Sports
Carter’s career day leads Ohio Men’s Basketball past Western Michigan
By: Alex Michalec
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ATHENS, Ohio (WOUB) — Jason Carter has been playing collegiate basketball for half a decade, yet he still continues to set new records.
In his fifth year playing college basketball and third year at OU, Carter hit his new career high with 27 points Saturday afternoon in The Convo.
Carter and Sophomore teammate Mark Sears made sure that Ohio (19-3, 10-1 MAC) continued its historical run this season by beating Western Michigan (4-19, 0-12) by a final of 77-64. Although the Broncos hung around for most of the game and at one point had a double digit lead, Carter and Co. made sure that the Broncos did not get their first MAC win.
In the opening minutes of the contest between a true “worst vs first” matchup, the Western Michigan Broncos looked deadly, scoring 12 points before missing a shot. They had Ohio on their heels as junior guard Lamar Norman Jr. caught fire blowing by defenders and hitting spot up 3s.
At the 14:43 mark it looked like an upset was brewing as the Broncos were up 17-7 and had all the momentum. But Ohio knew they were the better, more talented team, and started to formulate a comeback. By the end of the ninth minute Ohio had gone on a tear, scoring 14 unanswered points and giving them a four point lead that demoralized the thought of an upset.
The game was evenly matched and just when it looked like Ohio would be down at half Mark Sears hit a huge three to go into halftime up one.
The last 20 minutes of the game was somewhat back and forth but ever so slightly Ohio expanded on their lead and went on to win the game. A huge reason for this was Jason Carter. He scored 12 straight points in only three minutes and 30 seconds, igniting the solid crowd inside The Convo and ending any thought of a Broncos stunner win. Carter was doing it all. In the post he bodied his defenders, he utilized his 6’8 frame to hit fadeaways and even incorporated the deep ball a few times.
His dominance during the first five minutes of the half locked up Ohio’s win and Western Michigan never got within six the entirety of the game.
The Broncos kept dueling with the Bobcats all 40 minutes and that is largely in part due to Lamar Norman Jr. He ended the game with 30 points, 19 more than any other teammate of his. The crafty guard forced the Bobcats to play tough basketball and head coach Jeff Boals recognized Norman’s impact on the game.
“He’s a good player,” head coach Jeff Boals said of Carter. “You’re not going to hold everybody down. When you’re a scorer you get confident, he hit some tough shots.”
After the win on Saturday afternoon Ohio will go on a long road trip, playing Toledo on the eighth, Central Michigan on the 10th, and Eastern Michigan on the 12th. The rematch against Toledo has high stakes after Toledo gave Ohio their only home loss of the season just a couple weeks ago. It is also a game with MAC player of the year implications. Mark Sears and Ryan Rollins will face for the second time in hopes one of them can wrap up the award. Tip-off at Toledo is at 7 p.m.