Sports
Ohio Men’s Basketball’s second half push not enough, lose 11th-straight against Toledo
By: Andrew Bowlby
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ATHENS, Ohio (WOUB) – There are few teams in the Mid-American Conference that have been able to dominate matchups against Ohio Men’s Basketball. That is aside from Toledo. The Rockets have won 15 of the last 16 against the Bobcats over the past nine seasons.
Those struggles continued Saturday afternoon, and despite a second half push, Toledo (16-14, 10-6 MAC) beat Ohio (15-14, 9-7 MAC) 79-67 for an 11th-straight time.
“Our start wasn’t ideal, we missed a lot of easy baskets,” Boals said. “I thought we let our offense affect our defense in that stretch. We looked lethargic, we looked stagnant offensively, and I think that probably has something to do with the week off.”
Ohio’s start felt reminiscent of the Akron game from a few weeks prior. The Bobcats were missing easy shots and struggling on the defensive end. The Rockets led the game 9-0 quickly and Ohio missed its first five shots of the game.
It wasn’t until Ajay Sheldon, on his senior day, knocked down a pair of triples to get Ohio going. His two makes were the team’s only two on their first 11 attempts. The Bobcats were getting good looks they just weren’t falling.
Jaylan Ouwinga nailed a wide-open triple to give the Rockets a 20-10 lead midway through the first half.
The Bobcats finally started to make shots and generate momentum during the final four minutes of the half. Aidan Hadaway made a triple to cap a 7-0 burst for Ohio cutting the lead down to a nine-point deficit.
Ohio’s start to the second half was much better than its start to the first. The Bobcats made four of their first five shots and outscored Toledo 11-7 through the first four minutes. Despite a much better start, they still trailed by nine.
The game, and comeback effort, really took a turn when Javan Simmons fully inserted himself into the game. He upped his energy and it became infectious. He was helping get Ohio stops and was nearly unstoppable on the offensive end.
Simmons scored 14 of his 20 points in the second half. He was also a major presence on the glass finishing the game with 12 boards, seven on the offensive end.
“It’s an emotional game for him. He did a pretty good job of keeping that emotion,” Boals said on Simmons facing his former team.
He walked Austin Parks down in the paint and scored over him to cut Toledo’s led to 52-50. That would be as close as Ohio could get to tying the game.
The biggest killer to the Bobcats’ push was Toledo’s offensive rebounding. Ohio was getting stops, but they weren’t finishing the possessions with defensive rebounds. The Rockets pulled down 14 offensive boards and scored 22 second chance points off them. Of that, 10 of the rebounds and 17 of the points came in the latter half.
“Shot ourselves in the foot. Get a stop, give up an offensive rebound and put-back,” Boals said. “And when you battle back like that, every possession is going to matter. We didn’t make enough plays to win.”
The other factor that led to Toledo’s response was Blyden Jr. The likely MAC freshman of the year was outstanding in the second half. He scored 16 points and closed the game consistently ending Toledo possessions with made shots.
Ohio got close, but they just didn’t have enough to get over the hump and fell to the Rockets again.
Blyden and Sonny Wilson once again dominated Ohio and combined for a big night. The two had 43 of the Rockets points and also brought in 16 rebounds as guards.
“Those two guards are as good as any two in the league,” Boals said.
So, the question remains for Ohio, can they beat Toledo? History tells you that they cannot. With 11-straight losses, a 1-12 record under Boals and just five wins since the 2011-12 season there’s just something about facing the Rockets.
“Every team’s got a tough matchup, doesn’t matter who you are,” Boals said. “We have winning records and we’re a tough matchup for people.”
“That team’s not better than us,” Hadaway said. “When they see they’re playing the Bobcats, they play to the best of their ability.”
With the final scores from around the conference Saturday, the Bobcats and Rockets are slated to meet in the first round of the MAC Tournament for a second-straight season.
Both still have two games remaining next week, but Ohio will end up anywhere from the 4-6 seed, while Toledo will end up as the 3-5 seed.
The Bobcats face UMass on the road Tuesday before hosting No. 21 Miami on Friday to round out the regular season.