Interesting note, Cooper has the star icon, the first time any of my players have gotten that designation. I'm not sure which ratings combine for it, and its not from his base roster attributes, its coming only after the confidence boost in game.
February 4th, 2015
Kent State (10-8, 5-3 MAC) at Ohio (16-4, 8-0 MAC)
Kent State is decent looking, 78 OVR (78 off/78 def/83 sht/85 reb). They have the same starting 5 as last season, though the last time we played them their best player(Montgomery, their SF) was hurt. We beat them by 29 in the MAC Quarterfinals last season. Note that they start 4 sophomores, very young, but they all have 2 years of experience starting by now.
Scouting
PG R. Parsons – SO – 69 OVR – 85 speed but only 78 quickness. Outstanding defender(88), not a steals guy so that's good. 77 close/74 med/71 3, not great but can't leave him open. 81 off the dribble. 6.9 ppg. Average ball handler/passer for a PG.
SG Theodore Holland – SO – 72 OVR – A 3 point shooting specialist, rated 84 from behind the arc. He doesn't look to do much else. 81 defense, which is improved over last year. 7.2 ppg.
SF :Logan Montgomery – SR – 79 OVR – 82 speed/82 quickness, good for a SF. 81 vertical/80 hustle, both exceptional. 77 defensive awareness, almost unheard of for this level. Good defense for a SF(81), 86 close/74 med/79 3, 78 off the dribble, 89 in traffic. This guy looks excetionally good. 12.7 ppg. He looks to have a highest tendency towards 3 point shooting.
PF Herman Bro – JR – 72 OVR – 6'9”, poor rebounder (76 o/71 d). Average on the blocks (75 post offense/73 post defense). 91 close range and 79 in traffic. 8.3 ppg this year.
C Roburt Maye – SO – 69 OVR – 7'1”, a good defensive rebounder(84) but terrible on the offensive glass(71). 68 post offense/76 post d. 85 close/83 in traffic. He's improved in close quite a bit, and with B- potential will continue to improve into a solid player. 9.4 ppg/5.4 rpg, he's up almost 2 points/game over last year.
They go 8 deep with guys rated 60+ (all of them 66+ actually. Just one backup in the post. Last year their SG, holland hurt us the most. Between Holland and Montgomery I'm worried about getting killed from behind the arc.
Half
| Time
| OHIO
| KSU
| Notes
|
1
| 12:05
| 21
| 15
| Cooper and House... 10 for Cooper, 9 for House. Bright has the other 2. Their SG, Holland has 7. We've only drawn 2 fouls but both happen to be on their star SF, Montgomery. The 2nd came at the 13:30 mark, he's sitting. Backups are in.
|
1
| 8:30
| 28
| 17
| The defense picks up with the backups once again, and after a couple fast break baskets put us up 10, Kent State calls a timeout.
|
1
| 5:50
| 31
| 25
| They get it back down to 6 as we struggle to score and they execute well on a few trips in a row. Starters are back in.
|
| HALF
| 37
| 33
| They cut it to 1, 31-30 before we score 6 straight. They close the half with a 3 and its 37-33 going into the locker room. There's a FT discrepency again today as they're shooting a lot of jump shots. We have 6 fouls, they have 7, but we've shot 11 free throws to their 1.
Holland leads them with 7, didn't score in the final 10 minutes. Montgomery only has 2, but he sat after 6 ½ minutes. They shoot 45% for the half, 4-10 from 3.
We're only shooting 40% but are 8-11 at the line, and are actually 50% from three, 5-10. Cooper scores 16, House is stuck at 9(no points in the final 6 minutes). Grundy and Lamkin lead the backups with 4 each. We would like to get to the rim more in the 2nd half, which is how we generally increase our shooting %.
|
2
| 19:35
| 39
| 35
| Montgomery fouls Cooper in the lane after Cooper ran his man off a screen on a set play and got the ball going to the hoop. He sits with 3 fouls.
|
2
| 16:10
| 41
| 43
| We trail for the first time since the first 2-3 minutes of the game. We're struggling to score, Murphy and Cooper both missing open shots, House unable to get to the rim, and Watson blocked rather embarrassingly inside. We call a timeout.
