Sports

Ohio Drops Third Straight on Road, Falls to Central Michigan

Posted on: Saturday, January 23, 2016

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Mount Pleasant, Mich. was not very pleasant to the Ohio Bobcats. For the first time all season the Bobcats were let down by their offense. Ohio fell to the Central Michigan Chippewas by a score of 72-49.

Ohio, came out firing, scoring 13 points in the first five minutes of the game before scoring just 36 for the rest of the game.  The Bobcats shot just 3-16 from behind the arc. Junior forward Antonio Campbell played well for the ‘Cats. Campbell had a game high 17 points and 12 rebounds. However his teammates struggled as no one else was able to muster at least nine points. Kenny Kaminski had eight points, Treg Setty, Jaaron Simmons and Gavin Block each added six points of their own.

Coming into the game Central Michigan, (10-9, 3-3) ranked fourth in the Mid-American Conference in points per game at 77.  That showed Saturday afternoon as they shot 50.8 percent from the field. A lot of the Chippewas points came in the paint. Central Michigan ran the pick and roll to perfection all afternoon, getting uncontested layups and open dunks seemingly at will.

With nine minutes to go in the first half Simmons found Campbell for a basket to give Ohio an 18-15 lead. The two teams scored on their next possession tying the game up at 20. Luke Meyer put the Chippewas up, 22-20, and for the remaining 7:15 in the half Central Michigan outscored Ohio 13-8.  The run gave the Chippewas the lead, 35-28 at the half.

During the second half, Central Michigan continued to show why they are one of the top offenses in the MAC. They scored six of the first eight points putting themselves in front, 41-30. The two teams traded baskets until 12:38 left in the second half, when Meyer hit a layup to extend the led to 13, 49-36. The following possession for Central Michigan resulted in a layup by Austin Stewart putting the Chippewas up 15 points. The lead stayed around 15 for most of the rest of the game. Central Michigan ended the game on an 11-3 run before the final whistle.

This was the first time since January 27, 2015, at Eastern Michigan, that the ‘Cats were held under 50 points. They scored 40 points in that game. Ohio (11-7, 2-4) will need to get the offense back on track because on Tuesday they travel to Toledo who rank third in the MAC in points per game. Tipoff is set for 7 p.m.