Nov. 7, 2009

Final Stats |  Quotes

ATHENS, Ohio-The Ohio men’s basketball team trailed early, but gradually pulled away from Ashland as the Bobcats picked up a 63-53 exhibition win Saturday afternoon in the Convocation Center.

Ohio’s Reggie Keely scored a game-high 15 points, while Ivo Baltic had 11 and a game-high eight rebounds. Bobcat point guard D.J. Cooper also notched a game-high six assists.

Ashland’s Justin Garris and Bylynn Hatcher posted 13 and 11 points, respectively, to go with Garris’ game-high four steals.

The Bobcats posted a strong team rebounding effort, outboarding the Eagles 48-34. Ohio also held a 13-9 edge in steals. The game was ragged on both ends at times, as the two teams combined for 56 turnovers.

"The biggest thing from today is that I was really pleased with our defense," Ohio coach John Groce said. "I felt like it could have been the best team defense we've played in my short tenure at Ohio. I was concerned with our turnovers, but I still feel like we are definitely headed in the right direction. We have some good offensive players, and we're going to be fine on that end."

The contest was tight in the first 16 minutes of action as the two teams traded leads, the last time on a 3-pointer by Tommy Freeman with 4:55 left in the first half.

Ohio pushed the lead to as many as 18 (57-39) on a Baltic layup with 7:09 left and withstood a late Ashland run that saw the lead chopped to six (59-53) on a tip-in by Kale Richardson with 3:34 remaining.

Ohio shot 41.2 percent (21-51) from the field and held Ashland to a 32.3 percent clip (20-62), which included a 16.7 percent mark from 3-point range (5-30). Neither team was impressive from the free throw line as Ashland held a slight edge (61.5-56.3 percent).

The Bobcats will kickoff their regular season at home Friday against Ohio Valley (7 p.m.).