OXFORD, Ohio – Jaivon Harris scored a career-high 28 points Wednesday night but his half-court heave at the end of overtime fell short as the Bobcats lost to Miami 64-63 at Millett Hall. It was the third straight game that the Mid-American Conference’s oldest rivals needed an extra session to decide the outcome with Ohio winning the previous two.

The RedHawks (14-8, 10-4 MAC) led 57-47 with under two minutes to play in regulation but two free throws by Terren Harbut, a pair of three-pointers by Thomas Stephens and Harris and then two more from the charity stripe by Stephens tied the score with 26 seconds left.

Following a Miami timeout, Juby Johnson held the ball for the last shot but missed from 22 feet and the game went to overtime.

“What you don’t want to do in a situation like that is panic and start being overly aggressive with your defense and start fouling unnecessarily,” said Bobcat head coach Tim O’Shea about the late deficit. “You have enough possessions, especially with the three-point shot, to play it out a little longer so that’s why we didn’t intentionally foul. It was just a great effort to get it to overtime.”

Danny Horace gave the RedHawks an early lead in the extra session with a three-pointer from the corner.

The Bobcats (9-15, 6-8 MAC) responded with two steals and four points from Sonny Troutman to take a 61-60 lead at the 1:38 mark. Harris then answered a pair of Johnson free throws with two of his own and Ohio led 63-62 with under a minute to play.

Johnson missed a three-pointer on the ensuing possession but Stephens turned the ball over at the other end to give Miami a final shot at the win. With the clock under five seconds, Johnson drove to the basket and missed but teammate Chet Mason tipped in the rebound with just three ticks remaining.

“It’s heartbreaking,” said O’Shea. “We did a pretty good job of stepping up and helping on Juby. He missed the shot but unfortunately they got a tip-in. Sometimes when you’re forced to give help defense, that’s exactly what does happen.”

Harris took the inbounds pass and fired up a shot before reaching half-court, however, as the Bobcats’ final attempt missed its mark.

Ohio did not miss its free throws, though, making 20 of 21 attempts. It marked the best effort at the line since the Bobcats made all 21 tries against Ball State on Dec. 22, 1983.

Paced by Harris’ 13 points in the first half, Ohio twice led by 10 before the RedHawks used an 8-2 run to close the gap to four, 33-29, at the break.

Besides Harris, the only other scorer in double figures for Ohio was Stephens with 11 points to go along with his game-high five assists. Harbut (six), Delvar Barrett (six), Jeff Halbert (five), Troutman (four) and Clay McGowen (three) rounded out the scoring for the Bobcats.

Johnson and Horace both scored 19 to pace the RedHawks, who avoided losing to Ohio for the fourth straight time, a streak that would have been the longest since 1941.

The Bobcats remain on the road as they will face Butler in a 2 p.m. Bracket Buster game on Saturday and then travel to Eastern Michigan for a 7 p.m. contest next Wednesday. Ohio’s next home game will be a televised match-up against Marshall at 2 p.m. on Sunday, Feb. 29, in the Convocation Center.

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