Shereef Mitchell stepped up when Ohio needed him most against Central Michigan on Tuesday. The sixth-year guard drew a foul and knocked down a pair of free throws with 16 seconds to help the Bobcats prevail against Central Michigan, 84-82, in Athens, Ohio.
It was an important sequence for the Bobcats (14-12, 8-5 MAC), who nearly blew a five-point lead in the last two minutes.
“We needed that one. It was good coming back home to the crowd. We had a great fan base out there, and you know, they really helped us lift this up,” Mitchell said.
Mitchell finished with 18 points for the Bobcats. He was part of a high-scoring trio that finished with 60 points, as Jackson Paveletzke added 22 and AJ Brown had 20.
Most of Central Michigan’s points came from Jokobi Heady (35) and Ugnius Jarusevicius (25).
Ohio shot 43.8% from the field, 48.3% from beyond the arc, and 14 of 20 from the line. Central Michigan (11-15, 4-9 MAC) shot 42.6% from the field, 50% from deep and converted 27 of 35 from the line.
“We took care of the basketball tonight,” Ohio coach Jeff Boals said. “We were strong offensively, and our guys did a great job of attacking the game.”
Many of Ohio’s first-half points came from looks beyond the arc, drawing Central Michigan out of the paint.
Ohio’s biggest issue is how to involve AJ Clayton in the offense when his 3-point shot isn’t falling. With a missed lob attempt and a missed layup, Clayton’s been somewhat quiet since coming back from injury, shooting just 4 of 21 from the 3-point arc in his last four games, with three of those shots coming from Tuesday’s game.
While Central Michigan controlled the lead for most of the half, Ohio was just in reach, never leading by more than two possessions down the stretch, and would even reclaim the lead with Brown’s 3-pointer and a pair of Mitchell free throws, which gave him 16 points in the half.
A quick layup for Brown to end the half cut the Chippewas’ lead down to 41-38 at the half.
The second half began with Elliot pushing the pace for Ohio, scoring quickly. Notably, Ohio ran its usual eight-man rotation, while Central Michigan elected to play just six of their players.
The Bobcats regained momentum from a Mitchell stripped ball, who would find Brown in the corner for the lead. Unfortunately, fouls remained an issue for both teams throughout all 40 minutes, with 10 second half fouls in less than seven minutes left.
Despite this, Ohio continued its lead, with Paveletzke hitting jumpers from the deep paint.
Shortly after, Central Michigan starter Cayden Vasko would receive his fourth foul, now putting some danger into the Chippewas lineup, especially with their sole bench player shooting 1 of 9 so far.
The Bobcats made it a seven-point game with around 7:30 to go. Heady kept Central Michigan in a close game, and Boals compared his play this game to Steph Curry’s.
Because of the abundance of foul calls, the defense had to be light for any game flow. Clayton ended the drought with a 3-pointer after a series of three straight plays with three foul calls.
Again, Heady was the look for Central Michigan in crunch time, hitting a pair of free throws to eventually whittle the lead down to just 1 with less than a minute to go.
Ohio couldn’t convert on their end and instead called for an off-ball defensive foul. Central Michigan misses the first but makes the second to tie the game.
With the ball in possession and the game on the line, Mitchell drew the foul and hit both free throws to put Ohio up two points with few seconds left on the clock.
After the ball got batted out of bounds, Central Michigan had the ball with 0.9 seconds remaining in the game.
Heady puts up a difficult behind-the-back one-legged mid-range shot that misses, resulting in the Ohio win. In total, Ohio shot 20 free throws to Central Michigan’s 25.
The Bobcats host Akron (21-5, 13-0 MAC) at 6 p.m. ET Saturday on ESPN2, hoping to rise in the MAC rankings.
Central Michigan travels to Western Michigan (9-17, 6-7 MAC) to play at 1 p.m. ET Saturday on ESPN+.
