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ATHENS, Ohio -- A triple-double by junior guard Jason Preston (Orlando, Fla.) paved the way for the Ohio men's basketball team's (8-6, 4-4 MAC) wire-to-wire 85-77 victory over Ball State (6-7, 4-4 MAC) on Saturday afternoon at the Convocation Center. 

Preston scored 11 points, grabbed 10 boards and dished out 11 assists, marking Ohio's first triple-double since Preston achieved the feat for the first time in his career on February 2, 2020 against Miami. 

"I don't think I've ever seen a triple-double through 3-of-16 from the field," said second-year head coach Jeff Boals. "It's one of those deals you always talk about where if you don't shoot the ball well, you can still do a lot of other things. (Preston's) impact for us is huge. To do what he did, rebound-wise, assist-wise, playing the whole second half. We were going to get him a break here in the second half during one of the media timeouts, but he didn't want one. Just a special player."

Preston was one of five Bobcats to reach double figures in points. Senior forward Dwight Wilson III (Tallahassee, Fla.) put up 18 points and added eight rebounds. Sophomore guard Lunden McDay (Akron, Ohio) scored 17 points, going a perfect 6-of-6 from the free throw line. Redshirt junior forward Ben Vander Plas (Ripon, Wis.) scored 11 points, grabbed six rebounds and dished out three assists. Off the bench, freshman guard Mark Sears (Muscle Shoals, Ala.) had 19 points, leading the way for an Ohio squad that converted 26 of its 35 free throw attempts by going 8-of-10 from the line. Sears also pulled down five boards and added two assists.

"After we lost to Kent, we had a really good film session with pretty much the guys who play," said Boals. "We talked about making contact on blockouts, making second, third effort on offensive rebounds, some things that we had not been doing. The crazy week that we had, you like to get back out there and play like we talked about the other day, but that game got canceled. You do a lot of prep coming in every shootaround. We had a 9 a.m. shootaround on Friday because of the volleyball game for a 7 p.m. game, but game got canceled. No shootaround today. I think the carryover from last Sunday's film session was really, really big. It's something we have to do on a game-by-game basis in order to win games."

Ohio outrebounded Ball State, 45-34, and tallied 17 offensive boards. The Bobcats held a decisive edge in second chance points (26-10) and points in the paint (40-22). 

Ball State won the tip, but Ohio went on an 11-0 run to start the game. The Cardinals began to battle back, cutting Ohio's lead to as low as three before Wilson III and McDay combined for six points to extend the lead back to nine. A steal and layup on a fastbreak by Preston put the Bobcats up 26-16 with 10:29 remaining. Ball State went on a 10-2 run to cut the Ohio lead to four, but a dunk by Wilson III with 3:17 remaining brought the score to 41-36. The Bobcats went into halftime holding a 46-40 lead.

Wilson III led all players at the half with 16 points while McDay added 11 points, all of which came in the first 9:15 of the game. 

Ball State opened the second half with a three, but the Bobcats countered with a 7-0 run. Ohio held a 55-46 lead going into the first media timeout. A scramble pass from freshman forward Colin Granger (Suwanee, Ga.) to a wide-open Sears led to a corner three at 14:29, which kicked off a 7-0 run by Sears. A back-and-forth flurry of baskets pushed the score to 69-60 Ohio at the under-eight media timeout. Preston secured his own rebound and scored to cement the triple-double with 2:49 remaining.

"These kids are resilient," said Boals. "The amount of change that happened this week, a lot of times kids like structure. They're a happy-go-lucky group. They went with the flow. I think it was kind of the wherewithal to go out and do what you talk about. A lot of times you talk about it but actions speak louder than words." 

The Cardinals had three players score in double-digits, with senior guard Ishmael El-Amin leading all scorers with 21 points. 

The Bobcats return to action on Tuesday (January 26) for a Mid-American Conference tilt against Western Michigan. Tip-off is set for 6 p.m. ET inside the Convocation Center. 

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