By Mike Lehman, TTU Sports Information
ATHENS, Ohio – A late run by the home team and cold stretch on offense proved too much to overcome for the Tennessee Tech men's basketball team Sunday afternoon, as the Golden Eagles dropped its road match-up with Ohio, 81-54, at the Convocation Center in Athens, Ohio.
"I thought our guys really battled," Tech head coach John Pelphrey said. "In the second half, for about the first 10 minutes or so, we got ourselves back into it. We changed some things up defensively and tried to make it a little harder for them."
Trailing by 14 at the break, the Golden Eagles didn't just keep pace with the Bobcats to open the second half, they also outplayed them. Tech outscored Ohio 21-16 over the opening nine minutes, cutting the deficit to 11. Miscues proved costly thereafter, as the purple and gold never could claw closer.
"We had like four or five possessions in-a-row where we were getting stops and it was a 10 or 11-point game" Pelphrey explained. "We just couldn't score. It kills you when you have a breakdown in your fundamentals, with your handling, your passing and your staying on-balance. I think we had only five turnovers at halftime and ended up with 16. That's just a lot of shot opportunities you just don't get. That's 11 right there in the second half where if you convert on just half of those, which we were there early, you could have made things look a little different. That was a little bit disappointing."
After trading points over the next three minutes, Ohio mounted a 15-5 run to take complete control end the ball game. The Bobcats used is size advantage to collect the early lead in the contest and to extend it late. The home team snagged 43 rebounds to Tech's 31, with a 13-6 advantage on the offensive glass.
"For this basketball team, it's so much about training, awareness, learning from the past and being able to produce in the present," Pelphrey said. "All of that is building us for our future. We're going to have to take this, learn and hopefully put a few more things in our tool bag. There were some good moments out there, and I certainly think we tried to compete the whole way through. I'm really proud of that by our guys."
In the opening stanza, it was senior Cade Crosland providing the spark while making his second-consecutive start. He led Tech with six points at the break after a pair of triples, including a late trey to snap a 16-2 run by Ohio.
Sophomore guard Jr. Clay carried the offensive load out of halftime, scoring 12 of his team-high 14 points in the opening seven minutes. Amadou Sylla ended his night with nine points and five rebounds.
"The first seven to 10 minutes of the second half, I thought we played pretty well," Pelphrey added. "We were tough and physical on defense, we were able to get some stops and forced them to go with a smaller lineup a little bit. We were able to get some good offense on our end, but we just couldn't sustain all of that.
"That's a big topic for us that we talked about after the game, we're looking for consistency or constantly giving effort. Constantly having a great attitude and body language. Constantly putting ourselves in a situation where we have a chance to produce. We're a very young basketball team and a very young program. That's something we really, really have to work on, is trying to play with a high level of consistency."
The Golden Eagles will get an extended break from game action, with finals week upon the student-athletes. Tech will return to the hardwood Tuesday, Dec. 17 with a rematch against in-state foe Lipscomb. Tip is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. CT in Nashville.
Season tickets for Tennessee Tech basketball are on sale now. Call (931) 372-3940, visit the Hooper Eblen Center ticket office, or log on to TTUSports.com to order yours today.
Photo by Thomas Corhern
