By Lamont Burroughs
2 18 2025
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ATHENS, Ohio – The Ohio men’s basketball team (14-12, 8-5 MAC) picked up an exciting 84-82 victory over Central Michigan (11-15, 4-9 MAC) on Tuesday night in The Convo.
“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,” graduate student Shereef Mitchell (Omaha, Neb.) said.
Ohio shot 43.8% from the field, 48.3% from beyond the arc and went 14-of-20 from the line. Central Michigan shot 42.6% from the field, 50% from deep and converted 27-of-35 from the line. Ohio narrowly lost the rebounding battle 36-35 but recorded 15 assists to CMU’s 11. Ohio forced five turnovers, and scored seven points off them, while CMU scored three points off Ohio’s four turnovers.
Ohio was led by junior guard Jackson Paveletzke (Kimberly, Wis.) who finished with 22 points on 8-of-12 shooting, while he added six rebounds and four assists. Redshirt sophomore guard AJ Brown (Orlando, Fla.) contributed 20 points, tying his career-high at 5-of-8 from beyond the arc in the second half. Mitchell recorded 18 points, eight rebounds and six assists, including two crucial free throws in the final seconds. Freshman guard Elijah Elliott (Orlando, Fla.) added nine points, and senior forward AJ Clayton (Roseville, Ohio) chipped in 11 points with three 3-pointers.
“We took care of the basketball tonight,” head coach Jeff Boals said. “We were strong offensively, and our guys did a great job of attacking the game.”
The game was tightly contested from the start, as CMU held the lead for most of the first half. Ohio briefly took the lead on free throws from Mitchell, but CMU responded, entering halftime with a 41-38 advantage.
The Bobcats’ offense found its rhythm in the second half, with Paveletzke and Elliott igniting a run that gave the Bobcats their first real cushion. A 3-pointer by Paveletzke put Ohio up 68-64 with 8:11 remaining, followed by a deep 3-pointer from Clayton to extend the lead further.
With 4:05 left, Clayton connected on another 3-pointer off an assist from Brown, which gave Ohio its largest lead at 80-73. However, CMU refused to go away. It closed the gap in the final minutes.
With the game tied at 82-82 and 16 seconds on the clock, Mitchell calmly sank two free throws to push the lead to 84-82. The Chippewas had two chances to tie or take the lead in the closing moments, but a defensive stop sealed the win for Ohio.
“Tonight, a bunch of our guys made plays in the stretch, and at the end of the day, that’s what you do to win games, close games. You’ve got to have big players make big time plays in the stretch, and we did that tonight,” Paveletzke
Ohio returns to action on Saturday, Feb. 22, when it hosts MAC-leading Akron at home. Tip-off is set for 6 p.m. and the game will be broadcast nationally on ESPN2.
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