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Bobcats top RedHawks for the 7th straight time

Ohio advances to face another rival in quarterfinals


CLEVELAND – Nick Kellogg scored 20 points and Ohio held off Miami and pulled away in the final minute to beat the RedHawks for the seventh straight time, earning a 63-55 victory Wednesday night in the second round of the Mid-American Conference Tournament at Quicken Loans Arena.

Geovonie McKnight scored two free throws with 38 seconds remaining to get Miami within a point, 56-55, but Kellogg beat the RedHawks’ press and converted a three-point play seven seconds later. The fifth-seeded Bobcats (23-10) then closed out the game at the foul line to advance to the quarterfinals against No. 4 Akron on Thursday night.

Javarez Willis continued his run of sound outings with 13 points, while Ndour had 12 points and a team-high eight rebounds in 24 minutes.

Willie Moore paced Miami (13-18) with 16 points and 10 rebounds, while Jaryd Eustace scored 15 points and seven rebounds.

Just as it was the first two times this season, beating the RedHawks was a struggle for the Bobcats, though they did not need a second-half rally this time. Instead, the lead changed hands 10 times with Ohio finally taking the lead for good on a Willis 3-pointer with 6:24 remaining. He added another less than a minute later to make it a four-point game.

Ohio’s lead grew to five on a Kellogg three-point play with 4:01 remaining, but Miami fought back with single free throws by Eustace and Will Sullivan and then a Sullivan basket that made it 54-53 with 2:07 remaining.

After empty possessions for both teams, Ndour scored over a double team in the post to push the lead back to three with 1:10 remaining, but the points were answered by McKnight at the foul line.

Each time Ohio seemed poised to pull away in the first half, Miami answered with a run. The Bobcats went up 9-3 early on a Willis 3-pointer before the RedHawks took the lead with a 9-1 run.

Ndour had a trey that pushed Ohio’s advantage to seven at the 6:36 mark of the first half and the lead increased to 27-19 three minutes later, but the RedHawks closed to within 27-23 at the break and scored the first four points of the second half to force another tie.

Miami held its biggest lead of 43-39 on a Eustace 3-pointer with 10:49 remaining, but Taylor came back with consecutive treys for Ohio.

Still slowed by an injury, Taylor played only nine minutes but scored eight points. Travis Wilkins left the game and headed to the locker room with a shoulder injury in the final three minutes but returned to the game only a short time later.

Kellogg was just 1 of 8 from long range but went 7 of 9 inside the arc and added seven rebounds and a team-leading four assists. Jon Smith had seven rebounds, four points, three steals and two blocks.

After flashing great potential the last two weeks, Antonio Campbell missed his only two shot attempts and went scoreless.

Miami rebounded from a terrible offensive first half that saw it shoot 23.3 percent to connect on 44.4 percent of its attempts in the second half. Ohio was only slightly better in each half, shooting 26.9 and then 50 percent to finish at 38.5 percent.

The Bobcats settled primarily for jumpers, going 8 of 28 from long range but helped their cause by going 15 of 18 on free throws. Similarly, the RedHawks were 5 of 20 on 3-pointers and 12 of 16 on foul shots.

Ohio and Akron (20-11) meet in the MAC Tournament for the third straight year and for the fourth time in five years but for the first of those times, it is not in the finals. The Zips and Bobcats tip off at 6:30 p.m. with the winner advancing to face No. 1 seed Western Michigan (21-9).








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