Sports
Ohio ends regular season with back-to-back losses, will be No. 5 seed in MAC Tournament
By: Andrew Bowlby
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ATHENS, Ohio (WOUB) – On the final night of the regular season in the Mid-American conference all but two spots were up for grabs in the conference tournament next week.
Ohio (16-15, 10-8 MAC) saw its regular season end in a building that has not been very kind the Bobcats over the past eight years falling 96-82 to Toledo (17-14, 10-8 MAC).
Savage Arena had been a place Ohio did not enjoy playing least during recent years, last leaving victorious in January 2016.
Friday’s game also had implications on the conference tournament with Ohio entering the night as the No. 3 seed, but the loss drops the Bobcats to No. 5. With other conference results, Toledo moved into the No. 4 seed putting the two against each other Thursday in the first round of the MAC Tournament.
Friday night’s game started in a similar way to the first meeting of the season between the Bobcats and Rockets. Both offenses were connecting on shots, and Javan Simmons got Toledo going with six of the team’s first eight points while Jackson Paveletzke had eight of Ohio’s first 10.
Midway through the opening half, Ajay Sheldon took his first shot of the game but came up short. Sheldon’s shooting woes continued against Toledo. He’s shot 3/21 over the past nine games.
Ohio’s bench struggled only combining for 11 points on the night, and they were missed as the Bobcats once again played without AJ Brown.
Head coach Jeff Boals confirmed after the game that Brown will likely not play in next week’s tournament.
Maybe the biggest concern for the Bobcats during the first half was the inability to get stops. Toledo, just as they did in the first meeting, scored 47 opening half points.
“Defensively, not near where we need to be,” Boals said on his team’s level.
Despite the defensive struggles, the first half still remained close because the offense was able to consistently score. After Paveletzke got things going, Elmore James picked up for Ohio. James scored 11 points in the first and played 17 minutes.
His first half ended up transferring over to the second, more on that in a second.
With the clock winding down, neither team had been able to get separation from the other. That all changed in the final minutes. In the last two, Toledo made a quick 6-0 run and ended the first on a positive noted leading 47-41 at the break.
What Ohio needed following that end was a strong start to the second. What the Bobcats got was a continuation of the first half. The Rockets built a 10-point lead a minute in, and a frustrated Boals called timeout and was animated in the huddle.
“The way the first half ended was the way the second half started. We talked about what we needed to do, how we needed to do it, we didn’t,” Boals said.
In a moment where it felt like everything could come crashing down and the game get out of reach, Ohio responded. AJ Clayton found a put-back, and that continued with Shereef Mitchell scoring a layup.
Offense wasn’t a problem in the second half for the Bobcats. They continued to put points on the board, mainly through the shooting of James. He made three more triples and finished the game with 20 points.
“This is a game for him, he’s a physical player,” Boals said. “We needed all the points he had.”
James came up just one point shy of a career high 21, which he first set in Savage Arena during his freshman season.
He kept Ohio within reach Friday, but the team could never get over the hump. At one point the Bobcats got within four points at 72-68. But they were denied a comeback with the efforts of Simmons. The Rockets big-man delivered three-straight possessions with an offensive rebound, and it led to six second chance points. Four came from Simmons who had 22 on the night with a perfect 10/10 shooting performance.
Toledo kept its foot on the gas and put Ohio away and ended the Bobcats regular season with a disappointing loss.
The opportunity presents itself to reset and rebound. Toledo and Ohio meet Thursday in Cleveland for the third time this season. It’s a chance for the Bobcats to put the rocky end of play behind them a try to win three games in three days.