Sports
Ohio Men’s Basketball falls to third in MAC after upset loss at Bowling Green
By: Alex Michalec
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BOWLING GREEN, Ohio (WOUB) — There was more on the line for Bowling Green than there was for Ohio in Tuesday night’s MAC matchup. Bowling Green was fighting for the last spot in the MAC tournament while Ohio had their eye on a higher seed. The Bobcats were looking to conquer the Falcons for the first time in the Stroh center since 2017.
In a heated contest, the Falcons prevailed, winning 80-77 off of multiple scoring runs throughout the second half.
Tuesday’s game was everything you could have wanted in a basketball game. Throughout the 40 minutes of play there was everything from crazy threes to ejections.
The first three or so minutes portrayed the constant back and forth nature of the game. The Falcons came out scorching hot, going 5-of-5 and leaping out to a 13-3 lead.
However, the Bobcats continuously put together offensive possessions that led to buckets. From the 14 minute mark until halftime, neither team had a lead greater than six points and Ohio went into the break up four, 35-31.
The hero of the first half was fifth year senior and fan favorite Ben Vander Plas, who scored 17 points and tore apart the Falcons defense all over the floor. Without him Ohio would not have come even close to competing with Bowling Green in the first half.
“I don’t think we’ve ever put together a game all year where multiple guys have been all together,” Ohio head coach Jeff Boals said
Exciting does not do justice to the feeling in Stroh Center during the second half of the game.
Blown leads, comebacks, ejections, clutch three-pointers and even more was in store for fans as the two teams battled to win.
The last 20 minutes started out with everything going right for Bowling Green and quite the opposite for Ohio. Seniors Trey Diggs and Matiss Kulackovskis dominated the midrange and paint, respectfully. Diggs walked down Ohio defenders multiple times and sunk 50 percent of his shots on Tuesday. His counterpart Kulackovskis tied teammate Daeqwon Plowden as leading scorers with each of them providing 18 points.
As multiple Falcons put a spectacular showing in the first ten minutes of the game, the Bobcats seemed unphased and somehow crawled back. Between the start of the second half and the 11:19 mark, Ohio let Bowling Green go on an unprecedented 20-4 run in which it looked like the game was going to end in a blowout Bobcats loss.
Thanks to Ben Roderick heating up and Ben Vander Plas continuing his great night, Ohio came back within five but yet again gave up another run and this time the lead looked insurmountable to come back from. Down 63-50 with under seven minutes left is not a place Ohio wanted to be in, but bad defense and poor three point shooting have consequences.
The Bobcats still did not give up hope. In under three minutes Ohio brought the game within one, 63-62, but that was where things changed completely. After a no call from the refs on a driving layup, Jason Carter was called for a travel, completely lost his temper and was ejected from the game following two technical fouls.
With 39 seconds left the Bobcats were down nine, an impossible ask to comeback from for any basketball team. Even after a Ben Roderick clutch three and Mark Sears deep two, Ohio eventually fell 80-77, but clearly gave all they had.
Ohio has now lost three out of its last four games and four of their last eight. For a team that started 19-3, they are now 23-7 and are not playing their best basketball.
Any head coach wants their team to be playing at the highest level heading into tournament time and Ohio has been playing mediocre if not poor.
“We gotta get back to kind of our DNA offense,” Boals said. “Ball versus paint versus post touches and even defensively, ball pressure, disruption and I don’t think we did either of them.”
Boals and the Bobcats will wrap up the regular season at Northern Illinois on Friday evening. Ohio will look to close out what has been a mostly successful season. Tip-off Friday is at 8 p.m.