The Eastern Michigan University men’s basketball program defeated Ohio by a score of 83-79 Tuesday night to qualify for the Cleveland portion of the Mid-American Conference tournament for the first time since 2018.
The drought ends seven years without a game at Rocket Arena. Eastern is now 9-8 in conference play. They have won five of their last six games to put themselves in this position.
Eastern started the game by leading 22-12 in the first 10 minutes. They had the lead from the time the game's first points were scored over this stretch.
The closing 10 minutes of the first half saw the Bobcats return to tie the score at 38. Eastern Michigan led by as many as 15 points in the half when they led 32-17 with 6:12 to play.
Coming out of the locker room, the game was back and forth for the first eight minutes. The Eagles led by two, 55-53.
From this point, EMU got a lead on their side for the remainder of the game. At the 5:15 mark of the game, Eastern Michigan had their largest lead of the second half, 73-61. The Bobcats cut the lead to four at the closest and went on a 7-0 run in four minutes to score 73-68.
After a back-and-forth last minute and a half in which the Eagles led by four to seven points, they pulled off the win and are on their way to the MAC Tournament after a long absence.
Statistically, Eastern Michigan was excellent across the board. Making 30 out of 58 shots taken, they had five players score in double-digits, including Christian Henry from Chicago, Illinois; Jalen Terry from Flint, Michigan; Da’Sean Nelson from Toledo, Ohio; Arne Osojnik from Ljubljana, Slovenia; and Yusuf Jihad from Farmington Hills, Michigan, who respectively had 23, 15, 14, 13 and 10 points to lead the offense.
Jalin Billingsley, hailing from Cleveland, Ohio, pulled seven rebounds to lead Eastern on the glass. Nelson had six assists and recorded three steals to lead the Green and White on defense. Terry, Osojnik and Henry had two steals, which helped EMU have 10 steals as a team to lead the way in this category in contrast to Ohio’s seven.
EMU beat their opponent on the glass again as they out-rebound Ohio, 35-28. Four players, including Nelson, Billingsley, Terry, and John Shanu II from Houston, Texas, had at least five rebounds. The teak quietly made 17 out of 19 free throws for a total of 85% from the charity strike. Eastern had a better field goal percentage, three-point percentage, and free throw percentage than the Bobcats throughout the game.
Road to Cleveland
With the win, Eastern Michigan has qualified for the Mid-American Conference tournament at Rocket Arena in Downtown Cleveland. Sitting at 9-8 in conference play, if the season ended today, Eastern Michigan would again face Ohio as the fifth seed in a 5-4 matchup. There is still one more game left in the regular season after tonight. The first game of the MAC Tournament is scheduled for Thursday, March 13.
Up Next
Eastern Michigan will conclude the regular season when it travels to Northeast Ohio to take on the Golden Flashes of Kent State University on Friday, March 7. The game will be streamed on ESPN+. If the Eagles win, they could potentially jump up to one of the top four teams in the league.
For more information on the Eastern Michigan men’s basketball team, visit The Eastern Echo’s website.
