March 3rd, 2015
Ohio (20-6, 12-2 MAC) at Ball State (14-12, 7-7 MAC)
Ball State is rated 83 OVR now (82 off/82 def/84 sht/83 reb). They ran a 3-2 zone that we just ate up last time we played, leading by 27 at the half and simming the final 15 minutes or so.
Scouting
PG Rod Rowe JR 74 OVR 86 speed/84 quickness. Above average handling and passing (88/81). 84 defense, quite good, and 81 steals, outstanding. 84 close/84 med/67 3. 84 off the dribble/77 in traffic. Looks like a very dangerous player on both ends of the floor. 10.2 ppg,
SG Gary Edelin JR 82 OVR Edelin is a JC transfer so this is his second year. 88 speed/87 quickness, 83 defense, 87 steals(A-, very very good). 83 close/84 med/84 3. 84 off the dribble, an outstanding shooter and can create his own shot. He's only averaging 9.1 ppg so far this year. I noticed last year his shot tendencies are very low. I'm not sure if they develop, but only the drive tendency seems noteworthy at all.
SF Fab Minoff FR 76 OVR 6'9 - 81 defense, good for a SF, a solid post defender. 84 close/81 med/64 3(thank goodness). 82 in traffic and a decent dunker. Solid athletic skills, B- vert/B- str, B- hustle. 5.9 ppg/4.3 rpg, which is lower than last year and a bit of a surprise.
PF Herman Wheeler SO 70 OVR Not terribly experienced, average/above average most everywhere on defense. 78/83 on the boards(off/def). 77 post offense/72 defense. Good hustle/vertical/strength so he loks like a pretty good athlete. Only a 76 close range shot/85 in traffic. He doesn't seem like a scoring threat. Not a shot blocker either. 5.3 ppg/5 rpg
C Russell Kapono JR 80 OVR 7 feet tall with some talent, very scary. 81 on the boards(both off and def), 91post offense, 78 post defense. 92in close/85 in traffic, and he's a good dunker. Strength is 91, average shot blocker... an absolute monster inside. He leads the team with 20.1 ppg so far this year. This is well up from a 15 point average last season.
Edelin and Kapono are our two biggest worries going into this one.
Half
| Time
| OHIO
| BSU
| Notes
|
1
| 16:50
| 2
| 10
| Their PG, Row, has 7, Edelin has a 3 and they have a 10-2 lead very early. Our open looks aren't going down from outside, I call a timeout and will try harder to drive to the hoop.
|
1
| 12:50
| 11
| 16
| Backups are in. We fell behind 12-2 and have picked it up a little since then. Cooper leads us with 5 so far.
|
1
| 7:15
| 23
| 26
| We had fallen behind 22-11 and once again were able to turn it on, Mendoza scored 6 in a row which helped quite a bit, we're on a little 4-0 run now and Ball State calls a timeout.
|
1
| 5:50
| 29
| 30
| Mendoza leads us with 9, and Grundy just drew foul #2 on Kapono and earned himself a 3 point play. Starters are back in.
|
1
| 1:55
| 38
| 40
| Another Ball State timeout, they had gone up 6 but we just ran off 4 straight, we haven't been able to get back into the lead but we're keeping it close.
|
| HALF
| 41
| 45
| They're shooting 60%, we're shooting 40%. We're staying close from the line, where we are 11-12 after having drawn 8 fouls in the half. Ball State is 6-9, also drawing 8 fouls on us.
Their PG Rowe scores 11, PF Wheeler 9, SF Minoff 8. The 3 combine for 12-14 from the floor. House and Mendoza both have 9 for us. Cooper 5, Bright and Watson 4 each.
Both teams have foul problems. Ball State has 2 fouls on Rowe and 2 on Kapono(starting PG and Center). We have 2 fouls on Murphy and House, and Watson picked up his 3rd foul late in the half. I'm starting Grundy at center this half. Keller and Watson will be our bench big men.
|
2
| 15:30
| 52
| 51
| Cooper with 2 3's and a layup to put us in the lead for the first time since 2-0!
|
2
| 12:45
| 58
| 62
| Backups are in. We have only committed 3 fouls so far this half, but all 3 have been on Bright, so he's got 3 now. We haven't drawn any significant fouls on them so far as far as the earlier foul trouble went.
