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ATHENS, Ohio – Led by a career-high 19 points from junior guard
Miles Brown (Rochester, N.Y.), the Ohio men's basketball team (5-1) defeated Concordia (4-5), 88-68, Friday evening inside the Convocation Center.
Six Bobcats recorded double figures. Brown finished with 19 points, going 7-of-12 from the field and grabbed six rebounds. Redshirt senior forward
Ben Vander Plas (Ripon, Wis.) and 5
th year forward
Jason Carter (Johnstown, Ohio) both finished with 16 points, with Carter grabbing a team-high seven rebounds. Sophomore guard
Mark Sears (Muscle Shoals, Ala.) added 15 points, five rebounds and four assists, while senior guard
Tommy Schmock (Cleveland, Ohio) finished with 11 points and was 3-of-7 from three.
Overall, Ohio shot 45 percent from the field, 30 percent from three and 74 percent from the line, while Concordia shot 51 percent from the field, 41 percent from three and 71 percent from the line. Ohio outrebounded the Cardinals, 36-31, while dishing out 16 assists to their 12. The Bobcats also forced 19 Concordia turnovers, while scoring 28 points off them.
"Obviously, we got off to a slow start and didn't come out with the energy that we needed to," head coach
Jeff Boals said. "Anytime you give a team confidence you're in a dogfight. You know number number zero was hitting some big shots and we talked about the last 10 seconds of the shot clock really locking in. The guys battled and had some adversity being down seven halftime. We came out with the energy and effort level we needed in the first half that we had in the second half.
Tommy Schmock was huge in the second half and Miles' defense and he hit the big shots as well.
Jason Carter was a man inside the second half and, and it was good to respond like that."
Ohio won the tip, but Concordia got the first point of the game. Ohio took a one-point lead at the 15:38 mark. After the teams exchanged baskets over the next few minutes, Concordia went on to take a nine-point lead with 2:54 left in the half. Carter hit two free throws at the end of the half, but went into the locker room trailing, 37-30 at the half.
At the half, Ohio shot 32 percent from the field, 16 percent from three and 63 percent from the line, while Concordia shot 55 percent from the field, 42 percent from three and did not attempt a free throw. Concordia out-rebounded Ohio 19-17 and dished out eight assists to Ohio's five.
At the half, Carter led the Bobcats with nine points, followed by Vander Plas with six.
Ohio opened the second half with the first basket, a layup from Brown. After Concordia went up seven with 16:36 left in the game, the Bobcats chipped away, taking a one-point lead after two made free throws from Schmock. After a layup from freshman forward
AJ Clayton (Duncan Falls, Ohio) and a steal from Schmock that led to a basket from Brown, the Bobcats took a six-point lead with 12:58 left.
After Concordia cut the Ohio lead to one out of the timeout, a three from Vander Plas, followed by a layup from Carter spurred the Bobcats to a 64-54 lead with 9:16 left in the game. After a layup and a free throw from Sears, Ohio took a 73-64 lead with 4:56 left in the game.
The Cardinals never got closer than nine points over the final five minutes, with threes from Schmock and Brown helping the Bobcats secure the 88-68 victory.
"We just got to the rim a lot more picked up our pace our energy got going off of our rebounding," Brown said. "We just picked up off our team's energy. We started off slow in the first half and we knew we had to do something better in the second half. So we just picked up the pace and we got some good looks."
For Concordia, Thomas Hronis led the way with 23 points and was 7-of-13 from three, while Bernard Kasanda added 14 points and four rebounds.
Up next, the Bobcats head to Baton Rouge, La. to take on their second SEC opponent of nonconference when they face LSU on Wednesday, Dec. 1. Tip-off is set for 8 p.m. ET and can be seen on SEC Network +.
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