March 4, 2010

Final Stats |  Quotes

Athens, Ohio - The Ohio University men's basketball team cruised to an 82-60 win over Bowling Green on Thursday night in the regular-season finale for both teams. The Bobcats (17-14, 7-9) will now head to Ball State for a MAC Tournament First Round game on Sunday at 2 p.m.

Armon Bassett (Terre Haute, Ind.) led Ohio with 17 points, four assists and four steals and D.J. Cooper (Chicago, Ill.) had his fifth double-double of the season with 11 assists and 10 rebounds, plus seven steals to set a single-season record for thefts (85). The freshman only scored six points for the Green & White.

Senior center Kenneth van Kempen (Weert, The Netherlands), who had eight points and eight rebounds, became Ohio's all-time leader in games played (128) on the night he was honored for playing in his final collegiate home contest.

"That was also emotional; I couldn't keep my tears in," van Kempen said. "I didn't expect to go out with five fouls, but it was definitely emotional to be done. I've had a great career here and hopefully it gets better moving into the tournament. I really appreciate what the fans have done for me."

The Dutch big man helped Head Coach John Groce earn his first win over the Falcons.

"I've said this all year and this isn't something that shows up in the stat book, but I think in terms of 4's and 5's in this league, I think he's the best defender in the front court. I knew he was really locked in when he dove for that ball in the first half."

The Bobcats, who were 9-for-18 from 3-point range, also set a school record for 3-pointers (230) breaking last season's mark.

After missing their first six shots and falling behind 7-5, the Bobcats closed the final 11:50 of the first half with a 28-8 run to go into the intermission leading 33-15.

"I think the thing I'm most proud of is when both teams combined for 6-for-32 to start the game, I felt like our defense didn't flinch, and that is a great sign this time of year," Groce said. "I thought that was probably the longest stretch of time that we maintained that level of defense all season."

The Green & White defense held Bowling Green to one field goal over 11 minutes of action (14:40 to the 3:41 mark), and set season lows for opponent's points in half (15) and lowest opponents field goal percentage in a half (18.2). The Bobcats themselves shot 52.5 percent for the game and forced 20 turnovers, one short of tying the season high.

DeVaughn Washington (Virginia Beach, Va.) began the game a perfect 4-4 from the floor and 2-2 on free throws. The junior had had made 14 straight free throws before missing one tonight. Tonight was Washington's fourth straight double-digit scoring game, having accomplished the feat in six of the last seven ball games.

Asown Sayles (McKeesport, Pa.) hit his second three-pointer of the year in the second half (2-4 from range this season) and finished with a career-high nine points. Every Bobcat that set foot on the floor tonight was able to score as Ohio led by as many as 35 in the second half.

Scott Thomas led the Falcons (14-15, 6-10) with 17 points and nine rebounds and Luke Kraus scored a career-high 16 points.