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ATHENS, Ohio – The Ohio men's basketball team returned to the Convocation Center Thursday night (Nov. 3), defeating Capital, 79-62 in an exhibition. 
 
Overall, Ohio was led by junior guard Jaylin Hunter (Manchester, Conn.) with 15 points and five rebounds, followed by sophomore forward AJ Clayton (Roseville, Ohio) with 14 points, nine rebounds and three assists. Senior forward Ben Roderick (Powell, Ohio) added 13 points and went 5-of-8 from the field, while senior guard DeVon Baker (Dayton, Ohio) added 10 points. Graduate student Dwight Wilson III (Tallahassee, Fla.) returned to the Convo with nine points and 10 rebounds. 
 
As a team, Ohio shot 43 percent from the field, nine percent from three and 59 percent from the line, while Capital shot 38 percent from the field, 38 percent from three and 58 percent from the line. Ohio outrebounded Capital 48-33 and Ohio forced 23 turnovers, scoring 23 points off them. 
 
The Bobcats also registered six blocks, 15 steals and 16 assists. 
 
"Great to be back, awesome student section tonight," head coach Jeff Boals said. "I always love when the band's here, they bring a whole different dimension and add to the atmosphere. It was good to play in front of people, we had nine new players, and it was a couple of the guys' first time in front of fans, so it was a little different for them, but I thought they settled. Capital is a good team to play, and I knew coming in it would be a difficult team for us to guard by the way they play offensively; they don't have a true five man and we do so our five are out on the perimeter guarding and I am excited that exhibition scrimmage season is over and we have our first real game on Monday."
 
The Bobcats opened the first half with the first basket of the game, a layup from Wilson III, his first in the Convo since Feb. 27, 2021. After Capital tied it up, the Bobcats went on to take a 10-2 lead going into the first media timeout. Out of the timeout, Capital cut the Ohio lead to 11-6, however a run-out basket from freshman guard Elmore James (Cleveland, Ohio), put the Bobcats up seven with under 12 minutes to play in the first. 
 
Out of the timeout, a three from Hunter gave the Bobcats a 10-point lead, however Capital was able to cut Ohio's lead to six, before a layup and free throw from Clayton gave Ohio a nine-point lead. A jumper from the Comets cut the lead back to seven. But two free throws from Baker increased Ohio's lead to 24-15 going into the media timeout.
 
After the Bobcats went up 13 with the help of a steal and a dunk from sophomore guard Olumide Adelodun (Calgary, Canada), back-to-back threes from Capital cut the Ohio lead back to seven, but back-to-back layups from Ohio pushed the Ohio lead back to 11 with 3:20 left in the half.  A layup from Roderick and free throws from Clayton helped Ohio go up 15, but back-to-back threes from Capital cut the Ohio lead to 11 with 56 seconds left, before a dunk from Wilson III gave the Bobcats a 40-27 lead going into the half. 
 
At the half, Ohio shot 45 percent from the field, 10 percent from three and 56 percent from the line, while Capital shot 33 percent from the field, 40 percent from three and 50 percent from the line. The Bobcats also grabbed 22 rebounds to the Comets' 16, with Ohio dishing out 10 assists. 
 
Hunter led Ohio at the half with nine points, followed by Wilson III with seven points and seven rebounds. 


 
Ohio opened the second half with a three from Clayton before a jumper from Baker put Ohio up 45-36 with 15:23 remaining in the game. After a few scoreless minutes, layups from Wilson III and Clayton put Ohio up 13, before the teams traded baskets, with Capital cutting the lead back to 11 with 11:31 remaining.  After Capital cut the Ohio lead to 10, layups from Clayton and Hunter and free throws from Roderick put Ohio back up 16 with just under 10 minutes to play. After a few threes from Capital brought their deficit back to 10, a jumper from Baker and a layup from Roderick pushed the Bobcats ahead, 61-47, with 7:35 remaining. 
 
Out of the timeout, two more layups from Roderick helped put the Bobcats up 21 with five minutes to go in the game. A dunk from Hunter increased the Ohio lead to 70-47 before free throws from the Comets stopped the Ohio run, cutting the lead to 70-51. Over the remaining few minutes, both teams traded baskets with one last layup from James, sealing the 79-62 victory. 
 
The Bobcats open the 2022 regular season on Monday, Nov. 7 when they head to Nashville, Tenn. To take on Belmont. Tip-off is set for 7:30 p.m. ET. 
 
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