Morgan State University Athletics

Boxscore

ATHENS, Ohio -- The Morgan State Bears gave it their all, but were unable to pull out the victory and lost to the Ohio Bobcats 61-53 on Saturday at the OU  Convocation Center.
 
This one was in doubt until the final minute. Morgan State held a two-point lead following a technical foul call against OU head coach with under 5 minutes to play before the Bobcats made a final push.
 
Ivo Baltic hit baseline layup, and made a reverse layup that gave Ohio a 54-51 lead with 3:27 left.
 
MSU point guard Larry Bastfield split a pair of free throws to pull the Bears to cut it to 54-52, but a long 3-point miss by DeWayne Jackson led to a fastbreak and a basket on the other end by Baltic. The Bobcats salted the game away from the free throw line to help improve their home record to 4-0 this season.
 
Morgan State (0-7), which is off to its slowest start since 2005, outplayed the Bobcats for most of the early going and closed the half with a 6-2 spurt to head into the locker room trailing 28-25.
 
DeWayne Jackson scored 15 points and Kevin Thompson recorded his second double-double of the season by posting 13 points and hauling down 12 rebounds.
 
Walter Offutt paced the Bobcats with a game-high 17 points, while Baltic had 14 points and Nick Kellogg came off the bench to score 10 points, including three 3-pointers – Ohio's only 3-pointers. D.J Cooper added a game-high seven assists.
 
The Bears shot 38.8 percent (19-49) from the field, connected on just 1-of-15 3-pointers and was 14-of-23 (60.9 percent) from the free throw line. Ohio was held to 19-of-52 (36.5 percent) shooting and shot 71.4 percent (20-28) from the charity stripe.

MSU's next game will be on Wednesday, December 14 when they take on the UMBC Retrievers. Tip-off is scheduled for 7 p.m. at RAC Arena.