Eastern Michigan Athletics
Eastern Michigan University
Ohio
Men's Basketball Falls in Athens, 57-45
2/7/2009 7:23:25 PM | Men's Basketball
Dobbins and Bowdry led the Eagles with 11 points each
Box score.
ATHENS, Ohio — The Eastern Michigan University men's basketball team came up with a strong effort, but it wasn't enough as the Eagles dropped a 57-45 decision to Ohio University here late Saturday afternoon, Feb. 7, in a Mid-American Conference cross-divisional game before a large crowd of 5,735 in the Convocation Center.
The loss drops EMU to 3-20 overall and 1-7 in MAC action while Ohio improves to 12-10 and 5-4 in league play.
Eastern was once again led by the tandem of redshirt sohomore Brandon Bowdry (St. Louis, Mo.-Taylor (Mich.) Truman) and junior center Justin Dobbins (Cleveland, Ohio-Glenville) with 11 points each. Senior Zane Gay (Olivet, Mich.-Olivet) added 10.
Senior Jerome Tillman led the Bobcats with 14 while Steve Coleman added 10.
The Eagles shot just 38 percent from the field (16-of-41) and made only 8-of-19 free throws (42.1 percent) while Ohio was hitting 48 percent of its field goals (24-of-50) and adding 5-of-7 free tosses (71.4) percent. Eastern once again won the battle of the boards, 30-28.
The two teams traded baskets through the early stages of the game before the Bobcats built a 17-10 lead at the 7:43 mark after scores by Tommy Freeman, Tillman and Justin Orr.
Bowdry cut the deficit to five, 17-12, at the 7:04 mark and from that point the Eagles stayed even before cutting the margin to 24-20, on a free throw by Dobbins at the 1:04 mark. Neither team could score over the final minute of action and the Bobcats held the four-point halftime lead.
Bowdry paced the Eagles with seven first-half points while Dobbins and Tyler Jones (Belleville, Mich.-Belleville) added five each. The Bobcats were led by Tilliman with seven points in the first 20 minutes.
Dobbins opened the second half on an inside field goal to cut the lead to two, 24-22, but the Bobcats bounced back with seven unanswered points to take a 31-22 lead with 16:15 left.
Eastern fought back to cut the Ohio lead to five, 37-32, when Bowdry connected on a long jump with 10:57 left, but once again the Bocats answered, this time on a big 3-point field goal by Michael Allen followed by a layup from Tillman for a 10-point advantage, 42-32, with 8:58 remaining in the game.
The Eagles would keep it under double digits for the next four minutes, but the Bobcats came up with a steady offense and some timely defense to keep the lead through the final few minutes, posting the 57-45 victory.
