Brandon Hunter's stickback of a Steve Esterkamp miss with 0.8 seconds left gave Ohio a 79-77 victory over Akron in the first round of the Mid-American Conference Tournament Monday night at James A. Rhodes Arena. The Bobcats (13-15) rallied from an 11-point second-half deficit and now advance to play 3-seed Miami at 2:00 Thursday in the MAC quarterfinals at Gund Arena in Cleveland. For ticket information, call Ohio's ticket director Shelley Binegar at 740-593-1168.

Steve Esterkamp had 19 of his game-high 25 points in the first half. Brandon Hunter finished with 20 hitting on 7-of-8 from the field and 6-for-7 from the free throw line. Freshman Jeff Halbert had a career-high 19 points. Ohio starters logged all but 16 minutes of action. Derrick Tarver led the Zips (14-14) with 22 points.