ATHENS — The Ohio University basketball team stayed within striking distance of the Miami RedHawks in the second half of the Bobcats’ 69-65 win mainly through the inside efforts of Reggie Keely.
The 6-foot-8 junior forward came within one missed free throw of completing four 3-point plays in one half, all while driving to the basket against Miami centers Drew McGhee (who committed three of the fouls) and Vince Legarza (one).
“We make an effort go get the ball into the paint,” Ohio coach John Groce said. “We tried to drive it and post the ball a little more (against Miami).”
Keely finished with 11 points off the bench.
Cooper in the clutch: Ohio’s All-Mid-American Conference senior guard, D.J. Cooper, was held to three points and no baskets over the first 35 minutes, but then he got busy.
He made a 3-pointer to spark the Bobcats’ 12-2 run over the final three minutes, and Cooper clinched the victory by hitting two free throws with 1.4 seconds left to finish with 13 points.
Raining 3-pointers: The RedHawks drilled 8-of-11 shots from beyond the 3-point arc in the first half, an accuracy of 72.7 percent. The number of treys and also the percentage were highs for one half for Miami this season. Freshman guard Brian Sullivan and sophomore guard Josh Sewell combined to go 5-for-5 from beyond the arc, with Sullivan hitting three and Sewell two.
Sullivan finished the game 4-of-9 from behind the arc for a team-high 16 points.
The RedHawks, though, did not find the same success in the second half. Over the final 20 minutes they were 2-of-12 from 3-point range.
A different Sullivan: Miami freshman Will Sullivan made his sixth start at guard this season for the RedHawks in place of Brian Sullivan, who had started the previous two games in the backcourt with sophomore point guard Quinten Rollins.
Contact this reporter at (513) 820-2197 or Pete.Conrad@coxinc.com.