March 22, 2011
Box Score
ATHENS, Ohio - Ohio's season came to an end on Tuesday evening in the 2011 CIT Quarterfinals with an 82-73 loss at East Tennessee State. The Bobcat seniors finished as the only players to win postseason games during three of their four years.
DeVaughn Washington, playing in his final collegiate game, led Ohio with 21 points and seven rebounds. The big man finishes his career in Green & White with 1,056 points. Nick Kellogg added 15 on the strength of five three-pointers and Tommy Freeman chipped in with 11. Freeman finished his career with 1,071 points and an Ohio record 259 three-pointers.
Kellogg, Washington and Ivo Baltic got Ohio off to a 9-3 lead but ETSU answered with a 12-0 run to gain an advantage it would not relinquish the rest of the half. T.J. Hall hit a triple from the corner to cut the deficit to 15-12 but the Buccaneers went on 1 6-0 run to push the lead to nine.
After Ohio closed the gap to 30-26 with five and a half minutes remaining, ETSU went on an 11-4 run to take its largest lead of the opening stanza at 41-30. Ohio received some solid efforts from Ricardo Johnson, who grabbed five rebounds in the first half for the 'Cats, and Adetunji Adedipe who converted a conventional three-point play to spark the visitors.
Washington led Ohio with 10 points as the team shot 10-of-11 at the line and out-rebounded the home team. However, the Bobcats shot only 38 percent and committed 10 turnovers. Meanwhile, Justin Tubbs, who matched his career high with seven three-pointers, was the story of the first half, hitting on 5-of-8 from beyond the arc and scoring 19 points before the break. As a team, the Bucs shot 52 percent from the field.
Ohio managed to rally from a double-digit second-half deficit as it trailed 61-50 on two Micah Williams free throws with 10:20 remaining in the game, but a Freeman three-pointer got Ohio to within 62-58 at the 7:27 mark, and he hit another to get the Bobcats within three with 5:55 to go.
The Bobcats eventually took the lead at 71-70 on a three-pointer from D.J. Cooper with 2:17 left on the clock. However, ETSU recaptured the edge at 72-71 on a jumper by Adam Sollazzo and went on to outscore the Bobcats 10-2 the rest of the way.
Tubbs finished with a season-high 27 points and fellow senior guard Mike Smith posted a double-double with 24 points and 10 rebounds, as the Buccaneers improved to 24-11 and made history by becoming the first ETSU team to win multiple postseason games in the same season.
The Bobcats shot 39 percent from the field and 41 percent (9-of-22) from 3-point range, while hitting on an impressive 86 percent clip (18-of-21) from the foul line. The Bucs shot 52.9 percent from the field, 47 percent from the 3-point stripe and 72 percent (21-of-29) from the foul line. Ohio's advantage on the boards (+3, 10 on the offensive end), helped the 'Cats outscore ETSU 15-1 in second chance points. However, ETSU held a 20-6 edge in points off turnovers.
Ohio narrowly missed out on its 13th 20-win season in program history and was trying to win two postseason games in the same year for the first time since 1964. This postseason, the Bobcats did become the third team in NCAA Division 1 to win games in the NCAA Tournament, NIT, CBI and CIT.
