Jan. 3, 2007
Box Score
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. - The Ohio men's basketball team saw its three-game win streak come to an end with a 70-60 loss to Marshall Wednesday at the Henderson Center. The game was the final non-conference match up before conference play begins for the Bobcats.
"(Marshall) got really hot," Head Coach Tim O'Shea said. "We had some trouble with their pressure defense and you have to give (Tre) Whitted credit. I'm obviously disappointed. We made some mistakes and got in some foul trouble. We didn't really get any calls to settle us down but that's to be expected when you go on the road. To their credit they really made some plays."
Ohio (9-4, 0-0) scored just 25 points in the second half of the loss while Marshall put 47 points on the scoreboard in the final 20 minutes. The Bobcats led by 14 points in the second half but could not put the Thundering Herd away as they scored a season-low 60 points. Ohio was 23-of-55 (42-percent) from the floor in the loss and just 8-of-15 (53-percent) from the free throw line. The Bobcats entered the contest averaging nearly 20 free throw attempts and were nearly 75-percent from the line.
"We certainly weren't able to get the free throw line and when we did we didn't do much," O'Shea said. "It just wasn't our night. There are going to be nights like this."
Junior Bubba Walther (Cincinnati, Ohio) led the Bobcats with 18 points on the night on 6-of-13 shooting from the floor. Sophomore Jerome Tillman (Beavercreek, Ohio) added 16 points and eight rebounds. Junior Leon Williams (Baltimore, Md.) posted a game-best 13 rebounds. Williams had 10 rebounds at halftime but ran into foul trouble that limited his playing time in the second half. He finished with seven points. Senior Sonny Troutman (Indianapolis, Ind.) scored eight points but was just 4-of-14 from the floor and 0-of-5 from three-point range.
Marshall finished the contest 25-of-56 (45-percent) from the floor and hit nine three-point shots on the evening, seven coming in the second half alone. The Thundering Herd held a 30-8 advantage in bench points in the win. Tre Whitted led Marshall with a game-high 19 points and was 5-of-10 shooting from beyond the three-point arc. Markel Humphrey finished with 15 points and a team-best nine rebounds while Chris Ross chipped in 10 points in the win.
The two teams traded buckets in the opening moments of the game before Ohio was able to put a 10-2 run together through the course of a three-minute span to jump ahead 14-8 at 14:12. Two three-pointers by Walther fueled the run.
The Bobcats extended to their first double-digit lead of the night with 8:13 remaining on a lay-up by Williams that extended Ohio's scoring run to 17-6 and put the `Cats ahead 21-12. From there the Bobcat advantage would grow to as many as 13 points at 33-20 following a Jerome Tillman jumper with 1:28 left in the half. Following a three by Marshall's Chris Ross with just under a minute to play, Bobcat senior Sonny Troutman sank a running jumper as time expired to send Ohio into the locker room with a 35-23 lead.
Following intermission, the second half took on a similar flow to the first. Both the Bobcats and Thundering Herd traded baskets early in the frame, but by the 13:41 mark, Ohio had extended out to its largest lead of the night at 43-29 on a dunk and a lay-up by Tillman.
Unlike the first half however, Marshall had an answer. The Herd closed the gap with a 17-3 run from 12:35 to 8:50 to tie the game at 46-46. After an Ohio timeout, Walther stopped the bleeding for the Bobcats with his third three of the night, but Marshall's Whitted answered with a three of his own to keep the Herd even.
Just moments later Marshall took its first lead since the early moments of the contest at 51-49 on a lay-up by Jean Francois Bro Grebe. The Thundering Herd continued their scoring barrage as they dropped three-pointers on three of their next five offensive possessions to run out to their biggest lead of the night, 61-53, with 5:16 remaining.
After being on the opposite end of a 32-10 run, the Bobcats made an attempt to chip away at the Marshall lead, but little time remained. Down 64-55, Williams hit one of two free throws and Walther followed with three straight from the charity stripe after being fouled on a long-distance attempt. The free throws pulled Ohio to within 64-59 with 2:58 on the clock.
That brief run would prove to be Ohio's last gasp however, as Marshall closed the door on the Bobcats' comeback hopes by recording six of the game's final seven points and pulling away for a 70-60 victory.
The Bobcats will look to get back in the win column on Saturday when they begin Mid-American Conference play with a home contest against Akron. Tip off is set for 7:00 p.m. from the Convocation Center in Athens.
"It's a big game for us, there's no question about it," O'Shea said. "Every MAC game is going to be a key game. Every game we're going to play on the East side is going to be critical."
