Recap: Ohio vs. Miami-Ohio

Athens, OH (Sports Network) - D.J. Cooper finished his final regular season home game with 17 points and five rebounds as the Ohio Bobcats fended off the Miami-Ohio RedHawks for a 58-54 victory in a Mid-American Conference tilt at the Convocation Center.

Jon Smith added nine points and 10 rebounds for Ohio (23-8, 14-2 MAC) as it tied Akron for first place in the East Division standings. The win was the third in a row for the Bobcats, who went 16-2 at home during the course of the regular season.

Will Felder paced Miami (8-21, 3-13) with 20 points while Jon Harris tallied 13 points and nine rebounds. The RedHawks concluded their regular season with nine consecutive setbacks.

Miami looked like it was concocting an upset early on as it took a 28-22 lead into the intermission by holding Ohio to 6-of-32 shooting from the floor in the opening 20 minutes. However, the RedHawks could not pull away too much as they shot 37.9 percent from the field in the first half.

Miami improved to shoot an even 50 percent after the break, but the Bobcats attempted eight more field goals and sank 46.4 percent of them. Ohio also converted 7-of-10 at the charity stripe in the second stanza. Felder made a pair of free-throws with just under a minute left to cut Ohio's lead to two points, but Nick Kellogg answered with a jumper for the Bobcats that put it out of reach.

Ohio converted Miami's 15 turnovers into 18 points, while the RedHawks tallied just two points off of the Bobcats' two miscues.