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Ohio holds off Miami's rally, clinches No. 2 seed in MAC Tournament

Campbell bounces back with 25 points, 13 rebounds


OXFORD – Ohio started hot and held on to beat Miami, 67-65, on Friday night at Millett Hall, allowing the Bobcats to claim the No. 2 seed in the Mid-American Conference Tournament.

Jaaron Simmons scored Ohio’s last five points, including the go-ahead layup with 1:08 left, and Miami missed a heave from just inside the half-court line at the buzzer, but it was Antonio Campbell’s return to form after back-to-back subpar performances that boosted the Bobcats. Campbell scored 25 points and grabbed 13 rebounds.

Gavin Block, who entered early with Kenny Kaminski in foul trouble, played well enough to stay on the floor, scoring 16 points with three rebounds and three assists, and Simmons finished with 12 points and eight assists. Treg Setty had 11 points and seven rebounds.

Geovonie McKnight led the RedHawks with 22 points. Eric Washington had 10 points and 10 assists, and Chris Bryant finished with 10 points.

Miami, down as much as 18 early, took its only lead of the game on two Bryant free throws with 1:44 remaining. Simmons split two free throws only a few seconds later to tie it at 65, and after the RedHawks missed a shot, Simmons drove past the defense for two points with 1:08 to go.

Washington missed a jumper, and Campbell rebounded with about 35 seconds left. Miami elected not to foul, and after an Ohio timeout with 10 seconds remaining, Simmons missed a jump shot, giving the RedHawks one last chance. Washington let go from way out, but it was way off the mark.

With the game tied at 2 early, Kaminski and Treg Setty hit back-to-back 3-pointers and Campbell scored inside to make it 10-2. Then with the Bobcats leading 15-8, they made another run, scoring seven straight, to increase their lead to 22-8.

Bryant stopped that run with a layup only for the Bobcats to come back with six more points in a row – four of them by Block and then a putback by Setty to make it 28-10. The RedHawks cut it to 10 before the Bobcats scored seven in a row again, taking a 37-20 lead on a Campbell 3-pointer with 4:19 left in the half.

But Miami answered with seven straight of its own, and after a Block 3-pointer, it scored another seven consecutive points to end the half trailing just 40-34.

Ohio’s biggest lead of the second half was 50-38 on a Setty free throw at the 15:18 mark, but that was followed by nine straight Miami points to make it 50-47 five minutes later. The RedHawks cut their deficit to two on a McKnight 3-pointer with 8:27 to go and then again on a McKnight layup two minutes after that. It was a one-point game following a Washington triple with 3:29 left.

Each time, the Bobcats answered and kept the RedHawks from tying it – until McKnight’s layup made it 64-63 Ohio and then Bryant followed with two free throws to move Miami in front with less than two minutes to go.

Miami’s advantage was at the free-throw line where it was 14 of 15. Ohio was 9 of 10, but made up for it by going 8 of 17 on 3-pointers, whereas Miami was just 3 of 17.

Entering the day in a four-way tie for second place, the Bobcats took sole possession of the spot following losses by Central Michigan, Kent State and Ball State. That gave Ohio the No. 2 seed behind top-seeded Akron.

The Bobcats have a bye in the first round of the MAC Tournament and will face the winner of Monday’s game between No. 7 Northern Illinois and No. 10 Western Michigan in the quarterfinals at 6:30 p.m. Thursday at Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland.








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