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[Ayden Crowley | WOUB]

A late game run wasn’t enough for Ohio 1804 in The Basketball Tournament

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DAYTON, Ohio (WOUB) – Ohio 1804, a basketball team including alumni representing Ohio University, faced off against the Golden Eagles of Marquette in a 64-team alumni basketball tournament at University of Dayton Arena.

Despite a late comeback that made things interesting, Ohio 1804 dropped its opening game 77-72 and was eliminated from The Basketball Tournament, losing its shot at a $1 million dollar prize. 

Ohio 1804 dominated the start of the game, rebounding and hitting shots.

Ohio 1804 guard defends Golden Eagle player Dwight Buycks Jr
Ohio 1804 guard Ryan Taylor (0) defends Dwight Buycks Jr. (3) at the Basketball Tournament [Courtesy of: TBT]
Ryan Taylor hit two threes in the first quarter for Ohio 1804 and gave it momentum. Taylor says it was good to be back in the green and white.

“My freshman year I played at OU and I haven’t worn the jersey since so it was nice to get back out there,” Taylor said. 

The fast start wasn’t consistent through the rest of the game. 

Ohio 1804 shot 44 percent from the field in the first quarter alone. The Golden Eagles came out with pressure in the second quarter and took advantage of Ohio 1804 when it struggled to keep the ball in its possession. In the second and third quarter, it shot 32 percent from the field combined.

Meanwhile, the Golden Eagles came alive, scoring 40 points in the two quarters combined, led by Darius Johnson-Odom who finished the game with 19 points, four rebounds and four assists.

The Golden Eagles were on top 57-45 entering the fourth quarter, but Ohio 1804 wasn’t done fighting.

Ohio 1804 bench celebrates late game push against the Golden Eagles at UD Arena
Ohio 1804 celebrates late game push against the Golden Eagles at UD Arena [Courtesy of: TBT]
It was a steep challenge for the team to comeback. The Golden Eagles only needed eight points to win because of the Elam rule. After the first dead ball under four minutes in the fourth quarter, eight is added to the leading teams score and the first team to reach that score wins. At this point in the game, the Marquette alumni team led 68-53.

Ohio 1804 began to play like it was at the beginning of the game. It took command of the game going on a 19 to 9 run. Unfortunately for Ohio 1804, the late run wasn’t enough. For head coach Aaron Fuss, he enjoyed the late game competition.

“It was awesome that we were able to step up and you know play without fear and continue to compete together,” Fuss said. 

Although Ohio 1804 couldn’t pull off the comeback, it will look to regroup next year and come back stronger. 

“We want to try to continue to build this thing,” Fuss said. “As we can hopefully add a couple more pieces here moving forward and continue to build the momentum with the existing guys that we have.”