March 14, 2014 MAC Semifinals
Ohio (23-6, 11-5 MAC) vs Eastern Michigan (14-15, 9-7 MAC)
Eastern Michigan is rated 78 OVR (77 off/76 def/79 sht/80 REB), and we would appear to have the edge in every facet of the game. They're the 3 seed in the tournament.
Injuries are hurting EMU. Their starting center, Dameon Archibong is out. He's a freshman with just moderate talent, but he is 6'10 and filled up the lane for them. Also, their backup SG Woody Karis is out. A 71 rated freshman, he's a solid backup who scored a bit for them.
I'm thinking that even simming half my games, I probably need to turn up injuries a bit more.
Scouting
PG WB McCoy JR - 73 OVR Looks like their best 3 point shooter(76), and their best defender by far(86, quite good actually). Great speed but not a good ball handler for a PG. 12.0 ppg/4.7 apg.
SG Haris Taft JR 72 OVR Did not start last year. Great speed and quickness (90/88), decent shooter (86 close/77 med/71 3), but he's a poor defender (76), a poor leaper and doesn't hustle... he can shoot off the dribble(82). I'm not quite sure how to factor the speed vs defense vs hustle and such, but I'm hoping that a good handles guy like Cooper can burn him when we have the ball. 7.7 ppg.
SF Freddie Stehly JR 75 OVR average/below average defense(74), not very fast, 86 in close, 75/72 from med and 3 point ranges. Looks like a pretty good leaper and dunker. He scored 10 ppg last year and has elevated his game quite a bit it appears, 15 ppg/5.7 rpg so far.
PF Keith Buchanan SR 67 OVR 6'9, a very poor rebounder (74 o/67 d), average/slightly below in the post (69 o/72 d). 87 close/80 in traffic. He's also got a 3 point shot, 73 from 3. Averaging 4.3 ppg. Not a bad backup, he's starting in place of Archibong. Hurts their depth though.
C Kentrell Warner FR 68 OVR 6'9, average on the boards(80/76), average in the paint (73 o/71 d). 81close/81 in traffic. He's got no experience and probably won't be a big threat to us. 4 ppg.
Half
| Time
| OHIO
| EMU
| Notes
|
1
| 14:00
| 9
| 20
| Just a terrible start. We have a 3 from Murphy and a couple buckets inside. We've got 3 fouls, 2 of them leading to 3 point plays for them. Their SG Taft has 6 already. They've got 3 steals all leading to fast break buckets. I get a timeout to settle things down.
|
1
| 12:50
| 13
| 20
| Sessoms with a free throw, Murphy hits a jumper, gets a steal and gets fouled, and makes 1 of 2. Lead down to 7, backups are in.
|
1
| 9:20
| 15
| 29
| Two more 3's by EMU and we are dying here. We've gotten into the lane on the drive the last 3 times down court and come up empty.
|
1
| 5:50
| 27
| 36
| We get it down under 10 thanks to 5 straight from Keller. Lufkin got a 3 point play and we got a couple fast break layups as well. They are still hitting 3's though despite our tight man defense. Starters are back in to try to shut things down a little.
|
1
| 2:45
| 37
| 40
| 6 points from House, all on dunks in our half court offense helps us cut the lead all the way down to 3. Timeout EMU. This run started right when they pulled their PG, McCoy. He's coming back in now.
|
| HALF
| 43
| 49
| A couple bad defensive possessions let them go back up 6. House took over the game completely in the final 6 minutes, scoring 12 of his 14 points. EMU's PG, McCoy, leads them with 11. Murphy and Delic both have 6. Cooper has 0 and only took 3 shots, that has to change.
|
2
| 17:00
| 49
| 55
| Well after allowing McCoy to score the first 5 points of the half, House gets us going again and we only trail by 6 with 17 left after having fallen down by 11. We actually get a 6th man boost going for cutting the lead back down.
|
2
| 16:30
| 49
| 55
| Sessoms with foul #3. Every other starter but Cooper has 2 fouls. We're committing about 80% of the fouls today.
|
2
| 16:00
| 49
| 60
| McCoy with another 3, a turnover by us against their press and a layup for Taft and we trail by 11. I call a timeout.
