• Season 9 SuperTicker presented by BLAPP
SEASON 7

Recent Game Recaps

Epilogue, The Ninth: Only Love Can Break Your Heart

Memories

So We Meet Again

Rte. 139 - End of the Line

Hanging On

A Championship in Pictures

This Time of Year

Dotson Leads Ducks to the Sweet Sixteen

Grizzlies Overwhelmed by Orangemen

Empire

Challenge 11: Final Four Memories

By George, UConn is Dead

Butler and Us

Donning the Black and Gold

Challenge 10: Tourney Memories

The Madness of the Horizon League

The Rare Ivy League Conference Tournament

MAC Madness

Anything Can Happen in the MAAC

Challenge 9: Shock The Neighborhood

A Youthful Surprise

From Worst to First

Peers and Seers

Game 7-003: Oakland at Ohio
November 16, 2010 1:28 pm ET by Kyle Whelliston

Oakland Golden Grizzlies at Ohio Bobcats

November 15, 2010 7:00 pm
Convocation Center
BBState Stats/Recap



A TMM season is simply not complete without a trip to Ohio University's Convocation Center, This is a fact, like "horchata is delicious" or "redheads are awesome." Fact, fact, fact.



The Convo is one of the most welcoming arenas in Hoops Nation. The flags of all nations are displayed in the round domed ceiling, not unlike a scene you might see at an Olympic weightlifting venue.



We've been quite lucky with the scheduling so far; five of the first six teams we've seen are defending league champions coming off NCAA Tournament appearances. Here, we had Ohio, surprise tourney champs and Round of 32 qualifiers out of a No. 9 MAC tourney seed, and Oakland, the winners of the Badlands Conference. And unlike the others in the first weekend, these two returned virtually intact -- no coaching changes or significant player losses. OK, well, Armon Basset of the Bobcats "went pro," but there's still a ton of talent in Athens.



Tipoff!

This game was over pretty quickly. Oakland threw some early haymakers, and built a double-digit lead. Even when star 6-10 center Keith Benson, somewhat of an NBA scout magnet lately, took two fouls in the first half, the bench and the shooters kept the game out of reach. Then Benson took harms three and four when play resumed in the second half, but Ohio couldn't get close. Big mid-major road win for a team that will be right there at or near the top of a Badlands Conference that looks like it will be a lot tougher league than it may have a week ago.



Bally had a great seat, overlooking both the action and the Ohio O Zone student section. The crazy green-clad kidz didn't get to unleash the "winning team, losing team" chant, but a few of its members were in a good enough collective mood to keep Bally and me company afterwards, go to a local diner for coffee, and hang out until midnight. So a special thank you to @jscottfitzwater, @TFlickinger and @anorrisOU. I made it to Dayton by 2 a.m., guys, and somehow didn't wrap the car around a telephone pole in Chillicothe.

