Dec. 22, 2007
Box Score | Notes
HONOLULU, Hawaii-Senior forward Leon Williams (Baltimore, Md.) converted a crucial three-point play with 1:02 remaining and nailed a pair of free throws at the end to give the Ohio men's basketball team a 74-68 win over Louisiana-Lafayette Friday evening in the semifinals of the 44th annual Rainbow Classic in Honolulu. The Bobcats improved to 8-3 overall with the win, while the Ragin' Cajuns dropped to 3-7.
The Bobcats will now turn their attention to a Saturday night/Sunday morning meeting with Saint Mary's at 12:30 a.m. Eastern (7:30 p.m. Hawaii) in the championship game. The Gaels are 9-1 this season and advanced to the title matchup after defeating Tulane 64-57 and
East
Tennessee
State
89-65. They are ranked second in the RPI according to www.kenpom.com.
With the win,
Ohio
head coach Tim O'Shea captured his 108th career victory, which moved him past Danny Nee into fifth place on the school's all-time victories list. The Bobcats are also now 10-3 outside of the
U.S.
mainland.
Ohio
missed just three free throws the entire contest (18-21, 85.7 percent) and made all seven of their attempts over the final two minutes, 43 seconds of the game.
Williams finished the game with 23 points and 10 rebounds for his 32nd career double-double. Junior forward Justin Orr (
Cincinnati,
Ohio
) also posted a fantastic game, netting 20 points on 7-10 shooting from the floor. The 6'6 Orr also made three of his four 3-point attempts and recorded a pair of blocks. Junior forward Jerome Tillman (
Beavercreek,
Ohio
) entered double digits as well with 16 points. The trio combined for a scintillating 20-27 shooting clip (74.1 percent) from the floor.
Junior guard Michael Allen (
Detroit,
Mich.
) led the Bobcats with seven assists, while ULL's Randell Daigle had seven as well to go with three steals.
Ohio
won the overall rebounding battle 29-24.
The Ragin' Cajuns were led by Chris Gradnigo's career-high 22 points on 8-14 shooting from the field (5-9 on 3-pointers), while Travis Bureau scored 11 with two blocks. Gradnigo and La'Ryan Gary shared top rebounding honors on the squad with four apiece. Coach Robert Lee's bench significantly outscored the Bobcats' reserves to the tune of a 28-7 margin, due in large part to 13 ULL players seeing action.
Ohio
appeared to wrest control of the game in the latter stages of the first half, carrying an 11-point (44-33) lead into the half. The Bobcats build most of the advantage by virtue of their 16-27 (59.3 percent) effort from the floor in the game's first 20 minutes. That trend continued early on in the second half when
Ohio
went up by its largest margin of 15 (48-33) on a Tillman jumper with 18:20 to play.
ULL refused to back down, though, and gradually whittled down the Bobcat advantage when it turned up its defensive intensity by limiting the Bobcats to just nine second-half field goals and an 0-6 performance from beyond the arc. Such an issue would not be the case for the Ragin' Cajuns, however, who continually hung around by connecting on a plethora of 3-pointers during the action (11-29, 37.9 percent).
ULL finished its comeback by taking its last lead of the game (68-67) on a Daigle jumper with 2:13 to go. Williams answered just over a minute later with the three-point play and the Ragin' Cajuns would not recover.
