"You enter the day, you can either be 8-4 or 7-5," fifth-year head coach Saul Phillips said. "We certainly could have made things easier on ourselves by taking better care of the ball, but our defensive intensity was good all night long.
"We did a good job particularly on Beard. We needed to get stops and we needed to get scores and we got them. It's kind of fitting that this group would get the go ahead shot on an offensive rebound because that's kind of our identity."
Carter led all scorers with 19 points, going 8-of-11 from the field and 3-of-5 from the free throw line. Carter also grabbed nine boards and dished out three assists.
Sophomore guard Teyvion Kirk added 18 points, going 8-of-22 from the field, while also grabbing nine rebounds. Senior forward Doug Taylor added 12 points and 10 rebounds for the double-double, while also registering two blocks. Freshman guard Jason Preston also scored in double figures, recording 11 points and dishing out three assists.
The Bobcats got on the board first in the opening minutes with a floater and a free throw from Preston. Taylor would give Ohio a 5-2 lead with his first dunk of the game at the 17:14 mark, followed by a three-pointer from redshirt freshman forward Ben Vander Plas (Ripon, Wis.) moments after he entered the game, giving Ohio the early 8-2 lead.
FIU cut the Ohio lead to three with 14:41 left before Ohio wentt on a 6-0 run, capped by another Taylor dunk, putting Ohio up 16-7 with 12:25 left in the half.
After FIU worked the Ohio lead down to three with 9:27 left, back-to-back baskets from Carter gave Ohio a 24-17 lead. A few moments later, a put-back basket from Vander Plas stretched the Ohio lead to nine with just over seven minutes to go in the half.
FIU then hit back-to-back three pointers to go along with a layup to cut the Bobcats' lead to one point with 5:21 left in the half. A layup from Kirk sparked a 10-0 run for the Bobcats over the next two minutes, giving Ohio a 36-25 lead with 2:39 left. FIU went on to hit two threes before the end of the half, sending the teams to the locker rooms with the Bobcats leading 38-31.
At the half, the Bobcats shot 50.0 from the field, 14.0 percent from three and 60.0 percent from the free throw line, compared to FIU's 37.0 percent from the field, 32.0 percent from three-point range and 60.0 percent from the free throw line.
The Bobcats also out-rebounded the Panthers 24-14, dished out eight assists and had two blocks. Ohio forced FIU to turn the ball over 11 times and scored 17 points off of them, while the Panthers capitalized on nine Ohio turnovers, turning them into 10 points
The Bobcats took an 11-point lead to open the second half and nudged it to 12 with 16:27 left after hitting a free throw. However, FIU then went on a 7-0 run to cut the Ohio lead to five before senior guard/forward Gavin Block drained a three-pointer with 12:54 to go, bringing Ohio's lead to 51-43.
After the Bobcats stretched the lead to 10 once again, FIU went on another run, erasing the Bobcats' lead to take a 54-53 lead with 8:19 left in the game.
Both teams traded baskets over the next four minutes before a basket from the Panthers gave them a three-point lead with 3:52 left. A Carter field goal then cut the deficit to one, and a free throw with 1:06 left tied the game at 66-66.
After a defensive stop, the Bobcats got the ball back with 10.7 seconds to go. Kirk then released a jumper that missed the basket, but Carter grabbed an offensive board and tallied on a put-back basket to put Ohio up 68-66 with 2.6 seconds left. FIU was unable to get a shot at the buzzer to go in, securing Ohio's 68-66 victory.
"I crashed and I saw that Doug had his guy pinned," Carter said on the game-winning basket. "I knew one of us was going to get a hand on it. Doug ended up getting a hand on it and it bounced back to where I was and I just grabbed it and went up with it. That happens more often than not, but it just happened to work on the last play of this game."
Overall, the Bobcats shot 50.9 percent from the field, 16.7 percent from three-point range and 61.5 percent from the free throw line, while FIU shot 36.7 percent from the field, 31.6 percent from three-point range and 60.0 percent from the free throw line.
The Bobcats outrebounded the Panthers 44-27, while dishing out 14 assists and three blocks to FIU's 13 assists and one block. The Bobcats scored 52 points in the paint and 19 points off of 15 FIU turnover, while the Panthers scored 36 points in the paint and scored 24 points off of 23 Ohio miscues.
For FIU, the Panthers were led by Brian Beard, Jr. who scored 13 points, going 5-of-3 from the field, and dishing out six assists. Marcus Burwell added nine points, going 3-of-7 from three-point range, and Willy Nunez, Jr. and Michael Douglas would both add eight points for FIU.
Up next, Ohio takes the floor for the first time in 2019 when it opens Mid-American Conference play on Saturday, Jan. 5. Tip-off is set for 2 p.m. inside the Convocation Center and will be seen on ESPN3.
(Courtesy of Ohio Athletics)