|
2
| 8:55
| 68
| 75
| Their backup SF, Massey, has hit 3 3's in a row for them after we'd had the lead down to 2. Only a Keller bucket inside keeps it from being a 9-0 run. Lufkin doesn't seem to have any interest in staying within 10 feet of him even with tight defense set. Timeout Ohio.
|
2
| 7:10
| 74
| 80
| Another timeout for us. We go on a 6-1 run and cut it down to 2, they get 4 straight, including a dunk that gets the 6th man going after a turnover by Mendoza. With all the timeouts the starters are at 100%. I bring them back in(grundy isntead of watson at center)
|
2
| 3:45
| 81
| 84
| Cooper does the bulk of the work with a 3 and a layup in tranisition, House adds a tomahawk jam, we had it down to 1 but couldn't score our last trip down to take the lead. 3 point game, we just need to not let them run back up by 10 again and we can take it down to the wire.
|
2
| 3:15
| 84
| 84
| House for 3! Tie game. Timeout Ball State. House and Cooper are both right around 20 on the day.
|
2
| 2:55
| 86
| 84
| House forces the steal on a bad pass, gets the ball in transition and dunks it home to give us the lead! Another ball state timeout.
|
2
| 2:40
| 86
| 90
| Oh my dear lord. Bright with a foul allowing a 3 point play opportunity. They miss the FT and get the offensive board. Kapono goes up for a dunk and is fouled by Grundy for another 3 point play opportunity. They miss the free throw, get the offensive board and put it back in. 6 points in about 4 seconds. I call a timeout, as it should not come as a surprise to learn that this gets Ball State's crowd just slightly worked up.
|
2
| 1:40
| 91
| 92
| Kapono scores on their end and House begins to take over for us, hitting an open 3 our next time down, getting a rebound on the defensive end, making the outlet pass, setting up quickly and blowing by his man for a dunk, 5 straight for House and the lead is back down to 1.
|
2
| 1:10
| 93
| 92
| House triggers our next trip with another defensive rebound, feeding Cooper who kicks it forward to a streaking Grundy for a dunk!! We're up 1, 1:10 to go. Kapono took a 20 foot jumper there, so Grundy was out near the 3 point line to get out on the break, and he's pretty damn fast for a big man. He was actually up ahead of cooper, not a secondary break type play.
|
2
| 0:46
| 93
| 94
| They work the ball into SF Minoff who gets a little hook shot near the basket to fall. I call a timeout to back their press off. We're now out of timeouts. Ball State has 1 left.
|
2
| 0:41
| 93
| 96
| Rowe goes for a steal as soon as we get to the top of the key, reaches in. That is their 7th foul, 1 and 1 coming for us (we have 8 fouls or so, more than them this half after that stupid 6 point play) Murphy MISSES the first. We have to foul when they get the board. The foul is our 9th. Edelin makes both Fts for them and we get the ball back down 3.
|
2
| 0:22
| 95
| 97
| House hits a midrange jumper. We foul on the inbounds. Rowe misses the first, makes the second. We trail by 2 with the ball.
|
I get the ball to house in the middle of their 3-2 defense, he goes up strong but misses and they don't foul. House grabs the board, I kick it back out and do the exact same thing again, Kapono gets the shot block on House and they get the rebound with 4 seconds to go. I foul, they make both, and its over.
I can't complain. I got my most explosive player the ball in a favorable spot twice to try to tie the game. Their defense was up to the task.
Ball State 99
Ohio 95
Not a totally unexpected result, they weren't going to let us run over them in their building. They get outstanding balance. 12 from PG Rowe, 12 from SG Edelin, 14 from SF Minoff, 17 from PF Wheeler, 15 from C Kapono, and 14 from backup SF Massey.
They shot extremely well all game, 40-63, almost 66%. They were 4-10 from 3 and 15-22 from the line.
Ohio countered with a 34-64 performance but was an incredible 12-20 from behind the arc. We were 15-20 from the line, so those numbers ended up equal.
Murphy: 1 point
Cooper: 20 points (4-7 from 3)
House: 26 points/5 boards (3-3 from 3)
Bright: 7 points/5 boards
Watson: 6 points/4 boards/4 assists
Mendoza: 13 points
Lufkin: 9 points
Grundy: 6 points/7 boards
A tough game, cannot complain about this loss at all though, espicially with the conference 1 seed already locked up.