Sports
Despite a career-high 27 points from Dwight Wilson III, Ohio can’t make it past Kent State 70-65
By: Joe Collins
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ATHENS, Ohio (WOUB) — The Ohio Bobcats we’re looking for revenge from last year’s Mid-American Conference Tournament as it hosted the Kent State Golden Flashes.
One person the Bobcats didn’t have in March against the Flashes was graduate student forward Dwight Wilson III and he made sure his prescience was felt. He was near unstoppable in the first half, scoring 21 of Ohio’s 31 points.
Wilson was so dominant, that Kent State was at some points triple teaming him down low. His play allowed the Bobcats to go into the half up by one point.
“He’s been really good in MAC play so far,” head coach Jeff Boals said. “He was a man in there.”
The turning point of the game was in the first four minutes of the half when Ohio turned the ball over multiple times and Kent State capitalized with points to take the lead. The Flashes would never trail in the game after that.
“The first 4 minutes of the second half they kinda hit some tough shots that we shouldn’t have let happen,” Wilson said. “Every time we went on a run they had an answer or it was one mistake and they made us pay for it.”
However, Ohio was always in the game, with their largest deficit being just 10 points, which they quickly cut. Little by little they clawed back, and after a missed free throw by the Flashes, the Bobcats had a chance to tie the game with under 10 seconds to go.
They worked up their play they drew up, got it to Miles Brown who attempted a three, but it didn’t fall. The Golden Flashes took over with under a second left, hit two free throws and Ohio fell 70-65.
“If you look at the offense rebounds and turnover differential that’s 10 more possessions that they got then we got and they won by five,” Boals said. “So we got to do a better job of taking care of the ball.”
The Flashes scored 17 points off of Ohio’s 16 turnovers, and six of them came in the first four minutes of the second half.
And even with this, Ohio still only lost by five to the preseason MAC favorites.
The Bobcats were also able to limit the production of Kent State’s Sincere Carry, the reigning MAC Player of the Year, holding him to just 11 points on 30% shooting.
Wilson finished with a career-high 27 points while Miles Brown was second with 12 points.
The Bobcats continue their gauntlet start to MAC play as they travel to Toledo on Tuesday to take on the Rockets.