Roderick scores 20 to carry Ohio past Ball State 78-68

Updated Jan. 2, 2021 5:59 p.m. ET

Associated Press

MUNCIE, Ind. (AP) — Ben Roderick drained six 3-pointers, scored 20 points and Ohio beat Ball State 78-68 on Saturday to halt a three-game slide.

Roderick was 7-for-12 shooting, 6 of 9 from beyond the arc. His first basket was a 3 that broke a 2-2 tie, another pushed the lead to 10.

Mark Sears had 18 points, eight assists and six rebounds for Ohio (5-4, 1-2 Mid-American Conference). Dwight Wilson III added 14 points. Ben Vander Plas had 14 points.

Ishmael El-Amin had 18 points for the Cardinals (4-4, 2-1). Miryne Thomas added 17 points and eight rebounds. Brachen Hazen had 10 points.

Thomas pulled Ball State into a 60-60 tie with 7:21 remaining but Sears answered with a three-point play and Roderick added his final 3-pointer as Ohio pulled away.

___

For more AP college basketball coverage: https://apnews.com/Collegebasketball and http://twitter.com/AP_Top25

___

Elements of this story were generated by Automated Insights, http://www.automatedinsights.com/ap, using data from STATS LLC, https://www.stats.com