AKRON, Ohio ? National rebounding leader Brandon Hunter grabbed the biggest board of the year Monday night, scoring on a Steve Esterkamp miss with 0.8 seconds remaining to give Ohio a 79-77 win over Akron at James A. Rhodes Arena in the first round of the Mid-American Conference Tournament.

The Bobcats (13-15) now advance to face the tournament?s third seed, Miami (13-14), in Thursday?s 2 p.m. quarterfinal at Cleveland?s Gund Arena.

Ohio basketball fans can pick up pre-ordered tickets or purchase tickets for the MAC Tournament at the Ohio ticket office in the Convocation Center beginning at noon on Tuesday through noon on Wednesday. Any tickets not picked up by noon on Wednesday will be taken to Cleveland. Ohio will have a satellite ticket office set up in the Renaissance hotel beginning at 8 a.m. on Thursday and will move it to the Arcade entrance at Gund at 10:30 a.m. Tickets are $28 and we only have a limited number, so order early. Fans can also reserve tickets for the semi-finals and finals with a credit card. To order tickets or for more information, please contact Shelley Binegar at 800-575-CATS or 740-593-1168.

Behind 19 first-half points from Esterkamp and 12 from Hunter, Ohio held a 41-40 lead at the break. The Zips (14-14) began the second half on fire, however, and jumped out to a 62-51 lead with 13:04 to play.

A three-pointer by Thomas Stephens and a put-back dunk by Hunter pulled the Bobcats to within six, 62-56. Then both teams traded baskets and the score remained 64-58 for over three minutes before Stephens hit a jumper at the 6:30 mark to cut the lead to four.

Two Andy Hipsher free throws extended Akron?s lead to 69-62 with under five minutes left but then the tide turned in favor of the Bobcats for good. After a Hunter dunk and a Jaivon Harris layup brought the score to 69-66 at the 3:35 mark, Hipsher missed a three-point attempt and then committed his fifth foul at the other end as Hunter scored again.

Although Hunter missed the free throw and the Zips scored on a jumper by Darryl Peterson, freshman Jeff Halbert hit a three for Ohio to tie the score at 71-71 with 2:25 to play. Esterkamp then converted a missed one-and-one opportunity at the charity stripe by Johnny Hollingsworth into a jumper that gave the Bobcats their first lead since the opening minute of the second half.

Following an Akron timeout, Stephens made a steal and called timeout as he was falling out of bounds. Harris then converted the smart play into two free throws and a 75-71 Ohio lead with 1:15 remaining. Two three-pointers by the Zips ? one by Peterson and the other by Hollingsworth ? wrapped around a Bobcat basket by Halbert, tied the score at 77-77 with just 20 seconds left.

Timeouts by both teams were followed by the Esterkamp three-point attempt that Hunter grabbed and then went up strong with for the winning score. Esterkamp finished with 25 points and six rebounds while Hunter scored 20 points and pulled in eight rebounds.

Halbert, left off of the MAC All-Freshman Team earlier in the day, provided a career-high 19 points to go along with his team-high nine rebounds. Harris also added eight points and a team-high eight assists and Stephens contributed five points and four assists. Delvar Barrett was the only non-starter to score for Ohio as he tallied two second-half points.

Akron was led by Derrick Tarver?s 22 points while Peterson and Hollingsworth added 15 apiece and Hipsher chipped in 12 points before fouling out.

Postgame quotes from Bobcat head coach Tim O?Shea:

?I have to give a lot of respect to Akron tonight. We?ve had three games with them this year that have just been incredible. I don?t know if Akron was a big rival of ours before I got here but in the two years I?ve been here, boy, the games have had a lot of passion. They?ve all been close and controversial at times but I have a lot of respect for those kids and the way they battled as well tonight.

(on the play of Ohio?s seniors) Brandon and Steve have been phenomenal during this run of really what I would call the turnaround of this team from where we were earlier in the season. It was cute today when my little girl Maddie got on the phone with Brandon and said, ?I want to go to Cleveland,? my wife said, ?I?ve never been to Cleveland,? and Brandon assured both me and them that we would actually get to Cleveland. True to his word, it was just so fitting the way Brandon and Steve turned this team around that they were the last two involved in the last play. Steve, I?ll call (his airball) a pass and Brandon caught the lob pass and laid it in with 0.8 (seconds) to go. I?ll tell you what, I like this team right now. We?ve been playing some good basketball. Now that we?re on a neutral court in Cleveland, our shot is as good as anybody?s so I hope the Bobcat fans out there listening will make the pilgrimage to Cleveland to support us on Thursday.

(on Jeff Halbert not making the MAC All-Freshman Team) Well, the credibility of that poll is highly suspect at this moment. Be that as it may, Jeff was phenomenal. He was no freshman out there. He hit that three in the corner and had 19 (points) and nine (rebounds). Steve with 25 (points), Brandon with 20, only 12 turnovers for the game. I think Thomas Stephens hit a huge three when we were down 11 and it was really kind of a desperation shot clock thing that got us to eight and really stabilized us from that point on. It was just one big play after another. Delvar didn?t play much but that was a big basket he got us just to sort of stem their momentum. We fought back and I?m just so proud of the fact that being down that many points on the road in a playoff game with everything going against us, that we could turn it around and pull off the victory. I?m very, very proud of my team.

(on the back-and-forth nature of the game) Of all the games that were on TV this year, this game should have been televised. What an entertaining game for a fan of college basketball.

(on Akron?s zone defense) It?s a trend at the end of the season. They?ve become primarily a zone team. It?s really a flat one-three-one and we were well prepared for it. I thought even when they threw a triangle-and-two at us briefly, we were well prepared for that. We scored right away. I thought our prep going into this game and really the last eight or nine games has been excellent. It?s one of the reasons we?ve had the success that we?ve had.

(on the Zips? surge at the start of the second half) I thought they were on fire. They just were hitting everything. They are that type of team. It?s kind of ironic that we?ve both ended up playing in a sort of play-in game to Cleveland because we?re two of the hottest teams in the MAC but we both went through a period of time when we weren?t playing as well. We had injuries. We had things to overcome. So these were two of the really hotter teams squaring off tonight.

(on facing Miami next) I know our team is excited. If we go down, it?s not going to be easy. Somebody is going to have to play real well to beat us right now.?

2003 MAC Tournament Pairings

Monday, March 10
First round at campus sites
No. 4 Northern Illinois 81, No. 13 Buffalo 64
No. 5 Western Michigan 78, No. 12 Toledo 64
No. 11 Ohio 79, No. 6 Akron 77
No. 7 Marshall 83, No. 10 Eastern Michigan 75
No. 9 Bowling Green 90, No. 8 Ball State 81

Thursday, March 13
at Gund Arena, Cleveland
Game 1 - No. 7 Marshall vs. No. 2 Kent State, noon
Game 2 - No. 11 Ohio vs. No. 3 Miami, 2:00*
Game 3 - No. 9 Bowling Green vs. No. 1 Central Michigan, 7:00
Game 4 - No. 4 Northern Illinois vs. No. 5 Western Michigan, 9:00*
* or 30 minutes following previous game

Friday, March 14
at Gund Arena, Cleveland
Game 3 winner vs. Game 4 winner, 6:30
Game 1 winner vs. Game 2 winner, 8:30
FOX Sports Net

Saturday, March 15
at Gund Arena, Cleveland
Championship Game, 7:00, ESPN2