KENT, Ohio – After trailing by 18, including 16 in the second half, Ohio rallied to within three but could not complete the comeback, falling at Kent State, 68-61, on Wednesday night.

D.J. Cooper carried a struggling Ohio offense with 23 points, but it was not enough, and Kent State held on behind 20 points from Randal Holt and 16 by Justin Greene.

The Bobcats (23-7, 10-5 Mid-American Conference) had a chance to win the MAC regular season championship and earn the No. 1 seed in the conference tournament, thanks to Buffalo’s 74-70 victory at Akron.

Instead, Ohio is one game back of the Bulls, tied with the Golden Flashes (20-9, 10-5 MAC) and just a game ahead of Bowling Green and Eastern Michigan for an important top-four finish that would ensure a bye to the tournament quarterfinals.

“The first 15 minutes of the game, that was the game as it turned out,” Ohio coach John Groce said. “It’s unacceptable to turn the ball over 15 times in a half. … Having said that, I give them a lot of credit. They were aggressive. They came out playing like their head was under water. … Coming off a three-game losing streak, you knew they were going to get their best shot. They were terrific in the first 15 or 18 minutes of the game.”

Kent State led 39-21 with 2:28 left in the first half and was on top 53-37 with 12 minutes left in the game, but Ohio made a push.

The Bobcats did not cut their deficit to single digits until an Ivo Baltic jumper with 6:42 left that made it 53-45. Ohio still trailed by nine with 3:29 left and by eight with 2:11 to go but made a game of it in the next minute.

Walter Offutt scored a layup through contact with 1:54 remaining but failed to capitalize on a three-point play opportunity. A Kent State turnover, though, led to a wide open Nick Kellogg look at a 3-pointer that made it a 59-56 game with 1:47 to go.

Holt made two free throws at the 1:18 mark, and after Cooper missed a shot from beyond the arc, Chris Evans split a pair of foul shots to make it a six-point game again with 47 seconds left.

A turnover led to a Greene free throw with 32 seconds left, while Ohio got two at the foul line from Jon Smith without any time coming off the clock on a foul on the boxout. But that was as close as it got as the Golden Flashes connected on 5 of 6 foul shots from the line down the stretch.

“Our guys kept coming and kept coming,” Groce said. “At one point, we had 10 consecutive stops in the second half. Our defense, man and zone, was terrific. We just didn’t have enough offense tonight.”

Carlton Guyton helped spur Kent State’s early run, hitting three first-half treys that accounted for all of his points. He had two of them in the first 2:08, with the second giving the Golden Flashes, 8-5.

Cooper tied it at 13 with 13:34 left in the first half and T.J. Hall connected on a 3-pointer with 12:11 remaining to make it 16-15, but the Golden Flashes dominated the next 10 minutes, outscoring the Bobcats 24-5 in that span.

“Our kids were determined to not lose,” Kent State coach Rob Senderoff said. “We lost three straight games, we didn’t play great and a lot of people were questioning our heart.”

A Chris Evans dunk gave the Golden Flashes the lead for good, 17-16, and Holt scored a layup off a steal. Two free throws by Greene and another Evans dunk capped off an 8-0 run.

The league reached double digits on a Holt layup off a Justin Manns steal at the 8:13 mark.

Holt gave the Golden Flashes their biggest lead of 18 points with two free throws following a Groce technical.

“I talked about how desperate (Kent State’s players) were going to be,” Groce said. “These kids win. They’re winners. We were going to get their best shot. We talked about it for two days and we didn’t come close to matching their energy in the first 15 minutes. … Down 18 on the road in this environment, you could fold the tents. I told the guys we’re not going to applaud you for doing it, but we manned up.”

Kellogg finished with 10 points for Ohio, while Hall and Offutt had eight each.

The Bobcats struggled in the post. Reggie Keely had eight rebounds but only four points and six turnovers. Baltic was just 1 of 7 with four points and four fouls.

“It was just too many turnovers and not enough offense,” Groce said.

Ohio shot 36.4 percent in the game, while allowing Kent State 41.3 percent shooting. The Golden Flashes ended up with 18 turnovers, including 14 in the second half. They also made just 31.3 percent of their shots from the floor after halftime but went 23 of 31 from the foul line, including 15 of 18 after the break.

“We lost to OU kinda bad the last time we played them so we had some payback,” Holt said. “We had this one marked on our calendar.”

Despite the loss, the Bobcats do hold the tiebreaker individually against the Golden Flashes head-to-head and currently are the No. 3. However, they could still finish as high as No. 2, which would get them a bye to the tournament semifinals, or out of the top four, meaning they would have to win five games to capture the tournament title.

The Bobcats travel to Miami for their regular season finale at 7 p.m. Friday.