ATHENS, Ohio – Brandon Hunter was unable to convert on a last-gasp shot at the buzzer as the Ohio men’s basketball team fell 76-73 in overtime at the hands of Eastern Michigan in Mid-American Conference action at the Convocation Center Wednesday evening.

Hunter paced the Bobcats (8-13, 5-8 MAC) with his 17th double-double of the season. The senior forward recorded team highs of 18 points and 10 rebounds.

Eastern Michigan (11-11, 5-8) scored the first four points of the extra period to take a 75-71 lead with 3:06 left to play. With just 56 seconds on the clock, Hunter pulled Ohio to within two on a dunk. After JaQuan Hart extended the lead to three by making one of two free throws with nine seconds remaining, Hunter’s buzzer beater bounced off the rim an out, handing the Eagles the victory.

Ryan Prillman finished the contest with a game-high 19 points. Steve Pettyjohn added a double-double for Eastern Michigan, pulling down 12 boards and scoring 13 points.

The Bobcats ended the first half with a 41-33 advantage thanks to a 6-0 run capped by a Jaivon Harris three pointer with two seconds remaining. Early in the second stanza, Ohio’s lead grew to as much as 10 points but the Eagles fought back to take their first lead of the half with 3:40 remaining.

Steve Esterkamp finished the night with 17 points while Harris recorded a double-double, scoring 13 points and posting a career-high 10 assists.

As a team, Ohio shot 68.2 percent from the floor in the first half but cooled off in the second to finish the game with a 51.0 percent field goal percentage. From beyond the arc, the Bobcats hit 6-of-13 three pointers for a 46 percent clip.

The Eagles shot 49 percent in the game and led Ohio in rebounding 43-25.

The Bobcats will play their third straight game at home Saturday when they face Western Michigan at 1 p.m. Ohio will then travel to Akron on Sunday for a 7 p.m. match-up with the Zips, a game that was postponed from Monday night due to inclement weather and prohibitive travel conditions.

For ticket information, please call the Ohio Athletics Ticket Office at 740-593-1300 or 1-800-575-CATS.

Postgame quotes from Ohio head coach Tim O’Shea:

(on the overtime period) “We weren’t moving well. I think maybe we were just fatigued. Maybe I didn’t use the bench enough up until that point because our cuts just weren’t sharp enough the way they needed to be to score in that situation, which was disappointing.

(on Sonny Johnson and Delvar Barrett coming off injuries) It looked like Sonny was really hurting out there even though he said to the contrary. Just the way he was moving, he was really kind of limping around out there. He didn’t seem like he was really healthy to play tonight.

(on Eastern Michigan’s Ryan Prillman) What was disappointing, I think, is that his baskets weren’t contested the way they needed to be contested. I thought he was able to get that deep low-post position and just go over us and score.

(on the game’s turning point) I thought we had some turnovers – one-on-one ball-handling turnovers – where they just stripped us and went in for layups. I think there were two, maybe three, in a row like that. That really swung the momentum to them. At that point, we had a six or seven point lead and when you cough the ball up like that, the team doesn’t have to work real hard to get those types of scores. It really does deflate your team and that’s what I thought happened to us.

(on Steve Esterkamp’s turnover in the final minute of overtime) That was a high-low look. In other words, we were trying to get the ball in to Brandon (Hunter). Either we pass to the corner or we hit Steve up top who was to look into Brandon. Brandon wasn’t available. That whole right side was pretty much open for Steve to put down a goal off the dribble. It looked like he just mishandled the ball going to the basket.

(on failing to win two games in a row this season) Well, tonight was a golden opportunity. The biggest problem is we haven’t managed on a consistent basis to do what I call the little things: make free throws at a good clip, handle the ball – in other words not have a lot of turnovers – and rebound the basketball. We’ve had some injuries but that’s no excuse. We need to get those things done in order to win games in this conference. We simply have not been able to do that on a consistent basis.

(on playing Western Michigan on Saturday and Akron on Sunday) Really tough. We’ve got to go back-to-back and then we have Virginia here next Wednesday. Then we follow up with Marshall here at home (on March 1) so we’ve got to rally these guys. They have to understand that it’s a tough loss but we’ve got to show our character and come back on Saturday with good effort.”