ATHENS – Ohio shot just 32.8% on the night as Akron built a 22-point halftime lead and rolled to an 86-65 victory Friday night at The Convo.

Tavari Johnson scored 24 points to lead the Zips (16-4, 7-1 Mid-American Conference). Shammah Scott had 19 points off the bench.

Jackson Paveletzke and Javaon Simmons both had 16 points for the Bobcats (11-10, 5-4 MAC). JJ Kelly scored 12 points with four blocks.

"They're a veteran team, and they make you pay for every mistake you make," Ohio coach Jeff Boals said. "Coming into the game, we worried about their threes, rebounding, transition points, and I thought the whole first half, we were on our heels."

Akron scored the game’s first seven points and was in control from start to finish. Even so, Ohio hung close until a 16-0 run, capped by a Scott 3-pointer, gave the Zips a 41-18 lead with 3:53 left in the first half.

"We got a lot of good shots in the first couple of minutes; we just didn't knock them down," Paveletzke said. "I feel like we let that affect our defense. We just got dominated tonight, and there's nothing else you can really say."

The closest the Bobcats got after that was 71-57 on a Paveletzke jumper with 7:51 left in the game.

Amani Lyles had a double-double of 13 points and 11 rebounds for the Zips. Sharron Young added 11 points.

The Bobcats went just 4 of 17 (28.6%) on 3-pointers.

Aidan Hadaway had nine points and five rebounds for Ohio.

Another tough matchup is next with a trip to Kent State at 7 p.m. Tuesday.