. They took it to us and I'll be very surprised if they are not an NCAA team.
On top of the turnover trouble, the Bobcats shot a lousy 26 percent going six-of-26 and one-of-10 from three-point land in the second half compared to their first half percentage of 35 percent and six-of-14 from behind the arc.
They pressured us a lot and stopped us from running our offense guard Sonny Troutman said. I felt like we got flustered a little bit and we didn't handle the pressure like we did in the first half.
Sonny Troutman led the Bobcats in scoring with 17 points and was the team's only offensive production in most of the second half as he scored 11 of the team's 20 points. He also grabbed six rebounds and dealt out five assists.
We know we didn't come out and play our game in the second half
Troutman said. We're going to try to put this game behind us and get back on track.
Even though the Bobcats won the rebounding battle 41-39, they were clobbered in points in the paint 46-26 and in points off turnovers 28-12. The 28-point defeat was the largest loss since they fell to Buffalo by the same margin 77-49 on March 3, 2004. This will sound crazy
but this game can really help us get better
O'Shea said. It doesn't matter if it is one or 30 points
it is still a loss and we are going to learn from it and if we take it the right way we will improve on it.
Forward Leon Williams, who had the task of guarding Cincinnati's Eric Hicks and dealing with the shot blocker almost every time he touched the ball, was plagued with foul trouble in the second half and ended the night with nine points and nine rebounds.
One positive that came from the game was the introduction of freshman forward Jerome Tillman to the lineup. Recovering from mono, Tillman aided and allowed Williams to rest at times in his 15 minutes of play.
He scored five points off two-of-four shooting, pulled down five rebounds and blocked one shot in his debut.
I had a little bit of the jitters playing in my first game but I felt pretty good
Tillman said. I am still not in my game shape and condition
but I think I played well.
The Bobcats will look to bounce back from the loss when they play Shippensburg at 3 p.m. this Saturday in The Convo.
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