ATHENS, Ohio – Ohio came back from an eight-point deficit late in the second half to score a 69-65 victory against rival Miami on Gary Trent Day on Saturday in front of a crowd of 13,011 fans in The Convo.

Ivo Baltic had a game-high 20 points to lead the way, and Walter Offutt had a late steal and layup to give the Bobcats (15-4, 3-2 Mid-American Conference) the lead and then grabbed a key offensive rebound while finishing with 15 points. D.J. Cooper and Reggie Keely added 13 and 11 points, respectively.

Brian Sullivan came off the bench to lead the RedHawks (5-12, 1-4 MAC) with 16 points. Drew McGhee added 10 points, while the MAC’s leading scorer Julian Mavunga was held to seven points and 10 rebounds in 31 foul-plagued minutes.

“Obviously it was a heck of a college basketball game,” Ohio coach John Groce said. “We feel fortunate to win it, humbled.”

Ohio trailed nearly the entire game and was down 59-51 with 5:40 remaining after a Quinten Rollins layup. Adam Thomas scored in the paint with 3:08 remaining, putting the RedHawks up six, but the Bobcats came up big the rest of the way.

Cooper drained a 3-pointer, and after a missed Miami 3-pointer, Keely came up with an offensive rebound of a missed Nick Kellogg trey and scored through contact. He missed a free throw that could have tied the game with 1:46 remaining.

Offutt followed with the next big play, getting a steal and layup at the 1:29 mark to give Ohio a 64-63 lead. After Adam Thomas missed a 3-pointer for Miami, Ohio ran down the clock before Offutt took it to the hoop, missed, but came up with his own rebound.

After a timeout, the RedHawks were forced to foul and Kellogg knocked down two free throws for a 66-63 lead with 18 seconds left. Rollins missed a layup and Cooper split a pair of free throws with nine seconds left.

Mavunga had a follow-up with less than three seconds left, but Ohio was able to get the ball into Cooper, who hit two free throws to lock up the come-from-behind victory.

“That’s our problem,” Miami coach Charlie Coles said. “We can’t close. We don’t have any closers.”

Miami had a starter in the form of Sullivan, who scored above his average on the season with 11 first-half points. He knocked down a 3-pointer that gave Miami its biggest lead, 19-7, and after Offutt answered with a three-point play, he drained another trey.

Sullivan was 4 of 4 in the first half, including 3 of 3 beyond the arc, helping the RedHawks to a 37-31 halftime lead. He made just 2 of 10 shots, however, after the break.

“At halftime when I put the percentages up on the board, these guy’s mouths probably dropped because it wasn’t sufficient,” Groce said. “I thought when he got hit in the mouth, we responded well. … We kind of ratcheted it up.”

After Miami built a 43-35 advantage early in the second half, Ohio responded with seven straight points, including a pair of Keely three-point plays. After a Miami basket, Keely scored a third basket through contact and hit the free throw to knot the score at 45 with 10:44 remaining.

“The first half when we got our touches inside we noticed there wasn’t a lot of digging going on and there wasn’t too much help off our shooters,” Keely said. “… We took our time in the post and just went up strong and made good plays.”

A Ricardo Johnson jumper gave Ohio a brief lead before Miami came back with seven straight points on two McGhee baskets and a Jon Harris 3-pointer.

Baltic came up with a steal and layup to get the Bobcats back within one point, but Sullivan drained a trey and Rollins scored back-to-back baskets to make it an eight-point game.

“We did most of the stuff we needed to do to win,” Coles said.

The Bobcats made 24 of 51 (47.1 percent) shots from the field, including 12 of 23 in the second half. After connecting on 14 of 21 attempts (66.7 percent) in the first half, Miami made just 12 of 31 (38.7 percent) in the second half to finish at an even 50 percent for the game.

Ohio held advantages of 36-28 in points in the paint, 13-12 in points off turnovers and 15-8 in second-chance points.

Jon Smith led the Bobcats on the boards with six. McGhee had six for the RedHawks. Rollins led all players with six assists but also had six turnovers.

“I think we did a better job in the second half of tightening up just enough to get the win,” Offutt said.

Ohio moves to play against the MAC West Division with a 7 p.m. home game Wednesday against Western Michigan.