MIAMI ? For the second straight game, junior guard Mychal Green (Columbus) set a career-high in scoring as the Ohio men?s basketball team defeated Binghamton 67-63 in the opening game of the Florida International University Holiday Classic at Pharmed Arena on Monday. Green led the Bobcats (5-2) with 18 points.

?It?s a solid win and it?s considered a road win so the guys get that monkey off their back,? said Ohio head coach Tim O?Shea about the Bobcats? first win of the season away from the Convocation Center. ?I?m happy to get the win and move to the championship game against a very good FIU team.?

Ohio will face tournament host FIU in Tuesday?s 8:30 p.m. championship game. The Golden Panthers (6-5) recorded a 72-56 win over Colgate (3-7) in Monday?s other first-round contest.

The Bobcats led 37-30 at halftime but Binghamton (2-7) quickly gained the lead with a 10-2 run to begin the second period. To make matters worse for Ohio, starting forwards Terren Harbut (Lexington, Ky.) and Leon Williams (Baltimore) both picked up their third and fourth fouls early in the second half.

Behind Green, freshman point guard Jeremy Fears (Joliet, Ill.) and sophomore forward Sonny Troutman (Indianapolis), though, the Bobcats pushed their lead back up to 12 with 3:14 to play. Fears finished the game with 13 points while Troutman added 11 points in addition to six assists, four rebounds and three steals.

The Bearcats fought back, however, and closed the gap to three at 66-63 with under a minute remaining.

?We missed some free throws down the stretch and that really opened the door for them to get back in it,? said O?Shea. ?You could almost feel the momentum swing when that happened. I?m just glad that we were good enough defensively tonight.?

For the game, Binghamton managed to shoot only 34.9 percent (22-of-63) from the field, including 36.4 percent (8-of-22) from three-point range, and 68.8 percent (11-of-16) from the free-throw line.

Ohio, meanwhile, shot 40.5 percent (17-of-42) from the field, 45 percent (9-of-20) from behind the arc and 70.6 percent (24-of-34) from the charity stripe.

Rounding out the scoring for the Bobcats were Harbut with nine points, junior forward Jeff Halbert (White Bear Lake, Minn.) with six, Williams and senior point guard Diamond Gladney (St. Louis) with four apiece and senior center Clay McGowen (Westerville) with two.

Senior center Alex Adediran led the Bearcats with 14 points while junior forward Sebastian Hermenier added 12 and junior guard Schafer Jackson chipped in 10 on 3-for-5 shooting from three-point range.

Binghamton held a 40-36 rebounding edge thanks to 18 offensive boards. Hermenier registered the game high with 12 rebounds while Williams led Ohio with eight boards in 22 minutes of action before fouling out with 1:48 left to play.

?One area where I?m really going to talk to the guys tonight about going into this FIU game is our rebounding,? said O?Shea. ?I thought we gave them way too many second shots. I don?t think we were physical enough.?

Following Tuesday?s championship game, the Mid-American Conference season will begin with road trips to Akron on Jan. 2 and to Ball State on Jan. 5 before the Bobcats return to The Convo for a 1 p.m. showdown against Marshall on Sunday, Jan. 9.

For ticket information, please contact the Ohio Athletics Ticket Office at 740-593-1300, toll-free at 800-575-CATS or online by CLICKING HERE.