Tony Dejak/AP Kent forward Eric Thomas shoots as Ohio guard Sanjay Adell puts the pressure on in the first half of its Mid-American Conference semifinal game in Toledo. Ohio lost last night's game, 68-57.

TOLEDO - It teased with its talent, threw you into a frenzy with an early-season victory against Syracuse and lately a two-game run over Akron and Toledo that got it to the semi-finals of the Mid-American Conference Tournament last night.

But in the end, that is all it did.

The teases stopped short of becoming full-fledged shows of talent. In fact, Kent's John Whorton admitted that Ohio was probably the more talented team all year, in the first two losses and again last night - when the Bobcats put together one of their worst showings at one of the worst times, a time when most teams are coming together, when most teams have eyes on the NCAA Tournament, when most teams will do anything for victory.

Not this Ohio team.

For the third time this season, Kent beat Ohio. This time, it was more definite than the previous two wins. The Flashes, who will play Miami tonight at 7:30 for the MAC Tournament Championship, won 68-57, and they won right from the start.

Oh, the Bobcats made their runs, showed their talent, teased their fans. But the hearts never seemed to follow the talent, not even when Kent kept the game close with its own poor shooting in the first half.

The first Ohio possession resulted in a turnover. The second resulted in an offensive foul by guard Sanjay Adell. Forward Diante Flenorl hit a jumper on the third possession, but it marked Ohio's only two points of the first four minutes.

The pattern had been set. Ohio would never lead in the game.

"We get out there, and we play hard for five, six minutes and then don't play hard for the next three or four," Ohio forward Shaun Stonerook said. "Against a team like Kent or any team that can put points on the board, the next thing you know you're down eight or nine. It's definitely not coaching. It's not anything except the five guys on the court.

"To be perfectly honest for you, I think we're a more talented team than them. But they play together. They play smart. They're well coached. You always see them, when something goes wrong, they're out there talking to each other, not arguing, not yelling."

For Ohio, the opposite would be true. Things go bad sometimes, and the Bobcats turn on each other, Stonerook said. There was guard Sanjay Adell yelling at guard Dustin Ford late in the game, just one example of many. There were others, and also other reasons why Ohio lost, but none that could satisfy Stonerook.

"I don't why they beat us three times," Stonerook said. "I don't know why."

One reason was depth.

Ten Kent players received eight minutes or more. Ohio, hampered by the injury to guard Jason Crawford, who bravely, if not effectively, played four minutes, played just seven players 12 minutes or more. And three (Stonerook, Whitehead and Flenorl) played 38 minutes or more.

"We knew from the start that we were going to have to go after them," Kent coach Gary Waters said. "They only play seven or eight guys, and we know that. So we're going to attack them."

In the end, Ohio wasn't just frustrated. It was tired, at least more tired than Kent, even if none of the Ohio's players would admit it. Perhaps that's why its eventual second-half run stopped at the 13:48 mark. Ohio cut the lead to 41-37, but Kent answered with a 10-2 run, and that was it.