March 2, 2013
Ohio (14-11, 8-5 MAC) at Western Michigan (13-11, 6-7 MAC)
We beat Western Michigan 67-58 in our 2
nd conference game this year. It wasn't really that close. We led by 17 at the half and held a double digit lead nearly the entire 2
nd half.
Scouting
PG FR Filip Nance – FR – 65 OVR – Good speed, poor quickness(88/79). Only an average ball handler, passer, and defender. Average/below average shooter (75 close/70 med/67 3). Just 4.8 ppg this year so far.
SG Hal Butler – SR – 61 OVR – 63 midrange/74 from 3, poor defense and only average speed. He'll make open shots. 5.8 ppg.
SF Raitis Townsend – SR – 73 OVR – Natural PF, 6'9” and slow. Good defense for a PF, not good enough defense to defense House in the open court. Good post player and inside scorer. 14.5 ppg.
PF Kellen Rakiecki – SR – 76 OVR – 6'8”, good rebounder, good post skills, great inside shot(95), good leaper. Averaging 8.2 ppg/4.4 rpg
C Julius Wofford – SR – 71 OVR – 6'10”, average on the boards(76 O/75 D), average in the post, only 82 inside/86 in traffic so he doesn't seem like too big a scoring threat, but with his size he is their leading scorer regardless. 14.9 ppg/7.4 rpg.
There has been virtually no improvement here over the last 2 months for Western Michigan. Here's hoping we can beat them as soundly on the road as we did at home. Everyone has a team unity edge over us at this point. 58-48 edge for WMU.
Half
| Time
| OHIO
| WMU
| Notes
|
1
| 12:40
| 13
| 15
| We're really playing pretty poorly. They're in a 3-2 defense, leaving us open looks all over the damn place, and we can't hit them. We got a couple 3's early and a couple fast break buckets but are just dead cold in the half court set since the first 3 or 4 plays. Backups are in.
|
1
| 10:40
| 17
| 19
| Western Michigan with a timeout. We've gotten two good looks inside to stay with these guys so far with the backups.
|
1
| 9:15
| 17
| 26
| They get a 3 point play and two more nice baskets inside while Flowers, Sessoms and Danelius all miss decent looks on offense.
|
1
| 7:00
| 25
| 28
| They score again to go up 11, and we finally get going. Lamkin hits 2 from the line, Sessoms gets an inside look, then Danelius, and finally Flowers with a tranisition bucket. WMU timeout as we've got it back to 3.
|
1
| 6:00
| 25
| 32
| Now its their turn to score 4 straight. I call a timeout to get my starters back in.
|
1
| 3:15
| 27
| 38
| Massey is just so off tonight its ridiculous.
|
| HALF
| 37
| 47
| This is just terrible. They are shooting 66%. They had a long stretch in the final 10 minutes where they seemd to just go downcourt, pass to a guy cutting inside and score within 5-6 seconds of crossing half court. We are shooting 33%.
Townsend has 14 for them, and Rakiecki has 12.
We have 9 from Massey but its on 3-10 shooting, 0-5 from 3. All those 3's were with no one anywhere close at all. Watson has 7, Delic has 4. I'm trying to keep Delic involved down low but he's 2-7 so far. Cooper only has 5 and has not taken many shots yet.
|
2
| 17:45
| 42
| 51
| Watson picks up foul #3. I'll leave him in.
|
2
| 14:00
| 53
| 62
| I don't think Western Michigan's 66% FG shooting is dropping any at all here. But at least we're keeping up now.
|
2
| 13:00
| 53
| 64
| Watson picks up foul #4 right before I bring my backups into the game. Townsend is killng us. I think he's up to 23 points now. Lufkin hasn't been able to touch him.
|
2
| 10:25
| 61
| 64
| And they go cold, allowing us to go out on an 8-0 run to cut the lead down to 3. We've done this before, this time we just need to keep it this way and not give them control again. Flowers hit a big 3 and a 2 inside. Lamkin with a couple buckets as well.
|
2
| 9:00
| 65
| 66
| Another WMU timeout. We had a chance to take the lead last time down but missed.
|
2
| 6:10
| 67
| 71
| UGH. We struggle to find a shot, and a Lamkin 3 is blocked, leading to a shot clock violation. Starters come back in. Townsend is just murdering us. Up to 28 for him now.
|
2
| 5:45
| 67
| 73
| We commit our 7th foul of the half, they're shooting now.
|
2
| 3:20
| 71
| 79
| Their last 3 possessions in a row they've run the shot clock down inside 10 seconds and then gotten a close range basket. Very frustrating after 30 seconds of good defense!
|
2
| 2:25
| 73
| 82
| We get 2 free throws by Massey, they get a 3 by Butler. Back on our end, Lufkin picks up a charge going hard to the basket...
|
2
| 0:54
| 79
| 85
| Feels way too late but we've got it down to 6 finally.
|
Yep, way too late. We foul with 50 seconds left, they miss both free throws and get an offensive board... just fantastic.
Western Michigan 88
Ohio 79
Winning on the road is damn difficult. And a couple losses against teams that we have more talent than is going to make the difference between a 2
nd or 3
rd place finish and a 5
th or 6
th place one in this conference.
Raitis Townsend had the game of a lifetime against us today. He was 13-15, including 2-2 from 3, on his way to 30 points. They don't go deep on their bench, with all their starters getting 30+ minutes, and all their starters scored in double figures. They shot nearly 60% for the game from the floor, even with going 4-13 from 3. Subtracting that... they were 33-50 from 2 point range. Geeze.
Massey: 15 points (4-13/0-6 from 3)
Cooper: 15 points
Lufkin: 2 points
Delic: 8 points/8 boards (4-11)
Watson: 13 points/7 boards (4-9/5-6 FT)
Flowers: 9 points
Lamkin: 7 points
Frustrating loss against a team that we really should beat more often than not. I have to wonder how much having a team unity that is 10 or more below every opponent we've played lately matters. Even with team unity effects way down, it still does count for something.