Sports
Ohio falls short 78-72 against Youngstown State
By: Payton Brooker
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ATHENS, Ohio (WOUB) — Ohio returned to the Convo Wednesday night looking to repeat their same efforts against Delaware. This time though, Ohio faced in-state opponent Youngstown State.
The Bobcats though weren’t able to secure a victory as the Penguins shut down their offense leading to a and earned a 78-72 victory.
The first half was the troubling part of the Ohio offense as shooting mistakes were becoming a problem early. From the paint and the arc, Ohio had trouble keeping up with Youngstown State’s pace. In the first half, Ohio able made 28% of its shots.
Though the shooting in the second half improved, the Penguins only further kept the pace of the game on their side of the court. Shots continued to fall for them as well in rebounding for second chance shots which was a problem for the Bobcats.
The Penguins scored 42 of their points in the paint compared to the Bobcats’ 28 for the night. Ohio was lead in scoring by Shereef Mitchell who had 17 points and 4 steals. Elmore James also assisted on the effort recording a double-double with 13 points and 10 rebounds.
One of stars though for the Bobcats was from the bench. Sophomore Aidan Hadaway scored a career high 14 points as his efforts didn’t go unnoticed.
“I’m proud of Aidan,” Jaylin Hunter said. “He’s one of the hardest workers on the team. He doesn’t care what people think, in a good way. He’s just going to play hard, and I can always respect that.”
For Ohio, its next opponent is a familiar former conference opponent in Marshall who it shares a long history with. Head Coach Jeff Boals hopes to move on from this game and to come into Saturday with the right attitude.
“The biggest thing is to come in with the right mindset and respond the right way,” Boals said. “There a good team, they’ll be a good high-tempo transition team. So, we have to have a short-term memory, come back in, and get ready to play on Saturday.”
Ohio will faceoff with Marshall on Saturday in the Convo.