From the Athens Messenger:
www.athensmessenger.com/sports/ohiouniversity/article_1c8fe58c-f155-11df-8aee-001cc4c002e0.htmlGrizzlies Maul Bobcats, 78-66Posted: Tuesday, November 16, 2010 2:38 am
By JASON ARKLEY Messenger staff journalist
On campus, quarter final exams will start for Ohio University students on Wednesday.
For John Groce’s young Bobcats, they had their first real test of the 2010-11 season Monday night. The good news is Ohio still has plenty of time to bring its final grade up.
Visiting Oakland dominated at the start, and proved to be a more savvy and tougher group throughout, en route to a 78-66 win over the Bobcats in front of 5,084 inside the Convocation Center.
Ohio, with four freshmen and three sophomores making up a majority of an 11-player rotation, it was a reminder there will be growing pains this winter.
“(Oakland) had tremendous toughness, they were overall the better basketball team tonight,” said Groce.
Pro prospect Keith Benson had 10 points, six rebounds and three blocked shots for the Golden Grizzlies (1-1), but played just 19 minutes thanks to two quick fouls in the first and second halves. Oakland played well without him as guards Larry Wright (15 points, nine rebounds), Reggie Hamilton (14 points) and Ledrick Eackles (18 points, six rebounds) picked up the slack and pushed the Bobcats (1-1) out of their comfort zone.
“At our level when you have a pro (Benson) on your team and he goes out…” Oakland coach Greg Kampe said. “And you can still go into a gym like this, against a team like this and play the game we played, you’ve got to feel really good about your team, and I do.”
Senior wing Tommy Freeman netted a game-high 22 points, and at least kept things interesting late with four 3-pointers in the final 2:50. Sophomore point guard D.J. Cooper added 18 points, seven rebounds, eight assists and seven steals, but had an uncharacteristic seven turnovers in 38 minutes.
In general, Ohio looked out of sorts after the Grizzlies took control early in the first half. The Bobcats took a 6-4 lead on two T.J. Hall free throws with 14:26 left in the half, but Oakland rattled off an 18-0 run to forge a 22-6 advantage with 7:48 remaining in the first.
Ohio hit just one of its first 15 shots from the field.
It was a shock to the system for ‘Cats, which started taking chances once the Grizzlies got rolling.
“They went on an (18-0) run without us really responding. Guys got a little anxious and pressing too much and made some uncharacteristic plays,” Freeman said.
“Once they hit us in the mouth, we didn’t respond very well to that — in the first half especially.”
Ohio forwards Ivo Baltic and Reggie Keely, who both started, finished with just four points on 2-of-10 shooting. Senior forward DeVaughn Washington — playing for the first time this season because of suspension — finished with nine points and four rebounds in 29 minutes off the bench.
“I wouldn’t say I was anxious, I was just ready to play,” Washington said. “I just wanted to get back out there, after sitting out the three games, it just made me ready to get on the floor with my teammates.”
With Ohio down 22-6, Washington exploded for a one-handed throw down on a drive down the lane. It gave the Bobcats a spark of life, one which they flamed for a 16-13 finish to the first half. Oakland led 35-24 at the break.
The Bobcats had a chance to make it much tighter in the second half, but couldn’t maintain momentum. Cooper had a pair of driving scores, and Benson went to the bench with his fourth personal, as Ohio trailed just 39-32 with 15:50 to go.
But the Grizzlies continued to make plays and power through. Will Hudson scored four straight points, and Hamilton drilled a trey from the top of the key to nudge Oakland up to a 53-37 lead and the Grizzlies never looked back.
Ohio never drew closer than 10 points the rest of the way, while Oakland eventually led by as many as 19 points (65-46).
Ohio was killed by the whistle throughout. The Bobcats were guilty of 32 personal fouls, which led to 35 free throws for Oakland. The Grizzlies held a 27-10 advantage in points at the charity stripe.
Three Ohio players fouled out, including Freeman, freshman starting guard Nick Kellogg and Hall off the bench. Two others (Keely and Washington) finished with four personals.
The three true freshman playing heavy minutes for Ohio — Kellogg, Hall and Ricardo Johnson — combined for 11 points and 13 fouls in a total of 46 minutes.
Yes, it was a learning experience.
“Sometimes going through a game like this is a major wake-up call," Groce said.
“By no means are we panicking, we don’t do that here anyway,” he added. “But at the same time I think we would be remiss if we weren’t at least alerted by it, take a look at it, see where we can get a little bit better.”
With several first- and second-year players struggling, it was left to Cooper to try to stem the tide. Sometimes, even he, tried to do too much. And with the Grizzlies running a rotation of three different guards in his face the whole night, he had to claw for everything he got.
Leading that defensive effort was Hamilton, Cooper’s cousin from Chicago. Ohio’s super sophomore finished 6-of-19 from the field with a 1-for-7 mark from 3-point range.
“We know that Cooper, he runs the show. We just wanted to tire him down and hopefully take him out of his element a little bit,” Hamilton said. “He still burned us on a couple plays, him being the player that he is.”
The game featured the preseason favorites from the MAC (Ohio) and the Summit League. The winner figured to add a nice feather to its cap for its postseason resume.
As it turned out, Ohio showed it wasn’t quite ready for that kind of talk.
“We were going to find out a lot about our team tonight. In some respects, I don’t like what I saw but sometimes, especially with a young basketball team, you have to take a step or two backwards and get hit in the mouth to get guys attention,” Groce said.
“We’ve been hit in the mouth and had some setbacks before. And we’ve been able to bounce back, and I fully expect that from this group.”
Ohio returns to action Sunday, in the Convo, with a 2 p.m. tip-off against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.
Bobcat bits — The loss in the second game of the season was the first for Ohio in that spot on the schedule since 1997; a string of 12 in a row. …Oakland’s win was its first in three tries all-time against the Bobcats. …Oakland improved to 8-3 versus the MAC in the last five-plus years. Ohio, which will also play the Summit’s IUPUI this season, fell to 9-6 against the Summit over the same span.
