Rob Hardin / Chief Photographer / rh124104@ohiou.edu

When the Bobcats turned the ball over with about two and a half minutes left to play and the score tied, Tim O’Shea had a bad feeling.

“I felt a little sense of doom there,” the Bobcats coach said. “It seemed like everything was going against us, like it was just a bad omen.”

The Bobcats hadn’t held a lead since the 13-minute mark of the first half. They shot a paltry 36.4 percent from the field and O’Shea began to think maybe this was the game that would tarnish Ohio’s unblemished home record.

But in the final 1:19, it was Western Michigan that was unable to connect on several open looks as Leon Williams hit five free throws to give the Bobcats a 57-54 win and extend Ohio’s home-winning streak to nine.

“Honestly,” O’Shea said, “I don’t know how we won this game.”

But the answer was easily found in the performance of Ohio’s two seniors, Williams and Bubba Walther, who accounted for 39 of the Bobcats’ 57 total points.

Williams led the Bobcats (16-7, 7-3 Mid-American Conference) with what has become his routine double-double, snaring 15 rebounds and scoring 26 points. He was also able to out-duel rival big man Joe Reitz, who fouled out as the Broncos (13-10, 7-3 MAC) were trying to force overtime.

“He’s a big guy and they were running him off some screens to get him off the block and they started putting him and Bubba Walther on the same side,” Reitz said. “If you put those two guys there, it’s hard to help down off Bubba and he did a good job. He went up strong and really made a living at the free throw line.”

Williams was 14-of-17 from the free throw line against Western Michigan, missing only one of the 12 attempts in the second half. It was Williams’ free throws that established an Ohio lead twice down the stretch as he scored the Bobcats’ seven final points.

But even Williams had a moment Saturday when he thought maybe things weren’t going to go his way. He was called for a foul less than two minutes in, and the last thing the Bobcats needed or wanted was their key big man in foul trouble.

“I hate that,” Williams said. “Every time I get those early fouls I start to think it’s not my day and here we go again.”

Williams wasn’t called for a foul in the second half, though, allowing him to take full advantage of the Broncos physical play and subsequent fouls against him.

Although they rarely led, the Bobcats were able to stay within striking distance of the Broncos with key 3-pointers. And perhaps the most critical were the three straight that Walther hit at the end of the first half to put Ohio within five points despite the Bobcats poor shooting, going 9-of-23 in the first half.

“I think they lost me a couple times (at the end of the half),” Walther said. “In the second half they shut me down pretty much but in the second half our focus was to go inside to Leon. I think my shots at the end of the first half loosened them up to go inside to Leon.”