The Bobcats will get another shot at Miami.
Co-captains Mychal Green and Jeff Halbert continued their hot shooting last night, delivering an offensive knockout of Central Michigan and setting up a showdown with the rival RedHawks on Thursday night.
Behind the senior leadership of Green and Halbert the Bobcats (18-10) exploded early against the Chippewas (4-24), dominating from beginning to end for an 82-53 first round Mid-American Conference Tournament win.
As a senior when I lose I'm done
Green said. So I got to go out play as hard as I can and be aggressive.
During the opening minutes the Bobcats provided fans with thoughts of another rout of the Chippewas, mirroring the teams' regular season contest when Ohio held Central Michigan to seven first-half points.
We're coming around now Ohio coach Tim O'Shea said. We got some confidence and a neutral court is nobody's home court. That's one of the advantages you have when you go to Cleveland ... I like what I've seen the last two games.
Halbert scored the first nine points of the game for Ohio as the Bobcats used a 22-2 run en route to an early 28-7 lead.
I think I saw Jeff hit three (shots) in a row
Green said. At first I just wanted to keep feeding him. I told him we were trying to get him 30.
The Chippewas closed the gap to 10 points midway through the first half after a 13-2 run, but a Green spurt of 11 straight points to end the half gave Ohio a 50-32 lead at the break.
Our lead kind of slipped today
Green said. We were up big and they cut it to 10 ... But we just pushed it right back out. A lot of times that's just the product of the home crowd.
Green and Halbert paced the 'Cats offensive efforts, combining to outscore the Chippewas 33-32 during the first 20 minutes.
I'm really happy to see Jeff and Mychal
as seniors
the way they've played the last two games
O'Shea said. They'll have great memories of their last couple games at The Convo.
Ohio's advantage continued to balloon after halftime, reaching 73-43 on a Leon Williams basket with just 8:30 remaining.
I thought we played hard
Halbert said. (We had) good defense. We crushed them on the boards.
Both teams traded baskets the rest of the way as Ohio cruised to a comfortable win in its last home game of the season.
Green finished with a game-high 25 points on 9-14 shooting, 7-11 from three-point range, while Halbert dropped 16 points of his own.
We're not going into Thursday night limping
O'Shea said. We're coming off a 37-point win and a 29-point win. We're going in with some confidence ... The key for us is we're shooting the ball well
putting points on the board.
Ohio continues MAC Tournament play 9 p.m. Thursday in the quarterfinals against No. 4 seed Miami in Cleveland's Quicken Loans Arena. Miami won both meetings with the Bobcats this season.
