Sports
Clayton leads the way with 31 points, Ohio explodes for 108-70 win over Northern Illinois
By: Grant Kiefer
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ATHENS, Ohio (WOUB) — No team has been more dominant at home in conference play than the Ohio Bobcats (9-6, 3-0 MAC). Since the 2021-2022 season, Ohio came into Saturday’s game 24-4 in home conference games. Against a Northern Illinois (4-11, 0-3 MAC) team struggling on the road this season (0-9), Saturday was a prime opportunity for the Bobcats to get another dominant win over a MAC foe, and they did just that, taking down Northern Illinois 108-70.
There wasn’t anyone, or anything, stopping Ohio’s offense in the first half, as the team put on an absolute clinic. The Bobcats dropped 57 points while shooting 71.4% from the field as a team. Slow starts have plagued Ohio in some games, but it didn’t look back once. Ohio didn’t trail at any point in the game.
“That really set the tone for the game,” head coach Jeff Boals said. “We kept getting stops…our guys followed the gameplan to a tee, kept moving, kept cutting. They weren’t stagnant, (they) found the open man and had some great shots.”
While the Huskies didn’t have a bad half on offense themselves either, scoring 39 points, it wasn’t enough to keep up with an Ohio team that had contributions from everyone. All nine Bobcats who played during the first half had at least two points, with AJ Clayton leading the way with 18. Clayton also notched his 1,000th career point on his first shot of the game, a historic milestone for the senior.
“It’s great, especially being here for four years,” Clayton said. “Especially being from this area, it means a lot.”
The Huskies’ offense didn’t quite replicate their first-half performance in the second, as they quickly fell behind by over 30 points. Ohio has allowed a handful of its opponents to come back from large deficits and get back into games, most recently against Buffalo on Tuesday night. There was an emphasis on not letting up at halftime.
“One of our coaches said ‘Hey, stay hungry,’ and I said ‘Instead of being hungry, let’s eat,'” Boals said. “I thought we kept doing that, playing the right way, but most importantly, kept sharing the basketball, ran our offense with pace, talked on defense, got the rebounds we needed.”
As MAC play progresses, Ohio will be challenged more. Two major challenges await next week, hosting Ball State on Tuesday night and heading to rival Akron on Friday night. Tuesday night’s game tips off at 7 p.m. and can be seen on ESPN+.