Sports

Ohio Men’s Basketball’s late push is not enough as its season ends in the MAC Tournament

By: Andrew Bowlby
Posted on: Thursday, March 12, 2026

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CLEVELAND (WOUB) – Ohio Men’s Basketball didn’t have much go right down the stretch of the regular season ending the year with three-straight losses and defeats in five of their final seven. But the Bobcats had a chance to shake that off in the MAC Tournament Quarterfinal against Kent State.

Ohio (15-17, 9-9 MAC) fell flat in the second half and lost to Kent (24-8, 14-4 MAC) 86-75.

The game did not get off to a great start for Ohio with both Aidan Hadaway and Javan Simmons both picking up an early foul. Hadaway also insisted on head coach Jeff Boals using an early challenge to look at an out-of-bounds call.

Boals challenged and lost it just over two minutes in.

Hadaway was able to make up for his early mistake by catching fire offensively. He was the Bobcats offense in the first and had 10 early points that gave Ohio a narrow lead.

Kent State found much of its early offense down low through Rob Whaley Jr. and Delrecco Gillespie. They came in as one of the best frontcourt duos in the conference and showed in against Ohio.

The Bobcats had plenty going in their frontcourt, however, with Hadaway scoring complimented by strong play from Simmons. Those two combined to score the first 20 points for Ohio.

The first points from the backcourt came from Jackson Paveletzke who made a nice move before throwing the ball high off the glass. That bucket would be Paveletzke’s only in the opening half and part of a game where he struggled.

Hadaway had his best sequence of the first half when he made a mesmerizing layup followed by a corner three that gave Ohio a four-point lead and forced a Kent State timeout.

The Flashes did respond well though with Cian Medley scoring in transition and then Morgan Safford draining a corner triple putting Kent ahead 40-35 with under 10 seconds remaining in the opening half.

Ohio stole momentum late with Hadaway pulling up and knocking down a long-range three cutting the halftime deficit to just two points.

Kent State got off to a strong start in the second half and was able to begin building momentum back. Safford made a triple which built the Flashes lead up to 10 points. Kent followed that up with a fast break score and took a 10-point lead.

“The end of the first half and start of the second half really hurt us,” Boals said.

Kent State was on a 15-3 run when Boals called a timeout to slow things down. But coming back out, it didn’t get any better for Ohio. The Flashes just kept scoring and building the lead. At one point it got up to 17 and the end of the season was drawing closer for Ohio.

Things took an even worse turn after Aidan Hadaway pick up his fourth personal foul and then an ensuing technical to foul out and essentially end his Ohio career.

“Disappointed. That’s been something going on all year,” Boals said on Hadaway’s consistent technical foul problem. “I failed him, I didn’t do enough holding him accountable.”

The Bobcats wouldn’t go down without a last push though. Really, out of nowhere, Ohio found some energy and was able cut into the Kent State lead and make the final minutes interesting.

Paveletzke was scored and cut the deficit to five giving the Bobcats as much hope as they had all night. With under a minute to play, Simmons had an 0/2 trip at the free throw line and Jalen Breath picked up an over-the-back foul essentially ending the game.

Kent made late free throws and Ohio saw their season end earlier than it wanted for a second-straight season.

“I failed this team. From an accountability standpoint, I feel like I failed Jackson Paveletzke, this team, this program” Boals said. “I want to win. I hate losing.”

Kent State is off to play Akron in the MAC Tournament Semifinals on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. For Ohio, it will be back to Athens for a reset before getting set to restart for next season.