CLEVELAND – Ohio opened the second half with an 11-0 run and cruised the rest of the way to a 65-57 Mid-American Conference tournament quarterfinal victory against Toledo on Thursday night at Quicken Loans Arena.

Leading by just two, the Bobcats blew open the game in the first two and a half minutes of the second half, taking a 37-24 advantage on a Walter Offutt steal and layup. From there, the Rockets got no closer than seven.

D.J. Cooper finished with 18 points, dished out five assists and grabbed five rebounds to lead No. 3 Ohio (25-7) into Friday night’s semifinal match-up against No. 2 seed Buffalo. Reggie Keely and Offutt added 13 points each.

Curtis Dennis knocked down four 3-pointers and scored 17 points for Toledo (18-16). Reese Holliday had 12 points and a team-high seven rebounds. Rian Pearson, the league-leading scorer in MAC play who torched the Bobcats for 18 points and 16 rebounds in the teams’ regular season battle, was held to eight points and four rebounds.

“They know how important the first four-minute war of the second half is and we made some offensive adjustments,” Ohio coach John Groce said. “We really wrinkled up some things and we made some plays. … That got us going and jump started us offensively.”

Offutt knocked down a 3-pointer to open play in the second half, Jon Smith tipped in a miss and Kellogg got to the hoop for a basket. Cooper drained two free throws before Offutt stole an inbound pass under the hoop for an easy two points and a 13-point Ohio lead.

Holliday finally ended the run with a basket, but the Bobcats pushed out their lead to as big as 48-32 on a Keely dunk off a Kellogg steal and assist at the 12:58 mark.

“The story of the game was the start of the second half,” Toledo coach Tod Kowalcyk said. “The first half, we didn’t play particularly well, but we grinded it out. … The second half, we truly just didn’t compete for about eight minutes.”

Toledo closed its deficit to single digits, 50-41, on a Holliday layup. A Matt Smith dunk made it a seven-point game, but Cooper ended the Rockets’ 6-0 run with a pull-up 3-pointer.

After that, Ohio’s lead remained double digits until a Dennis trey closed out scoring in the game.

A dominating effort on the boards allowed Ohio to take a 26-24 halftime advantage. The Bobcats grabbed 12 offensive rebounds in the first half to two for the Rockets. They finished with a 38-29 advantage on the glass with 13 second-chance points to four.

Rebounding made up for a slow shooting start that saw Ohio make just 8 of 30 attempts from the field before the break.

“The two things for us that stood out were the fact we had a two-point lead at halftime while our offense was struggling and it was because of our defense and our rebounding,” Groce said.

After a Smith dunk on the Bobcats’ opening possession of the game, they did not hit another field goal until the 10:56 mark when Cooper drained a 3-pointer that tied the game at 8 after the Rockets had run off eight consecutive points.

Cooper’s free throws prior to that were part of a 9-0 Ohio run, capped by an Ivo Baltic jumper at the 9:36 mark for a 12-8 lead.

Toledo briefly took the lead, 15-14, on a Dennis 3-pointer, but a Keely free throw tied it. Keely scored in the post to put the Bobcats up, 22-20, and Stevie Taylor’s layup with 36 seconds put them up at halftime.

The Bobcats connected on 52 percent of their shots in the second half to finish at 38.2 percent in the game. They were 6 of 23 from 3-point range and 17 of 24 at the foul line.

“We’ve got too good of players,” Groce said. “We knew that we would shoot it better than the percentage that we shot it in the first half. Walking back to the locker room, I was like, ‘Wow, we’re up two and we played about as poorly as we’ve played this year offensively.’”

In the regular season, Toledo ended a six-game Ohio winning streak by coming back from a 15-0 deficit to start the game and then holding on to win at the end, 77-73.

Pearson grabbed nine of the Rockets’ 20 offensive rebounds in that game. This time, he was just 2 of 7 from the field with four turnovers.

“I couldn’t do what I wanted to do and it got me frustrated for a bit, but I tried to keep my teammates involved and just do what I can do,” Pearson said.

Cooper said the Bobcats were not looking to get revenge but rather just to advance in the tournament. However, Groce said the team did use the first game as motivation this time around.

“If you have any pride at all and you see any of those clips, it gnaws at you,” he said. “I knew we were going to come out with energy and motor, and we did.”

Next up is the MAC tournament semifinals. No. 1 Akron meets No. 4 Kent State at 7 p.m. with Ohio and Buffalo to follow at approximately 9:30 p.m. Friday.