Feb. 15, 2014
Box Score
BUFFALO, N.Y. â€" The Ohio University men’s basketball team (18-7, 8-4) stormed back from a 10-point second-half deficit to surge past Buffalo (14-8, 8-4) and pick up a critical MAC victory Saturday afternoon at Alumni Arena.
Ohio trailed by 10 (63-53) with 9:47 to play but out-scored the Bulls 20-7 over the game’s final minutes to propel the ‘Cats into a tie for second place in the MAC East Division. It marked the Bobcats’ seventh comeback from a second-half deficit of 10 points or more this season.
The victory snapped Buffalo’s 10-game home winning streak to begin the 2013-14 season. The Green & White shot 48.2 percent from the field (14-26) in the second half and limited the Bulls to 40.6 percent (13-32) in the critical stanza. Ohio held Buffalo to just 25.0 percent shooting from 3-point territory for the game while making 9-of-23 (.391) of its attempts.
The Bobcats distributed 18 assists on 27 made field goals and made six steals in the contest.
Senior guard Nick Kellogg (Westerville, Ohio) posted 17 points on 7-of-14 shooting and added four assists, while junior forward Maurice Ndour (Mbour, Senegal) matched him with 17 points while tying a career-best with five blocks in the game.
Junior guard Javarez Willis (Homer, La.) started for the injured Stevie Taylor at point guard and dropped in nine points (2-5 3pt FG) and five assists in a season-high 38 minutes. Willis helped key Ohio’s late comeback, along with freshman forward Antonio Campbell (Covington, Ky.), who grabbed six rebounds and poured in six points in the final three minutes of play.
Senior forward Jon Smith (Grove City, Ohio) chipped in eight points (4-5 FG) and grabbed a game-high nine rebounds in 19 minutes of work.
The Bobcats posted eight of the game’s first 10 points and led 10-6 before the Bulls took their first lead at 16-15. Buffalo extended its edge to seven (24-17) with 8:04 to play in the first half before Ohio moved within four at 28-24 on an Ndour free throw.
The Bulls built their lead up to nine at 33-24, but the Bobcats closed the half on an 13-2 run to take a 37-35 lead into the break.
Buffalo re-took the lead 47-44 early in the second half, before eight-straight points from Kellogg tied the game at 52-52 at the 13:36 mark of the stanza. From there, the Bulls put together an 11-1 run to build its largest lead of the game at 10 (63-53) with 9:47 remaining.
From there, Ohio began its comeback. A 3-point play from Willis moved the ‘Cats within five (63-58) and a clutch triple from the junior tied the score at 63-63 with 5:14 to play. Ohio took the lead (67-65) on a jumper from Ndour, but Joshua Freelove put Buffalo back up one (68-67) with a 3-pointer with 3:27 to go.
From there, three big buckets from Campbell put Ohio up three (73-70) with seven seconds to play and a Kellogg steal on Buffalo’s final possession clinched the win for Ohio.
Ohio now returns home for a rematch against Western Michigan (15-8, 8-3) on Wednesday (Feb. 19) at 7 p.m. Pre-game coverage on the Ohio IMG Sports Network begins at 6:30 p.m.
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