Men's basketball team mauled by 'Cats
Three.
That was the magic number in CMU's 93-80 loss to the Ohio Bobcats.
Three players, 3-pointers and Ohio shooting 50 percent from the floor for the third time this season was too much for CMU to handle.
"That's the best they've shot all year. We can't take away everything," said CMU head coach Jay Smith.
Ohio's offensive success combined with a lackluster defensive effort left Smith looking for answers to his team's problems.
"Obviously I'm disappointed with the outcome. We can't play that pace of basketball. We need to be still aggressive, yet having great patience. We didn't do that tonight," Smith said.
The Bobcat offense was spurred on by a flurry of 3-pointers by three players who scored over 20 points.
"We shot well and passed well. I thought we had great movement offensively," said Ohio head coach Larry Hunter.
Smith noted Central's lack of success in moving the ball on the offensive end as a key to Ohio's shooting success.
"We needed to make them defend. The three's get tougher when they don't have the legs, when they have to defend," Smith said.
Senior Forward Shaun Stonerook led the attack scoring 24 points with eight rebounds, while shooting 7-of-12 from the floor.
Stonerook saw the extra pass being key for Ohio's offensive success.
"They (CMU) have tendency to play off and we were working on making the extra pass. We kicked it around and tonight we did not have too many tough shots and we hit a bunch," he said.
Senior Sanjay Adell and Freshman Steve Esterkamp added 23 points each, while combining for 10-of-15 shooting from beyond the 3-point arch.
"That was the best Sanjay has played since he hurt his shoulder and it was good to see him get back and our two freshmen just keep getting better and better," Hunter said.
Early on, it was Central, who had taken control by jumping out to a 21-13 lead at the 13:26 mark in the first half before going cold and allowing Ohio to completely reverse the lead as it went up 29-21 by the 8:44 mark.
A 26-11 stretch to begin the second half gave Ohio a 73-53 lead by the midway point in the second half.
Although Central had cut the lead to eight it could not get closer.
In the next four minutes, CMU made another run and cut the lead back to 11, but that was as close as it would come.
CMU was led by sophomore guard David Webber, who scored 25 points.
Other positives Smith saw included the play of Tim Kisner, who finished with 11 assists, Derek Bird (11 points) and Willie Wallace (8 points).
Smith hopes to build on these positives for Saturday's game against Ball State.
"We need to roll up our sleeves and keep working. That's the only thing I know to do," Smith said.
CMU takes on Ball State Saturday at 1:00 p.m. in Muncie.
