Sports
The Ohio Men’s Basketball season ends with a dramatic overtime loss to Toledo
By: Andrew Bowlby
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CLEVELAND (WOUB) – Just six days following Toledo’s (18-14, 10-8 MAC) regular-season finale win over Ohio Men’s Basketball (16-16, 10-8 MAC) the Rockets followed it up with an overtime win in the MAC Tournament 90-85.
An emotional game that sees the victorious Toledo head to the semifinals of the tournament to face the No. 1 seed Akron.
“It was a pretty hard locker room at the end,” a deflated Jeff Boals said. “We didn’t make enough plays to win.”
And that has been a trend in the head-to-head between Ohio and Toledo. Including the Rockets win Thursday, they have won nine consecutives over the Bobcats and 14 of 15. Ohio’s two most recent wins both came in Cleveland during the conference tournament in the 2017 and 2021 seasons.
But that success at Rocket Arena was not replicated as easily in 2025. The game also didn’t get off to a good start with Ohio being issued an administrative technical allowing for Toledo to take a free throw before the game even began. However, Bryce Ford came up short and the game in fact did start 0-0.
Just as the two regular season meetings did, the postseason one began with offensive success. Isaiah Adams made a pair of triples sparking the Toledo offense. Ohio’s scoring started with the play of its guards.
Jackson Paveletzke, Shereef Mitchell and Elmore James all contributed in the early minutes.
At 13:15 of the opening half the first stoppage of the game occurred. The pace and the rhythm both teams were in made meeting three feel eerily similar to the first two.
A couple of minutes later, a shift took place for Ohio. Aidan Hadaway, who hadn’t played in nearly two months, checked into the game. Hadaway was unlikely to play according to Boals after last week’s loss to the Rockets, but he persevered and made the return.
And it was a needed one. Immediately he gave the Bobcats a boost.
“I wasn’t planning on playing him 21 minutes, but out of necessity and the way he was feeling we left him in there,” Boals said.
Hadaway finished playing 21:33 and collected seven points. But he was also a factor on the glass with eight rebounds. Plus, his energy and compete level gave Ohio a lift when he drew a critical charge in the second half.
He also scored a late and-one in the first getting Ohio within two points. But Toledo got the final score of the opening 20 with just eight seconds on the clock from Sonny Wilson.
Maybe the best sign for the Bobcats after the first half was the defensive adjustments they had made. Boals noted after Friday’s loss that Ohio had to be better on that end of the court, and they were.
“I thought our perimeter defense was a lot better,” Boals said. “[Javan] Simmons went two for five and we wanted to make sure we doubled him on the catch.”
Simmons, who was a perfect 10/10 vs Ohio in the previous meeting but was limited in the tournament matchup. The Rockets big man scored only 10 points and had five turnovers in a game he ended up fouling out of.
The second half became the epitome of what college basketball is in March. It became a back-and-forth who wants it more game.
Toledo was holding strong ahead by a few points for the early minutes before Paveletzke gave Ohio a one-point lead at 50-49. There was never a point when one team would score that the other didn’t answer.
Following Paveletkze’s three-point play Toledo re-took the lead with free throws by Adams. Both free throws and Adams became integral parts of the story down the stretch. Adams scored 18 of his team-high 26 points in the second half. Of those, 10 came at the free throw line.
“What’s a foul, what’s not a foul? I thought that was the difference of the game,” Boals said.
Toledo attempted 35 foul shots and made 29 of them, while Ohio had 21 tries with 16 finding the bottom of the net. Both teams were fighting through a physical contest and everyone was being tested.
Midway through the second half, and at a point where Ohio needed its stars, AJ Clayton attempted just his second shot of the game and connected on a three putting the Bobcats back ahead 56-55.
At the under 8:00 timeout Toledo was ahead 61-59, from that moment on, what transpired was the sport at its best. Vic Searls delivered on a great post move and tied the game at 61 before Mitchell drained a triple keeping Ohio ahead. Mitchell scored again for the Bobcats’ and with 5:58 to play it was a four-point lead.
Much of the offense in the second half came by way of Paveletzke. With 15 points in the latter half, he pushed for the Bobcats and did everything he could.
“I was just out there playing really, I wasn’t thinking too much,” Paveletzke said. “It didn’t really matter who was in front of me, I was just out there taking what the defense was giving me.”
In the final seconds of regulation, Ohio made a defensive stand and Paveletzke drew a foul with 4.2 seconds to play. He only made one and that allowed for Sonny Wilson to also drive and draw a foul with 1.0 second left.
What looked to be a moment of triumph for Toledo was nullified with Wilson only making one of the shots and after 40 minutes, a razor close game was even at 76.
“The ending wasn’t to our favor, you’ve got to regroup,” Boals said. “At that point everyone’s tired, it’s game winning, championship plays. You’ve got to make those plays in the last five minutes.”
Clayton made one of those plays nailing a wing-three giving Ohio their only lead of overtime 81-80. But it wasn’t enough. The offense went cold in the biggest moment and Toledo closed the game with Sam Lewis.
A truly gut-wrenching result for a Bobcats team that fought back through everything the season threw at them.
“I’ll give our guys a lot of credit. They battled, they fought, I thought we competed,” Boals said.
They fought, but the harsh reality of the season being over set in. For a group picked to win the conference by the preseason poll bowing out in the opening round is certainly tough to swallow. The toughest part for Boals, is not getting a full year at full strength.
“I told them after the game, the one regret I had about coaching this team was we were only together for nine games,” Boals said. “We had a full roster for nine games.”
The other reality is that they lose significant contributors. AJ Clayton and Shereef Mitchell are both done after careers with the Bobcats. Plus, Vic Searls will graduate after one year with the program.
Now it’s too the offseason where it’s set to be a time of reflection and growth.
“Just remember this feeling because obviously we don’t want to feel it again,” Junior guard Elmore James said.