Sports
AJ Clayton’s 34 point double-double helps end Ohio losing streak vs Portland
By: Grant Kiefer
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CONWAY, S.C. (WOUB) — A three-game losing streak to start the season is never good. For Ohio (2-4), that was the reality the team faced after going back to its hotel Thursday afternoon. With a tournament like the Myrtle Beach Invitational, though, there are plenty of opportunities to get back on track. The Bobcats did just that Friday afternoon, taking down Portland (2-4) in dominant fashion, 85-73.
There may not have been a more iconic performance in Myrtle Beach Invitational history than what AJ Clayton did for the Bobcats. Clayton sparked the Bobcats’ hot start early, grabbing nine points before the under-16 media timeout. Clayton put in 34 points, a career-high, and Myrtle Beach Invitational record, along with 12 rebounds. After a slow start for Clayton’s standards to this season, getting back to his usual rhythm
Getting out to a hot start has been an emphasis after a couple of slow starts, and Ohio did that against Middle Tennessee, but it couldn’t keep the momentum through the second half and overtime. Getting out to an 18-point lead early helped give the Bobcats a necessary cushion to hold momentum throughout the game. While Portland made a late charge at the lead, seeing a 19-point lead trim down to nine, Ohio closed the game.
“I think for us it’s a great growth area. You know you don’t want to be comfortable. You don’t want to, you know feel good. And you know we got a little lackadaisical there in those two minutes,” Boals said. “Luckily, we were sitting with a 17-point lead. And, you know, we end up closing the game out, but, you know, all year long, Illinois State, Memphis, even James Madison, we played really well in spurts. I thought today was as much of a complete game as we’ve had. Now we just got to continue for 40 minutes.”
Ohio’s offensive sets have been what it wanted this year, but many shots the Bobcats usually make just haven’t been falling. In the first half, that wasn’t the case. Ohio shot 52% from the field, establishing a presence on offense early.
With how well the Bobcats played, it’s easy to overlook Boals’ historical accomplishment; winning his 100th game as Ohio’s head coach. While Boals was happy to just get one win today, he credited his staff for helping him get to this point of his career.
“As a coach, I was just happy to get one win today. You know, I think you know what that says is number one, you got great players. It’s a great institution. Obviously, it’s my alma mater. We have great leadership. Starting year six here, I want to give a lot of credit to my staff,” Boals said.
Transfer guard Jackson Paveletzke has now had back-to-back games with double-digit assists and is one assist away from tying Villanova’s Collin Gillespie’s Myrtle Beach Invitational record at 23 assists.
“For a week and a half, he’s been a little banged up, so he wasn’t 100%,” Boals stated. “He could have had, you know 15 or 16 [assists] yesterday. We missed some great looks. The same thing for tonight. But when he’s aggressive like that, he’s a great secondary defender, getting guys open shots you know we’re going to be tough to guard.”
Ohio will have the day off Saturday before taking the floor Sunday at 8 p.m. in the Myrtle Beach Invitational fifth-place game. The Bobcats will face Friday night’s winner of Texas State and Princeton.