TOLEDO, Ohio – Toledo overcame a bad start and a furious rally, ending Ohio’s six-game winning streak with a 77-73 victory at Savage Arena on Wednesday night.

The Bobcats scored the game’s first 15 points, fell behind by as much as 13 and came back to take the lead in the final minutes. Curtis Dennis scored a three-point play to put the Rockets on top, 75-73, and they survived three Ohio chances to tie or win it in the final seconds.

“This one’s really simple,” Ohio coach John Groce said. “Thirty-six points in the paint to our 20, 20 offensive rebounds to our 19 defense rebounds. I don’t know what the final score was with the loose balls, but they won the loose balls. They were tougher. Bottom line. … It was the first time we have been that soft since Bowling Green.”

Rian Pearson scored 18 points and grabbed 16 rebounds, Matt Smith added 18 points, Dennis tallied 15 points and Julius Brown scored 14 points for the Rockets (11-13, 3-7 Mid-American Conference).

D.J. Cooper paced the Bobcats (19-5, 7-3 MAC) with 18 points, five assists and five rebounds but also five turnovers. Nick Kellogg scored 13 points and Reggie Keely added 11 points.

Cooper scored a bucket in the paint to put Ohio on top 73-72 with 1:35 remaining, but Dennis answered with a three-point play to put Toledo back on top at the 1:08 mark.

Ivo Baltic missed a jumper, and after a miss on the other end, Cooper missed a 3-pointer and Toledo got the rebound. Reese Holliday gave the Bobcats one more chance by traveling in celebration before time expired, but Cooper’s inbound pass to Baltic sailed out of bounds and Smith hit two free throws to seal the victory.

“The deep Cooper 3, we’d prefer he drive it obviously,” Groce said. “They defended the ball screen pretty well and shot clock, he took the shot. He had made a couple. In a perfect world, I’d rather him drive. The play at the end of the game, I haven’t watched the film yet. My kid (Baltic) is upset because he thinks he was fouled. I thought he was fouled. … Bottom line is you have to stay on your feet and catch the ball. … You can’t put the game in the hands of the official on a 50-50 call.”

After blowing a lead against Buffalo in their last game, the Rockets were determined not to let that happen again, Pearson said.

“I got my guys together and said, ‘Let’s close this game out. Let’s win,’” he said.

Toledo quickly erased a 15-0 deficit and controlled most of the game, equaling its biggest lead, 59-46, on a pair of Smith free throws at the 6:50 mark.

Executing a full-court press, the Bobcats got back in the game. They trailed 72-65 with 3:14 remaining after Holliday scored when Pearson broke the press, but the Bobcats scored eight straight points after that.

Cooper knocked down back-to-back treys to get Ohio within one and then scored the go-ahead basket with 1:35 remaining.

“We knew they were going to make a run at us and they did,” Toledo coach Tod Kowalcyzk said. “We didn’t handle the press like I would have liked, but overall, we made plays.”

Kellogg hit a pair of 3-pointer and Jon Smith added four points for a 10-0 lead. Cooper drained a 3-pointer and Kellogg scored a layup off a steal that made it 15-0.

The Ohio lead was still 14 points after a Keely three-point play at the 11:47 mark, but the Bobcats did not scored again for five and a half minutes as the Rockets ripped off 12 straight points to get within two.

A Ricardo Johnson layup finally ended the drought, but Pearson hit two free throws with 4:57 to go before halftime to give the Rockets their first lead. Pearson hit a jumper with 1:25 to go to make it a six-point game.

“(Pearson) certainly is one of the better players in the league,” Groce said. “He’s a tough cover. I was really impressed with him. He got nine offensive rebounds against our quote unquote tough guys. (Walter) Offutt and (Ricardo) Johnson are our tough guys, but he was tougher than them tonight.”

After Kellogg drained a shot from beyond the arc, Holliday scored on a putback at the buzzer to make the score 38-34 in Toledo’s favor at halftime.

Toledo’s lead reached double digits on a Matt Smith jumper at the 14:29 mark and Ohio got no closer than eight until the final five minutes.

Ohio shot 38.9 percent from the field, while Toledo connected on 43.1 percent of its attempts and was 25 of 36 (69.4 percent) at the foul line. Ohio was 23 of 29 (79.3 percent) foul shot tries.

The Bobcats forced 16 turnovers and committed 14 of their own while grabbing 13 offensive rebounds.

“I hope it’s a punch in the stomach,” Groce said. “The last time we got beat this badly and again I want to emphaisze that’s not all us. We didn’t play well, but they have a lot to do with that. We just didn’t get it done in some of the hustle statistics. The last time we got dominated in the hustle statistics was at Bowling Green and we came back and played with desperation against Buffalo. … You’re hoping they respond the same way on Saturday.”

The Bobcats round out play against the MAC West with a 4:30 p.m. game Saturday at Eastern Michigan.