|
2
| 15:10
| 53
| 61
| Sessoms with foul #4 and he comes out, Keller is in.
|
2
| 13:45
| 58
| 63
| They score to go up 10, House with a dunk, we stop on defense, and house feeds Keller who gets a 3 point play and its 5 again. House has 21 and 3 assists, he's basically been our offense. We need someone else to step up here.
|
2
| 13:15
| 60
| 63
| House has 23 now. They call a timeout. Between the 6th man boost and all the timeouts, I can get a couple more minutes out of my starters. I was ready to pull them but they're on a 7-0 run now so yeah, they'll stay in.
|
2
| 12:!5
| 62
| 66
| We give up a 3, then guess who with a dunk. I see this for the first time ever: One player gets 9 dunks: 30 credits earned
|
2
| 11:20
| 62
| 66
| Backups are finally in now.
|
2
| 10:00
| 69
| 68
| Mendoza a 3, Keller and Watson both score inside and we take the lead back!
|
2
| 9:50
| 69
| 68
| Lufkin with his 3rd foul and we've got 7 for the half.
|
2
| 5:30
| 77
| 77
| Starters are back in. We're up to 10 fouls now. We're tied,and two EMU free throws give them a 6th man boost for the starting 5 to deal with. Sessoms is at center now.
|
2
| 4:08
| 81
| 77
| Cooper gets his first basket of the game, he now has 2 points.
|
2
| 3:57
| 81
| 79
| Sessoms has fouled out. Keller in the rest of the way.
|
2
| 2:55
| 81
| 84
| McCoy burns Murphy for a layup, Murphy misses a 3, and they come down and sink one. I call a timeout.
|
2
| 1:45
| 83
| 84
| Murphy misses another wide open 3. We get a steal but House falls over trying to make a move to the basket, a rare mistake for him. We get a stop, House with the long board and he goes coast to coast for the dunk. 27 for him.
|
2
| 1:20
| 85
| 84
| Cooper gets a steal on a pass into the paint. He gets it ahead up to Murphy who can either pass it to House on the wing or try to make a move on his man to get to the hoop. 9 times out of 10 he drives to the basket, but today, there is no question what to do with the ball. He gets it to house, who fakes out the guy charging at him to stop the 3, drives past him and jams it home again. 29 points. We take the lead.
|
2
| 1:00
| 85
| 86
| They get a shot down low and take the lead, there's exactly 60.0 on the clock, our ball.
|
2
| 0:35
| 85
| 88
| We run a play that gets Delic open, I think he's got a laypu but they get a great weakside block. We foul, they make both FT's.
|
2
| 0:24
| 85
| 89
| House drives to the basket and misses a shot a little too tough for him. We foul, they make 1 of 2.
|
2
| 0:12
| 88
| 89
| We get the ball down low to Delic, he is fouled as he goes up by McCoy, he really should have scored.. but didn't. He makes the 1st, misses the second, Keller with the board! He goes back up and is fouled. He makes both his free throws. We foul on the inbounds play.
|
They make both their free throws when we foul We get the open look that we want, but Murphy misses the 3 pointer with a couple seconds left on the clock.
Eastern Michigan 91
Ohio 88
Just a stunning disappointment here. We beat them by 30 early in the year, struggled like hell to beat them by 7 later in the year, and the 3
rd time they finally got us, leading almost the entire way.
If we had anyone but House playing up to their level today we win going away. But we just had no other offense. EMU gets an outstanding game from McCoy, their star PG. He scores 21, has 9 assists and 3 steals. SG Taft with 16 and backup SF Summers with 14. They were only 8-22 from 3 but they hit big shots when they had to.
Murphy: 6 points (2-7 shooting/1-6 from 3)
Cooper: 2 points (1-8 shooting/0-4 from 3)
House: 29 points/6 boards (14-18 from the floor, 10 or 11 dunks)
Delic: 9 points/6 boards
Sessoms: 8 points/5 boards
Keller: 12 points solid game from Keller as Sessoms only got 21 minutes due to foul trouble.
Lufkin: 6 points
Watson: 6 points
Just give me 8 from Cooper and we win. 2 points? Damn.