|
2
| 13:45
| 43
| 50
| House just turned it over to give it back to Kent State with a 7 point lead. I get the backups in to try to do something different.
|
2
| 11:30
| 46
| 58
| They hit 2 3's and a layup, while we get a 3 from Lamkin. They're on a 25-9 run in the second half so far. Timeout Ohio.
|
2
| 8:40
| 57
| 62
| We run off a quick 5 points after our last timeout, but they get 4 straight to make it 11 again, 62-51. We struggle and struggle, finally get a basket to cut it to 9, and I call for my starters. About 5 seconds after I call for the starters to come back, we get a steal, Mendoza gets a fast break basket and draws a foul, 62-55. The starters except Murphy get back out there. Mendoza misses the FT, Watson boards it and puts it back in. 62-57!
|
2
| 7:20
| 61
| 64
| They score to make it a 7 point game and we get another 4 point play... Watson fouled as he scores inside, misses the FT, House with the board and putback. We had a chance for more, as Bright steals the inbounds pass. We work it around in our offense, but Bright ends up losing it out of bounds as he's trying to post up his man. We still have the lead down to 3 though.
|
2
| 7:10
| 61
| 64
| They call a timeout, I get my backups in for a minute or two more to make sure the starters can go the distance.
|
2
| 5:40
| 61
| 70
| Kent State scores 6 quickly against our backups, I call a timeout and get the starters back in. Dammit!
|
2
| 4:05
| 65
| 70
| A couple solid defensive trips and buckets from Cooper and Murphy cut the lead back down to 5.
|
2
| 2:50
| 69
| 72
| House only has 4 points this half, but the last two were clutch, driving into their center and hitting a tough contested shot(I thought he was taking it up for a dunk and/or foul, good defense). Watson hits two Fts as well. Their ball, 3 point game.
|
2
| 1:40
| 71
| 74
| We give up an easy basket to Montgomery, get an easy basket from Cooper... with a stop by each in between. their ball, 1:40 left, timeout Kent State.
|
2
| 0:48
| 73
| 74
| We force a 5 second closely guarded call on Montgomery, something that almost never happens. We fail to score on our end, but get a stop on a blocked shot, which gives us a 6th man bonus, House with an awesome crossover in transition for a huge dunk. We trail by 1, 13 second difference between game and shot clocks. No fouling here, not on purpose at least.
|
2
| 0:27
| 73
| 74
| SO unclutch. We get a rebound after a missed shot by Bro, Cooper tries to go one on one and falls over, losing the ball. First and only time this game that happened. We have to foul now.
|
Oh my god...I cannot believe this just happened. They miss the front end of a 1 and 1, and we're on the run. Cooper gets around his man and scores easily. We lead 75-74 with 17 seconds to go. We play tight defense, they run a play that gets their big men out of the lane,and with 4 seconds left or so their PF, Herman Bro, takes a 3 point shot. Its no good but we're all out of position and our big men are out guarding their guys on the perimeter. Their PG, Parsons snags the rebound. He goes back up and is hammered by House. With 0.8 seconds left on the clock. I pray for a miss, but he makes both his free throws. I throw the inbounds pass out to House around midcourt, he gets a heave off but it is off the side of the rim and no good.
I didn't expect to go undefeated in conference play, but I sure didn't expect this loss at home. Damn.
Kent State 76
Ohio 75
Their SG, Holland, scored 18 and was a solid consistent scorer throughout. Their hero at the end, Parsons, scored 13. The ended up getting their FG % up over 50% for the game, while ours hovered closer to 40%. We went 25-58 for the game, and after going 5-10 from 3 in the first half, we are 2-13 in the 2
nd half, finishing up 7-23.
Murphy: 4 points (1-7 FG/0-5 3, we needed him more than this today)
Cooper: 24 points/3 steals
House: 15 points/4 boards/3 assists (disappeared a bit in the 2
nd half).
Bright: 2 points/4 boards
Watson: 8 points/6 boards
Mendoza: 7 points
Lamkin: 7 points
Grundy: 6 points
I'm completely stunned that we lost this game. DAMN! I really thought we were unbeatable at home against anyone in the conference.