@midmajority Game Tweets


19:13 Nick Kellogg for 3 to open up the scoring for Ohio. 3-2 Bobcats. Sack-o-groceries!
19:15 Larry Wright made a #omgDUNX for Oakland. There will be some of those tonight, especially with Keith Benson out there!
19:16 Yo! RT @Peter_R_Casey He's baaaaack. Enjoy, KW. RT @midmajority: Tipoff time in Athens. http://img.ly/2ro9
19:20 RT @ballybasketball: Look at me! I'm in a luck shory presser box! http://img.ly/2rog
19:22 Physical, athletic, end-to-end ball early on; 6-6 Ohio and Oakland at 13:46 1H. MAC and Badlands champions collide!
19:27 Ledrick Eackles OAK running roughshod over Ohio for past few minutes, fans booing a perceived lack of callage. G'Griz pop open a 13-6 lead.
19:37 G'Griz up 20-6 at 7:48, generally faster, higher, stronger so far tonight. But big man Keith Benson has 2 fouls, let's see if lead holds up.
19:41 #omgDUNX by the original artist! DeVaughn Washington #1: http://tmm7.me/4c5
19:46 OAK still up 13. 7-0 Ilija Milutinovic playing well in Benson's absence. I remember he was a big-time get, but hasn't done much in 2+ yrs.
19:53 Milu with a bunny j, and Oakland is doubling up Ohio like R. Kelly. 32-16, just under two to go before the half.
19:58 RT @ia_bronco53: @midmajority #oakland better watch out. #SDSU looked dam tough yesterday against #Iowa. might get killed on the boards though
19:59 Judging based on a minimal data set (20 minutes), Oakland looks like a pretty complete package. Size, speed, skill & toughness.
20:03 Halftime! Oakland 35, Ohio 24. I just had to put my extensive scorephone experience into practice. I am smooth.
20:04 RT @chrislittmann: @midmajority An 11-point lead w/out Benson for an awful long time in that one.
20:04 Ohio dance team. A little down from the Title R/Napoleon Dynamite glory days. There's also a dude. http://img.ly/2rp2
20:08 Your @AtlanticSun RLU Watch - Virginia 31 USC Upstate 28 HT; Kennesaw State 21 Georgia Tech 13 9:47 1H.
20:11 Catching up with a little #pixelvision at halftime. Looks like we've got some Columbia-UMES action going on over there!
20:21 And Benson picks up a quick 3rd right as the second half begins, stays in, hits a shortie. 37-26 OAK at 18:19 2H.
20:22 Halftime was xtra long because they stopped the clock for some reason. I almost started posting twitpics of my shoes again.
20:24 Four on Benson, Washington draws an o-foul out of him. Ohio's cut it to seven. Definitely will not be a Horchata Song type of game.
20:27 RT @DanSpears: @midmajority @AtlanticSun Kennesaw 36, GT 18. #disasterimpending
20:28 Dance For Your Dinner. To "Canned Heat," of course. #spiritof2005 http://img.ly/2rpj
20:31 That had not crossed my mind. #lie RT @jskarp @midmajority This means you HAVE to rehash your blog about your trip to Preston, right? Right.
20:33 DJ Cooper is keeping this game from being a real Asswhompathon. A number of invisible Bobcats tonight. Still, 48-34 OAK at 13 min mark.
20:35 RT @sevenandsevens: @midmajority RT @WCC_Commish Telling: 65 MBB games by the 6 "equity" conferences so far, 5 on road. i.e. we need "Tip off Marathon" events
20:36 Every day is a 24-hr hoops marathon at TMM, but you are invited to come watch the games (at least the ones The Robot lets you). #pixelvision
20:40 OAK 53-37 at 11:56 2H. This game is starting to remind me of the rice milk of South American kings, with a twinkling of cinnamon.
20:44 RT @jskarp: @midmajority Girls only like guys with skills. You know, blogging skills, robot skills, stitching stuffed balls together skills...
20:47 Quick reminder: Keith Benson put 22 and 15 on West Virginia the other day, and his team build a big lead without him. Now he's back!
20:49 There's a win probability spectrum: "Title R" to "dude." RT @TourneyTrip Ohio would be winning this game if they had a hotter dance team.
20:50 Always insist on the genuine article. #pixelvision® RT @TheMulv I love #pixelvision. Streamed it with ESPN 3 all weekend.
20:53 I'll be the first to say it: Ohio currently has neither the team nor the steam; this is not Old Ohio's day. #bobcatsadz OAK 59-43 7:41 2H.
20:54 Everyone knows I never, EVER get mawkish or earnest, but I really missed out little nightly Twittertron get-togethers over the summer.
21:00 Oakland cracks the 20-pt barrier. Very impressed. They have a bunch of Big Ten teams coming up, I'm going to limb it and say they steal one.
21:02 (The Michigan game, of course.)
21:13 Tommy Freeman is going a little nuts with the #superhoop, that's three for him. But Oakland is keeping it in dubl-digits. Minute-plus to go.
21:16 Minor details: Benson gets his 5th on a dubl-tech with Tommy Freeman. People are leeeeaving... (the Bob Pollard version)
21:16 RT @julia_prior: @midmajority makes me download even more #tompetty than I already own. "Walls" is my life right now.
21:16 RT @clasbury10: Thanks for the book, @midmajority. #1BS
21:17 Dayton tomorrow. Two of the first four games of #S7 are/will be in underground arenas.
21:19 Tommy Freeman has the stupidz right now. Tech vs. Benson, then an X on Reggie Hamilton. DUDE CHILL (with Ballito's Horchata®) #promotweet
21:21 Only the sadder, self-effacing version. RT @polarscribe Damn, does that mean no "Winning team, losing team" tonight? I miss that...
21:24 78-66. Final. Booing. Sadz. Lots of stuff to work on in practice for Ohio. Upside aplenty for the G'Griz of the Badass Badlands.
21:29 Kennesaw State still up by double digits late against Georgia Tech. #rlualert
21:38 Kennesaw 69-56 over G Tech, less than 4 minutes left. That's part of a 2-for-1 that Ingle had to bleed for.
21:42 Kennesaw 70, Georgia Tech 58 at 3:31. Last year's matchup? Tech won 80-55.
21:52 [RLU ALERT] Kennesaw State 80, Georgia Tech 63 | http://tmm7.me/4d2 @RedLineUpsets


Boxscore


OAKLAND 78, at OHIO 66
11/15/2010

OAKLAND 1-1 (0-0) -- L. Wright 4-9 7-11 15; W. Hudson 1-1 4-4 6; R. Hamilton 5-12 1-2 14; L. Eackles 5-11 7-9 18; T. Bader 1-6 2-3 5; I. Milutinovic 2-2 4-4 8; K. Benson 4-5 2-2 10; D. Valentine 1-3 0-0 2; R. Bass 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 23-50 27-35 78.
OHIO 1-1 (0-0) -- D. Cooper 6-19 5-12 18; T. Freeman 8-17 0-0 22; D. Washington 4-8 0-1 9; I. Baltic 1-7 0-1 2; R. Johnson 1-6 1-4 3; R. Keely 1-3 0-0 2; N. Kellogg 2-4 0-0 6; T. Hall 0-2 2-2 2; A. Sayles 0-2 2-2 2; A. Adedipe 0-0 0-0 0; E. Jacobs 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 23-68 10-22 66.

Three-point goals: OAK 5-18 (L. Wright 0-2; R. Hamilton 3-7; T. Bader 1-5; L. Eackles 1-3; D. Valentine 0-1), OHIO 10-28 (A. Sayles 0-2; D. Washington 1-1; T. Freeman 6-12; D. Cooper 1-7; T. Hall 0-1; R. Johnson 0-2; N. Kellogg 2-3); Rebounds: OAK 41 (I. Milutinovic 9), OHIO 32 (D. Cooper 7); Assists: OAK 13 (R. Hamilton 3), OHIO 15 (D. Cooper 8); Total Fouls -- OAK 23, OHIO 32; Fouled Out: OAK-K. Benson; OHIO-T. Freeman.