Dec. 9, 2006
Box Score | Photo Gallery 
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - The Bobcats were 32-of-44 from the floor for a school record 72.7-percent as Ohio shot past Division II Bellarmine 91-74 Saturday, the team's second game as part of the NABC Classic from Freedom Hall.
Ohio's (5-2, 0-0) 72.7-percent performance from the floor shattered the previous school record of 67.9-percent. That feat was accomplished by the 1978-79 Bobcats, who were 38-of-56 from the floor on Dec. 2, 1978 against Stetson. The Bobcats also held a large rebounding advantage by a total of 27-15, limiting the Knights on the glass by missing only 12 shots all game. The 91 points for the Bobcats was a season-best. Ohio again was solid from the free-throw line as they connected on 18-of-24 free throw attempts.
Sophomore Jerome Tillman (Beavercreek, Ohio) had a career day as he led the Bobcats with a career-best 23 points on 8-of-10 shooting from the floor. Tillman's previous career-high was 18 points, set in Friday's loss to Louisville. Tillman also led all players with six rebounds and added two assists and a steal in the win. Senior Stephen King (Richfield, Minn.) also posted a career-best 17 points on 5-of-7 shooting, all from behind the three-point arc. King obliterated his previous career-high of nine points set this season against Yale. King's 17 points off the bench was a drastic difference from Friday night, when Ohio did not received a single point from its bench. The Bobcats tallied 26 total bench points against Bellarmine.
Senior Sonny Troutman (Indianapolis, Ind.) did not set any career highs on the day, but did record one steal to tie him for the school steals record. Troutman's 197 career swipes ties him with Dennis Whitaker, who recorded 197 steals from 1986-1990. Troutman also scored 16 points in the Bobcat win and added three rebounds and three assists. Junior Antonio Chatman (Dorchester, Mass.), starting for an injured Bubba Walther (Cincinnati, Ohio), led the team with six assists and also scored eight points. Junior Leon Williams (Baltimore, Md.) scored 10 points despite playing just 19 minutes. Senior Whitney Davis (Ann Arbor, Mich.) and freshman Kenneth van Kempen (Weert, Netherlands) each added eight points in the win.
Adam Brames paced the Knights with 21 points as Bellarmine went 28-of-53 (52.8-percent) from the floor. Matt Otte added 17 points and Dzaflo Larkai chipped in 12 points in the loss.
The Bobcats started out on fire as they hit their first ten shots from the floor, five coming from three-point range. Ohio jumped out to a 12-2 lead, led by Williams' six points in the first 4:22 of action. Larkai ended the Bobcat run with a lay-up and the foul for a three-point play. Otte added back-to-back threes for Bellarmine sandwiched around a dunk by Tillman to make it a 9-2 run for the Knights. Ohio had the answer from beyond the three-point arc, as King nailed a pair of threes around a tray from van Kempen to give the Bobcats a 23-11 lead with seven minutes gone by in the first half.
Otte brought the run of nine unanswered Bobcat points to an end with a jumper and sparked a run of four straight made shots for the Knights. Ohio ran right with Bellarmine, however, as King connected on two more three-pointers and Troutman added a jumper to keep the Bobcat lead in double-digits at 31-20. After a Bellarmine lay-up, Troutman hit another shot from downtown to give the Bobcats a lead of 34-22.
The Knights scored six of the game's next eight points to cut the Bobcat lead to eight, but King continued his hot shooting in the first half with another three to make Ohio a perfect 8-of-8 from three-point range. Despite the hot shooting, Bellarmine continued to hang around as a lay-up by Brames cut the Bobcat lead to 39-30 with less than four minutes remaining in the first half. Brames scored 10 of his team's next 12 points to pull the Knights within five points at 45-40. The Bobcats answered back with the final four points of the half to take a nine point lead into the break at 49-40.
Ohio was nearly unstoppable from the floor as they were 17-of-21 in the half for an 81-percent success rate. All eight of the Bobcats' three-point attempts were good and Ohio also hit 7-of-8 from the charity stripe in the half. Bellarmine posted solid numbers as it finished 15-of-25 in the half from the floor and 6-of-14 from downtown.
King led all scorers with 15 points on the half as he was 5-of-5 from the floor, all coming from behind the three-point line. He blew away his career-high of nine points, tying the total less than 10 minutes into the game. Troutman also posted double-figures in the first half with 10 points. Brames and Otte provided the offense for the Knights, as Brames totaled 15 and Otte added 12 points in the first half. Williams led all players with four rebounds at the break and also added eight points.
The Bobcats started out hot again in the second half as they hit five of their first eight attempts from the floor and used a 13-8 run to build a 15-point lead at 63-48. Tillman scored six of the 13 points during the run. The Knights refused to make things easy on the Bobcats and pulled back within nine points with a 7-1 run later in the half to make the Ohio lead 66-57 halfway through the second period. After four unanswered points by the Bobcats, Otte and Marcus Flynn each connected on trays sandwiched around a pair of Brames free throws to shrink Ohio's lead to five at 70-65.
The Bobcats fired right back with 10 unanswered points, capped off by a Tillman dunk, to swell the lead back to 15 points at 80-65. Tillman scored six points during the run to give Ohio a lead it held easily the rest of the way. Bellarmine was unable to get any closer than 13 points the rest of the way as the Bobcats earned the 91-74 victory.
Ohio will wrap up its action at the NABC Classic and finish its stretch of four games in five days Sunday. The Bobcats will battle Saint Joseph's at 2:30 p.m. from Freedom Hall.
