Ohio opens tournament with victory

No. 3 Ohio won a Mid-American Conference Tournament quarterfinal on Thursday in Cleveland’s Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse, beating No. 6 Ball State 77-67.

The Bobcats trailed most of the first half before taking a one-point halftime lead. They roared past Ball State in the second half to pull away for the victory.

Ball State ends its season at 14-17.

Ohio (24-8) finished the regular season on a three-game losing streak, as well as losing four of its last five, but advances to the MAC semifinals against Kent State.

Ohio and Kent State split a pair of regular season matchups.

The Bobcats received big days from Mark Sears, Jason Carter, Ben Vander Plas and Miles Brown, as the quartet combined to score 71 points.

Sears was the leader, scoring 24 points on 7 of 15 shooting, also making 7 of 9 free throws. He had 10 rebounds, five assists and a steal.

Carter added a monster double-double of 20 points and 18 rebounds in just 26 minutes of action. He made 9 of 14 shots from the field.

Vander Plas made three of his six 3-point attempts to finish with 14 points, six rebounds and three assists.

Brown also made a trio of 3-pointers in six attempts, finishing with 13 points.

Ben Roderick and Tommy Schmock each made a 3-pointer to account for the rest of Ohio’s points.

Ball State’s largest first-half lead was 21-15 with 11:58 to play before halftime.

Ohio’s 19-8 run pushed it ahead 34-29 after a Sears jumper in the paint with 1:57 left in the first half.

A late 3-pointer for Ball State’s Tyler Cochran cut Ohio’s lead 36-35 at halftime, but the Cardinals never led in the second half.

Carter scored on a putback, starting a run of 10 straight Ohio points. The Bobcats led 46-35 after Vander Plas’ layup with 18:12 to play.

Ball State rallied to within 55-51 with 9:23 left, but Ohio put the game away with another huge run.

The surge was started again by Cater, who hit a jumper for a 57-51 lead. That started a run of 17 unanswered points, as the Bobcats led 72-51 after Sears’ 3-pointer with 6:11 remaining.

The Bobcats’ largest lead was 23 points on two occasions, the final coming at 77-54 after two Sears’ free throws with 2:46 to play.

Those were Ohio’s final points of the game, as Ball State ended with a 13-0 run. However, the Cardinals only had 26 seconds left after their final points came from Payton Sparks’ three-point play.

Sparks led Ball State with 20 points and 14 rebounds. Cochran had 16 points and three assists, while Demarius Jacobs had nine points, six rebounds and three assists.