Feb. 20, 2010

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Athens, Ohio - Armon Bassett (Terre Haute, Ind.) scored 26 points, one shy of tying his career-high, and Ohio University (15-13) matched last season's win total with a 64-59 win over Wright State (18-10) on Saturday in an ESPNU BracketBuster contest inside the Convocation Center. The junior guard scored 20 points in the second half and grabbed five rebounds, his most in over a month.

DeVaughn Washington (Virginia Beach, Va.) had an exceptional afternoon as he finished in double figures for the third game out of the last four. He finished with 16 points and a team-high seven rebounds. Despite struggling from the field (0-4, all from three), Tommy Freeman (Muncie, Ind.) led the team in assists for the first time this year with a career-high tying four helpers.

"I challenged our 4 and 5s to be more of a presence offensively and told our guys I want to throw the ball inside," Head Coach John Groce said. "We were able to do that. I thought that these two guys (DeVaughn Washington and Armon Bassett) really imposed their will in the second half at both ends. Their effort, their motor...it really started with their defense. I think they kind of fed off that and both of them ultimately ended up playing well offensively because they were playing so hard defensively. A lot of times that happens...when you give everything you can defensively things will go your way on offense. There's no question that I thought these two--and our team--really imposed their will on them in the second half."

Wright State came out aggressively and went on a 10-0 run to stake them to a 12-4 lead, their largest of the game, with 13:17 remaining in the first half. The Raider run also coincided with an almost five-minute field-goal scoring drought for the Green & White which was halted by a three from D.J. Cooper Chicago, Ill.), the only one of the day for the freshman. Cooper struggled on the day after picking up his second foul nine minutes into the game. He finished with five points on the afternoon.

Todd Brown drilled a three-pointer to make it 16-10 in favor of Wright State, but Ohio answered with a 9-0 run to take the lead with 6:34 to go in the half. The Raiders continued to struggle from the field scoring only one field goal over the next six-and-a-half minutes against the harassing Bobcat defense.

However, Ohio could not take advantage and only held a two-point lead after Bassett's first three-pointer with 39 seconds left in the half. Also during that span, freshman Reggie Keely (University Heights, Ohio) picked up his third personal foul while trying to draw a charge on a Raider player. A Vaughn Duggins' trifecta with two ticks on the clock sent Wright State to the lockers with a 25-24 advantage.

"In the first half, obviously, we struggled offensively," Groce said. "I didn't like our flow and our rhythm. It is tough when you play against them [Wright State] because it is so crowded, and they do a good job of making you earn everything in the half-court."

At intermission, the Bobcats had held Wright State to only 28.6 percent shooting but had their own struggles, going 2-of-12 from beyond the arc. Bassett and Washington each had six points while Washington and Asown Sayles (McKeesport, Pa.) had four rebounds. Duggins led Wright State with 10 points and four boards.

Trailing 45-39 with 8:25 remaining in the contest, Ohio tied the game on a jumper by Kenneth van Kempen (Weert, The Netherlands) and proceeded to score five more points to lead 50-45 with 5:35 remaining. The 11-0 run saw four Bobcats contribute points and on the day, KVK finished with six points and six rebounds.

A 5-0 run by WSU tied the score at 50 with 4:29 to go, but Bassett quickly drilled a three-pointer which would give Ohio the lead for good. After Wright State scored on its next possession, Basset drilled another three that gave him 18 of the last 25 Bobcat points at that time and the Green & White had a 56-52 lead. Wright State cut the lead to two with 37 seconds left, but missed a free throw and turned it over to end the threat.

"We beat a really good basketball team today, "Groce said. "Watching them on film, as each game went by I appreciated more and more how hard they played, how tough they were, how good they were defensively and how well they executed. I thought they came out in the first four minutes and they hit us in the mouth a little bit, especially in the rebounding part of things. They got us on the glass and I thought they kind of were setting the rules to start and then five or six minutes into the game our guys really turned it on and I thought the last 35 minutes is as good as we've defended all year. Our guys did a great job of playing team defense."

For the contest, Wright State managed to connect on only 31.7 percent of their shots, one of the five best defensive performances of the season for the Bobcats. The Raiders also only managed to shoot 7-of-26 from beyond the arc. On the other side of the coin, Ohio shot 57.9 percent in the second half, hit half of their three-point attempts and made 15-of-18 from the charity stripe.

The Bobcats host their MAC rivals, Miami, on Wednesday night, February 24 inside the Convocation Center. Tip-off is slated for 7 p.m.