UF men roll over Ashland with 2nd-half comeback

FINDLAY -- Things didn't look ideal for the University of Findlay at halftime. Fortunately for the Oilers, they had 20 minutes of basketball to turn things around. Findlay defeated Ashland 80-61 on Saturday, thanks to their uber-impressive second-half showing. On senior night at Croy Gymnasium, the Oilers found themselves down 43-35 to Ashland at the break, in a must-win game with playoff seeding implications. With five seniors on the squad, shooting just 38-percent from the floor and turning the ball over five times, that isn't how the Oilers wanted to go out. So, they didn't."We were a little bit disappointed with what we did in the first half there," Findlay coach Charlie Ernst said. "But, you know, I assured the guys, this is not a bad place to be right now. I told 'em that we're gonna be fine. I'm gonna call this game defensively in a way that we're aggressive, but we're going to be smart. I felt like a big key for us defensively, was we had to force them to make shots from the perimeter. They were hurting us in the paint, at the basket and with offensive rebounds."Instead of hanging their heads, the Oilers came out of the gates firing on all cylinders. After Ashland's Maceo Williams scored the first points, Findlay erupted for a 7-0 run, which quickly turned into a 16-2 stretch, putting Findlay ahead for the first time since it was 7-5. A 3-pointer by graduate senior Josh Thorbahn capped off a 5-0 Findlay run a couple plays later, and the Oilers throttled off a 10-0 run in the following minutes to go up by 18 points with 3:35 remaining in the game. "I thought we did a really good job in the second half of striking that balance of pressing and making them uncomfortable," Ernst said. "And yet we were mixing in our zone out there, and it was forcing them to take jump shots. After they missed a couple, it was like a lid fell on the rim. And then it got in their head a little bit. Even the shots they made, we were going to live with them."At the final whistle, Findlay had outscored Ashland 45-18 in the second half to notch a big 19-point win over the three-seeded Eagles. "We're a team that's been resilient all year," Thorbahn said. "Through all the ups and downs and stuff, that's gonna help in the long run. Now, there's a new season, we're gonna bank on that. We're gonna use our resiliency to our advantage, so I'm excited for it. And, I'm proud of all the guys."The Oilers were led on offense by the ever-dependable Anthony Johnson. Findlay's junior floor general scored the second-most points of his career, recording 19 on 3-of-5 long-range shooting in a team-high 30 minutes. Senior forward Jagger Landers, who ended just three points shy of breaking 1,000 for his career, finished with 13 points and three rebounds, draining two 3s. "To be honest, Jagger was questionable coming in, he's been in a boot since the Hillsdale game," Ernst said."The decision was made during warm-ups, so that's what's crazy about this. We had to decide how much do we play him, knowing if he tweaks it again, he's probably out on Tuesday. But this rivalry means enough to him, to our team and to our coaches, that we decided we'll worry about Tuesday on Saturday night."Findlay senior guard and former FHS Trojan Max Roth had 11 points and four rebounds, making the most of his senior night off the bench. Do-it-all wing Steele Meister, who was recently inserted into the Oilers' starting group, also tallied 11 and 4. Leipsic grad Mason Brandt, another senior, grabbed a game-high nine boards to go along with eight points, including a reverse all-oop slam that looked eerily similar to the one that landed him on the ESPN Top Ten just months prior to his joining the Oilers as a freshman. Senior guard Mekhi Elmore had seven points, four rebounds, and two steals. "Max really played well," Ernst said. "Mason had a couple, I mean, Mason's defensive rebounding. They (Ashland) miss a lot of shots, but the one issue you sometimes have with a zone defense is rebounding. Mason's our rebounding specialist. He got some difficult rebounds in traffic on their misses. So, while maybe he didn't score a bunch of points, he had nine rebounds tonight. Your defense is only as good as you rebound their missed shots.""Mekhi's been doing his thing all year, he's such a threat," Ernst added, "He had a huge offensive rebound put back. Mason had a huge offensive rebound tip-in. So, even when we weren't making shots we were getting a lot done."Former Trojan Javonte Hill tacked on four points and two rebounds, while Thorbahn connected on just one three-pointer, showcasing his excellent shooting stroke (42-percent over 105 career games) one final time in front of the Oiler faithful. "Of course, I don't want to forget Josh," Ernst said of his longest-tenured player. "Josh, he had a big 3 tonight, but he was tremendous on Thursday against Hillsdale. This weekend, there were a lot of senior moments. If it wasn't tonight, it was Thursday."All five seniors were able to leave their own unique mark on Saturday's big win, perhaps the Oilers' most impressive of this campaign."As a coach, you can't be happier than when that happens," Ernst said. "It doesn't always happen that way. This isn't Disney, you know, storybook ending sort of a thing, but you always hope it works out that way."Alex Kendall, who started the second half of the season at the five for Findlay, scored just one point, grabbing five rebounds and playing excellent defense on Eagles' star scorer Maceo Williams, who is second in the conference at 18.5 points per game. Kendall, along with Landers, held Williams to just six points in the second half as Findlay pulled away for the win. "You've gotta know all five players," Ernst said. "I thought, for the first time, tonight we played scouting-report disciplined basketball on the defensive end in the second half, by everyone. I thought that was a real key, knowing how to guard certain guys. So, the players deserve all the credit, because it's one thing to study it, it's another thing in the heat of the moment to do it and execute it."Williams ended with 18 points and eight boards for the Eagles, 12 coming in the first half. Big man Jason Moore poured in 14 and 9, going 5-of-7 from the floor. Cooper Davis knocked down a pair of triples, going for 10 points."We're not done," Ernst said. "This is a hungry group right now. Some people maybe have kind of put us to bed, but we've got a good team. And when we're hitting on all cylinders, we have a chance to be a really good team. So, that's the challenge. Be real excited about this win, and we've gotta wind it back up and prepare ourselves for Tuesday.""I think we're kind of starting to hit our stride now," Thorbahn added. "It's actually at the perfect time. So, our mindset is just no regrets."The Oilers wrapped up the regular season at 17-11, and end their G-MAC slate with an 11-9 record. Findlay's win cemented it as the fifth seed in the conference tournament, taking on the ODU Panthers (19-9, 3-7 G-MAC) in Columbus on Tuesday at 7. ASHLANDWilliams 8-2–18, Moore 5-4–14, Davis 2-4–10, Edwards 3-0–6, Wilkins 1-4–6, Siegfried 2-0–5, Minor 0-2–2. TOTALS: 21-16–61.FINDLAYJohnson 7-2–19, Landers 3-5–13, Roth 3-4–11, Meister 5-0–11, Brandt 4-0–8, Elmore 3-0–7, Hill 2-0–4, Thorbahn 1-0–3, Ioppolo 1-0–2, Kendall 0-1–1, Bishop 0-1–1. TOTALS: 29-13–80.HALFTIME SCORE: 43-35, Ashland.THREE-POINT FIELDS GOALS: 3-23 (Davis 2); Findlay 9-28 (Johnson 3).REBOUNDS: Ashland 40 (Moore 9); Findlay 37 (Brandt 9).TURNOVERS: Ashland 12, Findlay 8.