Sports
A career-high 31 points from Dwight Wilson III leads Ohio in 88-76 win over Western Michigan
By: Maxwell Mingay
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ATHENS, Ohio (WOUB) — The Ohio Bobcats looked to start up a win streak after their highest scoring game of 2023 against Central Michigan, in its way stood the Broncos of Western Michigan.
The game started and ended with Dwight Wilson III. He dropped a career-high 31 points and added 11 rebounds.
“Our guys did a great job feeding him the basketball,” head coach Jeff Boals said. “He definitely delivered”.
Wilson opened up the game with a putback layup followed by a hook shot and with the combination of Wilson’s dominance and good 3-point shooting the Bobcats found themselves up 9-6 going into the first timeout.
After a short back and forth between both teams Ohio decided to take it down low with Gabe Wiznitzer putting on his best Hakeem Olajuwon impression. After two straight possessions scoring down low Witznitzer would get into a scuffle with Western’s Owen Lobsinger that would cause a stoppage in play.
Following the stoppage, Wilson went back to work cleaning up a missed layup and adding a free throw with it. That was answered by a mid-range pull up and a three from Western Michigan that would put the score at 22-19 going into a timeout.
Coming out of the timeout, the Broncos would make two more 3-pointers. One of which included a highlight that had Markeese Hastings miss a free throw, grab his own miss, and then get it out to Lamar Norman Jr who would knock down the three that gave Western a 28-27 lead.
Dwight Wilson would get back to work scoring a putback and an and one while the AJ’s would emerge for Ohio with Brown scoring a layup and an and one while Clayton hit a three to end the half with the Bobcats leading 39-35.
Entering the second half Ohio got back to what it wanted to do with scoring a three and an easy layup. But it would continue to foul unnecessarily keeping Western Michigan’s hope alive.
Following an early timeout AJ Clayton woke up as he hit back-to-back threes answered by Lamar Norman’s own Steph Curry impression. Wilson and AJ Brown would have back-to-back and one’s and the Broncos would respond with two mid-range shots that would lead into another time out.
Out of the timeout Dwight Wilson had a mission, he was going to put the ball in the basket no matter who was in front of him.
Wilson and Western’s Center Titus Wright would go back and forth for two possessions, but then it became the Wilson show. He scored eight straight points before the Broncos were forced to take a timeout.
The heat was not turned down out of the timeout though as Clayton and Wilson combined for eight more points that would give Ohio a 79-67 lead and force Western Michigan to use another timeout.
The game was getting out of reach for the Broncos with every passing possession and Brown made sure of that, scoring six of the Bobcats last nine points.
“He’s really good man,” Wilson said. “That kid is gonna be really good”.
Brown was a key contributor in the game scoring 16 points and adding four rebounds while Jaylin Hunter added 12 points, six rebounds, and four assists.
The Bobcats will look for Wilson, Brown, and Hunter to continue their momentum as they face off against the second team in the Mid-American Conference standings Saturday, the Akron Zips.