MUNCIE, Ind. – Ball State held off a late push from Ohio to gets its first Mid-American Conference win of the season, 76-61, on Friday night at Worthen Arena.

The Bobcats (10-9, 4-3 MAC) got as close as one late after the Cardinals (5-13, 1-5 MAC) led 44-31 at halftime and 64-50 with eight minutes left.

Jackson Paveletzke had 22 points and four assists but split a pair of free throws that could have tied the game in the closing seconds. Aidan Hadaway added 22 points and seven rebounds but missed a potential game-tying 3-pointer. Javan Simmons tallied 13 points with six rebounds.

Armoni Zeigler had 28 points and seven rebounds for the Cardinals, who had not one against another Division I team since beating Louisiana 75-64 in their season opener.

Paveletzke converted a three-point play that capped a 10-1 run and cut Ball State’s 12-point lead to 67-64 with 3:07 left. He then answered a bucket by Davion Hill to put the margin at three again.

Simmons was injured while being fouled, and Ajay Sheldon subbed in to make two free throws with 1:59 to go to make it 69-68. Zeigler came up with a big offensive rebound and putback in the paint to put Ball State back up by three. Simmons answered on the other end with an offensive rebound and basket, and it was 71-60 with 51 seconds to go.

Mason Jones missed the second of two free throws, and the Cardinals fouled on the rebound attempt, sending Paveletzke to the free-throw line. He missed the first attempt, however, leaving Ball State in front.

After Ball State just got the ball across halfcourt in time, Ohio fouled Devon Barnes, who made two free throws with 19 seconds left. Paveletzke drove it in deep and then kicked to Hadaway, whose 3-ponit attempt was short. Barnes then iced the game with two fouls hots with seven seconds to go.

Leading 13-10, the Cardinals scored 11 straight points to go up 24-10 near the midway point in the first half. They reached their biggest lead of 28-13 on a Hill layup, but the Bobcats answered back with 10 straight points, cutting their deficit to 28-23 on a pair of JJ Kelly free throws.

Ball State, though, finished the half strong and increased its lead back to 13 points by halftime.

It seemed like Ohio figured things out early in the second half, using a 7-0 run to cut the deficit to 46-40 nearly right away, but Ball State eventually took its biggest lead of the second half on a Hill 3-pointer with 8:26 left.

The Cardinals survived shooting just 28.6% in the second half by making 19 of 25 free throws in the final 20 minutes and went 25 of 31 at the foul line overall. The Bobcats shot 48.1% on the night but were just 4 of 16 on 3-pointers. They went 15 of 19 at the foul line.

Kelly had nine points and five rebounds, and Sheldon scored five points. Ohio’s bench produced no scoring in a combined 22 minutes.

Former Bobcat Elmore James had five points on 1-of-7 shooting for the Cardinals.

Ohio will try to bounce back when it hosts Northern Illinois at 7 p.m. Tuesday at The Convo.