ATHENS, Ohio – Ohio scored the first 14 points, led by as many as 25 in the first half, and although Toledo cut the deficit to single digits in the second half, the Bobcats managed a relatively easy first-round Mid-American Conference Tournament victory against the Rockets, 74-57, on Tuesday night at The Convo.

Ivo Baltic scored 24 points and grabbed eight rebounds, and DeVaughn Washington posted a double-double with 17 points and 11 boards, and he added four steals to lead the No. 5 seed Bobcats (18-14).

Tommy Freeman scored 12 of his 16 points in the first half. Ohio advances to the quarterfinals to face No. 4 seed Ball State (18-12) in Quicken Loans Arena on Thursday night.

Anthony Wright scored a career-high 18 points to go with six rebounds to lead Toledo, which played with just five scholarship players. One of those, leading scorer Malcom Griffin, left early in the second half with an injury, having scored just two points with six turnovers.

Ohio scored 17 of its 27 points off of 21 Toledo turnovers in the first half.

Baltic got to work almost immediately with two points in the paint, and neither team scored for almost four minutes when Baltic broke the drought with a layup and then had a steal and a dunk for a 6-0 lead.

Freeman scored five straight points, and Ricardo Johnson completed a three-point play for a 14-0 advantage.

Griffin finally got Toledo (4-28) on the scoreboard with a free throw with 14:03 remaining, and Jay Shunnar, who scored 10 points, connected on a three-point play for the Rockets’ first field goal of the game after they missed their first six shots with seven turnovers, making it 17-4 with 11:17 to go in the first half.

Two Freeman triples and two Washington dunks comprised a 10-0 run, and after Hayden Humes scored for Toledo, Ohio got two Reggie Keely free throws and a Washington jumper for its biggest lead, 31-6.

Toledo got as close as 15, but the Bobcats made it 41-22 at halftime with back-to-back baskets by Nick Kellogg and D.J. Cooper.

A Baltic free throw pushed Ohio’s lead to 51-29, and it the Bobcats still led by 21 after a Washington dunk with 13:08 left in the game.

From there, though, Toledo went on a run, outscoring Ohio 15-3, getting as close as 56-47 at the 9:09 mark. A Shunnar three-point play capped off a string of nine straight Rockets points.

Keely scored in the post to finally end Toledo’s run, and from there, the Bobcats began to pull away for good, going back up by as much as 18 on Baltic’s final basket with 2:42 to go.

The Bobcats shot just 36 percent in the second half and 41.4 percent in the game. They made just 3 of 19 shots from beyond the arc, all of them by Freeman in seven tries.

After making 33.3 percent of their shots in the first half, the Rockets connected on 52.2 percent in the second half.

Ohio finished with 16 offensive rebounds and held a 41-30 edge on the glass overall. It outscored Toledo 32-22 in the paint and held a 12-0 advantage in fast break points.

Cooper scored just four points on 1 of 8 shooting, but dished out nine assists.

Although Ohio did let Toledo get back in the game, the Bobcats were able to give out quite a few bench minutes in preparation of the three consecutive days it would have to play to earn its second straight MAC championship. Cooper played 32 minutes, and no other Bobcat played more than 28.

The Bobcats and Cardinals play in the final of four quarterfinal games Thursday at approximately 9:30 p.m.