DAYTON, Ohio — Ose Okojie scored 16 of his team-leading 23 points in the first half, and Bryce Harris added 19 points and 14 rebounds as Howard held off a furious rally by UMBC, 86-83, on Tuesday in an NCAA Tournament First Four matchup.

With 12.7 seconds left on the clock, Harris hit a clutch turnaround jumper to give Howard (24-10) a four-point lead. The Bison held on to advance as the No. 16 seed and will face No. 1 seed Michigan in a Midwest Region first-round game Thursday in Buffalo.

“We talk about how important it is for them to have a chance to get to an NCAA Tournament and win games. It's a box that we checked,” Howard coach Kenneth Blakeney said, reflecting on the program’s first-ever NCAA Tournament win in five tries. “We talked about that before the game. We've never won a game. We've done a lot of things in our program, but let's check off the box of winning an NCAA game today.”

After the victory, Harris gathered the team on the court and spoke about the historic moment.

“Bryce's speech was just like, we did it,” Okojie said. “We made history with these guys. And it wasn't just me. It wasn't just the starting five. It was 1 to 16. The energy they gave up is the credit to the coaching staff.”

The Bison, who earned their spot in the 68-team field by winning the MEAC tournament, extended their season-best win streak to nine games.

“I think our guys' resiliency and being battle-tested in our tournament and some of our games this year made it a very familiar place for us,” Blakeney added. “I'm just so happy for our university, our players. We talk about these moments when we present our university to our young men.”

For UMBC (24-9), Jah’Likai King scored 19 points, and DJ Armstrong Jr. added 17. The Retrievers, champions of the America East, saw their program-record 12-game win streak snapped. This was UMBC’s first NCAA Tournament appearance since their historic 2018 upset of No. 1 seed Virginia.

Caden Diggs contributed 15 points and eight rebounds off the bench. Armstrong’s 30-foot 3-pointer at the buzzer missed, sealing the Bison’s victory.

Howard led by double digits for much of the second half, but Diggs made two free throws with 53.8 seconds left to bring UMBC within 83-78. After Howard’s Cam Gillus missed the front end of a 1-and-1 with 52.9 seconds left, Armstrong drilled a long 3-pointer with 43.4 seconds remaining, capping a 9-0 run that cut the deficit to 83-81.

“In the second half, you got to see what UMBC does all the time. We didn’t foul, we guarded well, and we made it a game,” UMBC coach Jim Ferry said. “It was a very exciting game to watch. I’m so proud of my guys because they fought through it, which is what we’ve done all year and made it into a fantastic basketball game.”

The Bison struck first after UMBC opened with the game’s first four points, going on a 9-0 run to take an early lead. Howard then used an 8-0 surge to go up 19-11 on an Okojie layup.

UMBC responded with a 9-3 run to pull within 24-22, and the Retrievers cut the gap to 31-30 before Howard answered with a 12-0 run to take their biggest first-half lead after Alex Cotton’s free throws. Cougar Downing’s layup with two seconds left in the half sent UMBC into halftime down 49-41. -Mike Petraglia, Field Level Media/Reuters