Dec. 12, 2007

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COLLEGE PARK, Md.-Junior forward Jerome Tillman (Beavercreek, Ohio) and senior forward Leon Williams (Baltimore, Md.) muscled the visiting Ohio men's basketball squad to a 61-55 wire-to-wire defeat of Maryland Wednesday evening in Comcast Center in College Park, Md. The game also represented just the third defeat in Maryland's 134 non-conference home games under head coach Gary Williams.

The Bobcats improved to 6-2 overall with the win, while Maryland dropped to 6-5.

Tillman posted a game-high 20 points, while Williams had 15 points and 15 rebounds (tied his season-high) to pace an Ohio attack that outrebounded the bigger Terrapins by 10 (37-27) and held a significant 14-2 edge in second chance points. That success balanced an atypical night from the outside for Ohio, which made just three of 11 attempts from 3-point range (27.3 percent). The Bobcats entered Wednesday's game shooting a 42 percent clip from downtown.

Ohio also made the most of a game that saw just 15 free throws taken between the two schools, connecting on eight of nine (88.9 percent).

Junior guard Michael Allen (Detroit, Mich.) had a team-high four assists, while Tillman had three steals.

Maryland was led by Greivis Vasquez's 13 points, while Landon Milbourne had 11. Vasquez also had a game-high eight assists, while James Gist had three steals.

The Bobcats gradually built the lead in the first half, taking a 34-23 advantage into the locker room. The story of the first half was a hot-shooting outing by Ohio (14-24 from the field, 58.3 percent), while limiting Maryland to just a 1-8 (12.5 percent) effort from beyond the arc.

Ohio didn't stop at the half, however, and pushed the lead well into double-digits for the majority of the second half. The Bobcats grabbed their largest lead of the game at the 11:21 mark on a jumper by Tillman to go up 17 (48-31).

The Terps would not go away, however, and held Ohio without a field goal for the final 4:56 of the contest. Maryland trimmed the deficit to three (58-55) on a Dino Gregory tip-in with 51 seconds to play, but it wasn't enough as Tillman and Allen connected on three of four free throws to salt the game away.

The Bobcats finished the contest shooting 48.1 percent (25-52) from the field, getting a collective 18-29 effort (62.1 percent) from their starting frontcourt. Maryland made just 23 of 57 attempts from the field for 40.4 percent.

Ohio also did an admirable job locking down Maryland's starting backcourt, forcing Vasquez and Eric Hayes into a 5-18 mark (.278) from long-range.

The Bobcats will continue their long trip when they travel to the Sprint Center in Kansas City, Mo. to face No. 3 Kansas on Saturday at 5 p.m. Eastern (4 p.m. Central) on ESPN2.