ATHENS, Ohio – Winless Morgan State led against Ohio in the final four minutes, but the Bobcats outscored the Bears 11-2 the rest of the way to capture a 61-53 victory Saturday afternoon at The Convo.

Kevin Thompson’s layup with 3:56 remaining put Morgan State on top 51-50, but Ohio never trailed again after Walter Offutt answered back with a layup of his own.

Offutt led all scorers with 17 points and he added six assists. Ivo Baltic had his highest-scoring game of the year with 14 points – six of them in the final 3:01 – while adding five rebounds. Nick Kellogg knocked down the only three 3-pointers Ohio made and finished with 10 points.

D.J. Cooper assisted a Baltic layup at the 3:01 mark to put Ohio (5-1) up three, and after Larry Batsfield made one free throw for Morgan State, Baltic scored again on a feed from Cooper to make it 56-52.

Baltic was fouled after a steal and made two free throws with 46 seconds left that basically sealed the victory. Cooper added three points at the line in the final seconds.

DeWayne Jackson had 15 points and six boards and Kevin Thompson finished with 13 points and 12 rebounds to pace the Bears (0-7).

Neither team led by more than seven until the final margin.

Morgan State’s biggest lead was 13-9 in the first half on a fast break dunk by Jackson. Ohio came back to take a 20-19 lead and then scored seven straight to go up 26-19 with 2:16 left before the half. The Bears closed the gap to 28-25 at the break.

A Kellogg 3-pointer gave the Bobcats a 31-25 advantage early in the second half, but the Bears had their biggest run of the game, eight straight points, taking a 33-31 lead on Jackson free throws with 16:36 left.

Jackson scored a layup with 9:39 remaining to put his team up 45-41, while a Cooper jumper with 5:38 left put Ohio back in the lead, 46-45, with 5:38 to go.

Ian Chiles, Jackson and Thompson all split free throw attempts to put Morgan State on top 48-46, and Ricardo Johnson connected on two at the line to tie the game again.

Jackson made one of two fouls shots again and Ohio’s Reggie Keely scored in the paint before Thompson’s bucket that gave Morgan State its final lead.

Morgan State made just 14 of 23 free throws (60.9 percent) and 19 of 49 shots (38.8 percent) from the field, including 1 of 15 from 3-point range. Ohio was 19 of 52 (36.5 percent) from the field and just 3 of 19 beyond the arc, while going 20 of 28 (71.4 percent) at the line.

The Bears committed 23 turnovers, with Cooper and Baltic each finishing with four steals. The Bobcats had 18 turnovers.

Cooper was just 1 of 10, including 0 for 5 on 3-pointers, and finished with eight pounds, seven assists and four turnovers.

Ohio hits the road to face Oakland at 7 p.m. Wednesday.