March 4, 2014
Box Score
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - The Ohio University men's basketball team (20-10, 10-7) continued its strong road play Tuesday during a 72-61 win over Bowling Green (12-18, 6-11) at the Stroh Center.
Ohio led for the majority of the game and never let the Falcons climb closer than seven points in the second half. The win was Ohio's ninth on the road this season, which is the most by a Bobcat team since the 1985-86 squad earned 10 road victories.
The win also gave Ohio 20 victories on the year for the third-straight campaign and fourth time in five years. It's the 15th time the `Cats have reached the 20-win mark in school history.
With the victory, Ohio continues to hold the No. 5 seed in the conference leading into the team's final regular season game Saturday at Miami.
Ohio put together an impressive shooting performance in the game, earning season highs in both field goal percentage (.578, 26-45) and 3-point field goal percentage (.556, 10-18). The `Cats also held a 29-22 edge on the glass and distributed 16 assists on 25 made baskets.
Senior guard Nick Kellogg (Westerville, Ohio) led the Bobcats with a game-high 25 points on 8-of-13 shooting and knocked down all seven of his free throw attempts. Kellogg also grabbed six rebounds and knocked down two 3-pointers. He is now just two 3-pointers away from becoming Ohio's all-time leader in the category.
Junior Javarez Willis (Homer, La.) added a season-best 16 points and knocked down 4-of-5 3-point attempts. The steady point guard also dished out five assists and grabbed three rebounds in the game.
With junior forward Maurice Ndour (Mbour, Senegal) out of the lineup due to injury, freshman forward Antonio Campbell (Cincinnati, Ohio) stepped up in his absence to post a career-best 11 points (5-6 FG) while grabbing four rebounds in 22 minutes.
Senior guard Travis Wilkins (Springfield, Mo.) added nine points and knocked down three of his four 3-point attempts while adding three assists.
Ohio went up 12-9 early on a driving lay-in from Treg Setty and led 27-17 on a triple from Kellogg with 3:14 to go in the first half. The 3-pointer from the senior was part of a 13-2 run for the Bobcats. Another triple - this time from Campbell - sent Ohio into the break up 33-21. In all, Ohio closed the half on a 17-6 run.
The Falcons cut the Ohio lead to seven (33-26) early in the second half, but Ohio used a 13-3 run - including a trio of 3-pointers - to extend its edge to 17 (46-29) at the 16:04 mark of the second half. BGSU used a 6-0 run to move back within 10 (53-43) with eight minutes to play.
The Falcons cut the lead to 65-58 with 1:27 to play, but could not move any closer for the remainder of the game.
With the victory, Ohio head coach Jim Christian earned his 100th career MAC victory. Christian is the 10th coach to accomplish the feat and the third at Ohio to do so (Jim Snyder, Larry Hunter).
Ohio wraps up the 2013-14 regular season when the Bobcats travel to Oxford to face off with Miami on Saturday (March 8) at noon. The game will be televised locally on Time Warner Cable SportsChannel and streamed nationally on ESPN3. Pre-game coverage on the Ohio IMG Sports Network begins at 11:30 a.m.
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