ATHENS – Ohio snapped its five-game losing streak and kept Maine winless with a 79-57 victory Wednesday night at The Convo.

The Bobcats (2-6) built a 15-point halftime lead and were in control until the end.

Javan Simmons led the way with 17 points, with freshman JJ Kelly adding a career-high 14 points. Jalen Breath had 13 points and seven rebounds in just 15 minutes off the bench.

Ohio had not won since holding off Illinois State 72-68 on Nov. 6 in its second game of the season.

"Our guys have done a really good job of staying positive," Ohio coach Jeff Boals said. "Our staff's done a really good job of staying positive. We're nowhere near a finished product, but today was a step in the right direction."

It was about midway through the first half that the Bobcats began to take over. Leading 14-12, the Bobcats went on a 9-0 run, capped by a Simmons layup that put the lead in double digits.

A good close to the half extended the lead even more, with a Kelly layup making it 38-23, and buckets by Kelly and Simmons made it a 19-point game early in the second half.

From there, Maine only got as close as 53-40 on a Yanis Bama 3-pointer with 13:02 remaining. Ohio answered with seven straight points and pushed its lead to 20 for the first time on a Simmons jumper midway through the second half.

Breath scored a layup with 1:24 left that gave the Bobcats their biggest lead of the night at 79-54.

Keelan Steele paced the Black Bears (0-10) with 14 points, while Logan Carey scored 10 points.

Maine shot 41.8% for the game, improving from the 33.3% it shot in the first half when it was 0 of 9 from long range. Ohio finished at 46.5% overall, but where it really held an advantage was in rebounding with 20 offensive boards. Aidan Hadaway had 11 rebounds to go with nine points.

"We know that we can be some of the most physical players in the MAC, me, (Aidan) Hadaway and (Jalen) Breath, so we just wanted to dominate that matchup on the inside," Simmons said.

Leading scorer Jackson Paveletzke scored just six points on 2-of-5 shooting but had five rebounds and five assists. He has scored just 23 points combined the last three games after averaging 22 per game in the first five.

Marshall visits The Convo for a game at 4 p.m. Saturday.