Ohio Defeats 1st Place Ball State

This season for Ohio, quality wins have been few and far between. But on Saturday, they got one they they truly needed as they defeated 1st place Ball State 61-60 in Muncie, Indiana.

Ball State entered the game 13-6 overall and 5-1 in Mid American Conference. They stood in solo 1st place overall in the MAC.

The game got off to a slow start as both teams struggled to score early on. The game was tied 22-22 with five minutes remaining in the first half.

Then, Ohio decided to wake up and went on a 11-4 run to enter halftime up seven at 33-26.

One of the big factors in the first half was offensive rebounding. Despite shooting an awful field goal percentage in the first half, Ohio grabbed nine offensive rebounds which helped them get many second chance point opportunities.

In the second half, the game remained very tight. Ball State got rid of their seven point deficit and eventually took the lead.

With four and a half minutes remaining, Chris Bond stole the ball from D.J. Cooper and dunked it home to give Ball State the 55-52 lead.

But Nick Kellogg kept Ohio in the game. After Cooper made it one point deficit for Ohio, Kellogg railed off the next five points and gave Ohio a four point lead at 59-55 with 1:52 remaining in the 2nd half.

Ball State would close the deficit to two but failed to comeback in the end. Malik Perry missed a jumper with 34 seconds remaining to tie the game and Ohio went on to win 61-60.

Randy Davis hit a meaningless 3-pointer as time expired to give Ball State their final points of the afternoon.

DeVaughn Washington had another good effort as he had 16 points and was even involved in a scrum that resulted in double-technicals for both teams.

Nick Kellogg also had a good effort with 11 points but was even more important than his stat-line shows. He scored five consecutive points for Ohio in the dwindling moments of the game to help them win.

D.J. Cooper had an awful game for Ohio. He scored four points on 1-10 shooting and had 8 turnovers to 6 assists.

It is truly amazing that Ohio won this game. They shot only 36.7% from the field compared to Ball State which shot 47.1% from the field. All other key stats were very close between both teams.

The one statistic that did stand out to me though was free throw shooting. Ohio shot 19-21 from the line compared to Ball State shooting 8-16 from the charity stripe and that ended up being the difference in the game.

With the win, Ohio moves to 10-11 (3-4) and next plays February 2nd at Central Michigan.

Attendance: 3,976

Ohio's Record: 10-11 (3-4)

Next Game: February 2nd at Central Michigan

Interesting Note: Ohio is 2-0 vs. the MAC West

Key Stat: Ohio shot 19-21 on free throws