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Wilkins, Kellogg lead Ohio's comeback effort

Bobcats erase another big 2nd-half deficit to beat RedHawks


ATHENS – For the fifth time this year, Ohio came back from a double-digit deficit to earn a victory, rallying from 16 down to beat Miami, 82-75, on Saturday at The Convo.

Nick Kellogg and Travis Wilkins were the catalysts, scoring 27 and 23 points, respectively, while Maurice Ndour had 14 points and eight rebounds for the Bobcats (17-6, 7-3 Mid-American Conference).

Bill Edwards and Will Felder scored 19 each and Jaryd Eustace scored 14 points for the RedHawks (9-12, 5-5 MAC).

Miami led by as many as 18 points late in the first half and held a 47-32 advantage at the break. Their biggest lead of the second half was 54-38 on a Willie Moore layup with 15:16 remaining.

Kellogg began an Ohio 12-1 run with a 3-pointer that was followed by an Ndour layup. Felder made a free throw before a layup by Ndour and a Wilkins 3-pointer finally cut Ohio’s deficit to single digits. Ndour added two free throws with 8:35 left in the game to make it 55-50.

Felder scored Miami’s first field goal in nearly seven minutes with a layup, but Wilkins drained a trey at the other end, and after two Will Sullivan free throws, Wilkins, who made 6 of 8 3-pointers and 7 of 9 shots overall, hit another and then used a pump fake to get open for a jump shot to cut the Bobcats’ deficit to one.

“Travis has been playing well for about two straight months,” Ohio coach Jim Christian said. “Here’s the thing about Travis; he does everything he’s asked to do, every day. He comes and he shoots every day. He gets up more shots. These two [Travis & Nick Kellogg] probably get up more than anybody on the team. So the game eventually rewards you, and that’s what happens. You’ve got to put the work in, and that’s why I feel so happy for them.”

Jon Smith hit a baseline jumper to put Ohio on top, though Miami got it back quickly with a fast break layup by Geovonie McKnight. An Ndour dunk was followed by a Felder basket, and after Kellogg drained a 3-pointer, Rollins scored a layup to tie the game at 65 with 3:33 remaining.

The Bobcats finally went up for good on a Kellogg 3-pointer. Stevie Taylor found Smith for a dunk to beat the shot clock and a free throw after a Miami foul on the play made it a six-point Ohio lead.

Smith answered a Miami basket with a bucket inside and added two free throws and Wilkins one as the Bobcats went up nine with 48 seconds left. The lead maxed out at 11 on Kellogg free throws with 33 seconds left.

“I think going into halftime our team had to step it up,” Wilkins said. “We weren’t playing very well, especially on the defensive end of the floor, and that’s where we needed to step up the most.”

Ohio made 5 of 6 3-pointers at one point in the second half and finished 11 of 29 from deep. They shot 59.3 percent in the second half after making 46.4 percent of their attempts before the break.

It was Miami that was on fire in the first half. The RedHawks used an 11-2 run to take an early 13-5 lead and they later scored eight straight points, going up 23-11 on an Edwards 3-pointer midway through the half.

Eustace’s 3-pointer with 7:42 remaining put Miami on top, 30-15, and the RedHawks held their biggest lead of 45-27 on another Eustace shot form deep two minutes before the half.

“Our energy wasn’t there, our ability to get to a screen and get to shoot quickly was bad – things that we corrected,” Christian said. “But we can’t keep digging ourselves out of these holes. It’s not all us, no doubt. We played poorly, but they played really, really well.”

After a hot start – 53.8 percent shooting in the first half, including 7 of 10 from beyond the arc – the RedHawks shot 40.7 percent in the second half with only one 3-pointer made in eight attempts. They made 17 of 19 free throws overall.

“Our mindset and our energy changed,” Kellogg said. “We picked up the intensity a bit, and once you string a few stops together together, the crowd starts getting into it. Guys were a little more focused and more eager to get stops. One stop leads to another and we fed off that."

McKnight led Miami’s rebounding efforts with nine, while Quinten Rollins had six assists. Taylor matched him with six assists for Ohio. He and Smith just missed double figures in scoring with nine points.

Christian wore a green turtleneck in honor of former Miami coach Charlie Coles in the first meeting between the Bobcats and RedHawks since his death June 7.

“A long time ago, I made this commitment to him and myself that I was going to honor my friend today, because he means so much to this game, and the Ohio-Miami rivalry,” Christian said. “I just made that choice to do that, and I’ll do it every time we play Miami. I don’t want in my own heart to not remember Charlie Coles, especially with the Miami-Ohio game. I know how big it was for him. There’s not a bigger historian of this game that I ever met than Charlie Coles, who took more pride in this game than Charlie Coles. So in my own way I want to honor his memory.”

Ohio travels to Toledo to face the Rockets at 7 p.m. Wednesday at Savage Arena.








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