Central Michigan threw the seeding out the window and beat fifth-seeded Ohio 65-56 on Ohio's home court in the first round of the MAC tournament. Ohio finished a disappointing up-and-down campaign at 17-11 (11-8 MAC), with four conference losses coming at the Convo.

12th-seeded CMU (10-18, 6-13 MAC), last season's regular season MAC champion and tournament's No. 1 seed, had struggled all season but found its game tonight with tight defense and rebounding. Ohio cut the Chippewas' lead to two points a couple of times in the second half but could not overcome the Chips.

Missing second-leading scorer Sonny Johnson for most of the contest, the Bobcats could not find offensive consistency and its 56-point output was the second worst total of the season. Leading scorer Brandon Hunter continued with his offensive slump, tallying only four points for his third consecutive game of single digits.

Bobcat junior forward Steve Esterkamp led Ohio with 18 points, but only Patrick Flomo (10 points) joined him in double digits.

Ohio coach Tim O'Shea said he was disappointed in the team's effort as a whole, and said he felt for seniors Jason Crawford, Flomo, Alex Liatsos and Jon Sanderson, who each played in their final collegiate game. Flomo and Sanderson were two bright spots at times during the sporadic effort.

"Anybody at the game knows Brandon wasn't himself tonight and that's difficult," said O'Shea. "Without Sonny we needed everybody playing like they did against Bowling Green. We needed another Bowing Green-esque type effort and that's certainly not what we got."

Simply put, the Bobcats played another lethargic game reminiscent of earlier home court losses to Akron and Toledo. CMU's J.R. Wallace, for instance, missed a free throw with 1:50 left and the Chips up five, but he was able to grab his own rebound, and Chris Kaman nailed two free throws for a seven-point lead.

Central Michigan advances to meet Toledo at Gund Arena in the MAC quarterfinals. For Ohio, it's another season of "wait until next year." Ohio has not advanced to the NCAA tournament since 1994, despite being at least in the top third of the conference tournament seeding most of the past eight seasons.

"We can take a lot from this," said Esterkamp, who will return for his senior season in next year's campaign. "This is going to energize us to work even harder over the summer. Everyone has a sick feeling in their stomach right now."