CLEVELAND, Ohio  – For the first time since 2013, the Ohio men's basketball team (15-7) is headed to the Mid-American Conference Championship game. The Bobcats upset top-seeded Toledo (21-8), 87-80, in the semifinals Friday night (March 12) inside Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse. 

The Bobcats will play the winner of No. 2 Buffalo and No. 3 Akron on Saturday, March 13. Tip-off is set for 7:40 p.m.

Ohio is now 7-1 all-time against Toledo in the MAC Tournament and it is the first time since the 2017 MAC Tournament Quarterfinals that Ohio has defeated the Rockets. 
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"I'm really proud of our guys," head coach Jeff Boals said. "We came in with a great mindset and I thought last night in our film session, we carried that over to the court. A big key was getting off to a really good start offensively. It was kind of going back-and-forth early. At halftime, we talked about it being 0-0. They've been in this situation a lot over the course of the year and we knew they were going to make a run. We always talk about bend but don't break. It wasn't pretty, but our guys ended up finishing the game and I'm really proud of them."

Junior guard Jason Preston (Orlando, Fla.) led the Bobcats with 27 points, five rebounds and five assists while shooting 11-of-19 from the field and 5-of-9 from three. Preston is now five points away from 1,000 for his career. Redshirt junior forward Ben Vander Plas (Ripon, Wis.) was dominant, scoring 26 points, grabbing eight rebounds and dishing out seven assists. Senior forward Dwight Wilson III (Tallahassee, Fla.) scored 12 points and grabbed 12 rebounds, and sophomore forward Ben Roderick (Powell, Ohio) added 10 points. 

The Bobcats shot 48.6 percent from the field and 36 percent from three, while Toledo shot 47.7 percent from the field and 20.7 percent from three.  

Ohio out-rebounded Toledo, 42-33, while Ohio scored 50 points in the paint. 

"I was just trying to do my best Jason Preston impression out there," Vander Plas said. "Playmaking has always kind of been part of my game. I feel like I've always been able to see the floor well and tonight was an opportunity that I had to make a couple more of those plays. Guys were making good cuts and setting great screens."

Preston and the Bobcats opened the game on fire with a three and would never trail. Toledo cut the Ohio lead to 22-19, but a layup from Preston gave Ohio the 24-19 lead with just over seven minutes to go. Another Preston three and a layup from Wilson III put the Bobcats up 10. The Bobcats kept battling, taking a 40-29 lead before one final Preston three at the half gave Ohio the 43-21 lead going into halftime. 

At the half, Preston had 18 points, going 7-of-9 from the field and 4-of-5 from three. Meanwhile, Vander Plas added 12 points, while Wilson III grabbed seven boards. 

The Bobcat shot 47.2 percent from the field and 50 percent from three, while Toledo shot 39.3 percent from the field and 23.1 percent from three. 

The second half looked the same as the first, with Ohio dominating in the paint. The Bobcats led by as many as 18 points with 8:33 left in the game. Down the stretch, Toledo began to press, forcing a few Bobcat turnovers as the Rockets cut the Ohio lead to six with 14 seconds to go. However, a final free throw from sophomore guard Miles Brown (Rochester, N.Y.) allowed Preston to fire the ball into the rafters as Ohio sealed the 87-80 victory. 

"I thought we played great tonight and it's good to get hot right now," Vander Plas said. "It's just everybody playing the hardest and having an unreal amount of confidence out there. We all got each other's backs out there and each of us knows that. It's easy to go out there and give it your hardest when you know the guy to the left and the guy to the right are doing the same thing."

Up next, the Bobcats will play the winner of No. 2 Buffalo and No. 3 Akron on Saturday, March 13. Tip-off is set for 7:40 p.m. inside Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse and can be seen on ESPN2.