ST. LOUIS – The question hadn't even finished coming out of the reporter's mouth when Ohio forward Jon Smith responded with a simple answer.
"No," Smith said. "That's it. No. I don't take any solace at all. I'm not here to just be happy that we got here. I'm happy when I win and that's how my teammates feel as well. We didn't do what we were supposed to."
The 13th-seeded Bobcats did plenty more than most expected them to do, taking No. 1 seed North Carolina to overtime before eventually falling 73-65 in a Midwest Regional semifinal in St. Louis Friday night.
Things couldn't have began much worse for Ohio, which started just 3-for-20 from the field and fell behind 26-11 midway through the first half. Things were getting ugly in a hurry. Very ugly.
But the Bobcats weren't intimidated by the bigger, stronger, more athletic Tar Heels - at least that's what they maintained afterwards – and began to climb back into the game. They trailed just 29-22 at the half, thanks in large part to 13 UNC turnovers.
They continued the climb in the second half, finally taking their first lead at 47-46 on a three-pointer from Nick Kellogg with barely eight minutes left to play.
"If you're a competitor, you shouldn't really fear anybody," said forward Ivo Baltic. "If you do that, you're not giving yourself a chance.
"Seeds don't really mattered to us. Everybody was 0-0 going into the tournament."
As the game seesawed back and forth, fans of the next game – Kansas and North Carolina State – joined the Ohio Bandwagon. The crowd was behind the underdog Bobcats and they hung right with the mighty Tar Heels for the complete 40 minutes.
With the score tied and the clock below ten seconds, North Carolina's Harrison Barnes had the ball in his hands and a chance to win the game. But as they showed down the stretch, the Bobcats were up to the challenge.
Barnes was stuffed by Ohio's Walter Offutt and the ball trickled to guard D.J. Cooper with the final few seconds falling off the clock. Cooper let one fly from about midcourt as the clock turned to zeros, but the shot barely rimmed off and the game went to overtime.
The result was already a victory in itself for the Bobcats. Nobody expected them to even play the Tar Heels close. Battling their way into overtime was a different story.
That is, unless you were an Ohio player.
"We're not going to celebrate moral victories," Baltic said. "We're not just happy to be here. We were looking to advance and play on Sunday.
"Just one more play. If we would have just done one more little thing right, it would have been ours. If we had made one more play, that would have been the game. That's what hurts."
The Bobcats' remarkable run fell short in the final five minutes as the Tar Heels slowly pulled away, made some free throws down the stretch and moved on to Sunday's Elite Eight.
Regardless of what the Bobcats wanted to admit after the game, a time will come tomorrow, or next week, or next month, when they will sit back and realize what they accomplished.
They didn't win the game, but they did much more than most thought they would ever do.
"We weren't content with just being here," Smith said. "We knew we could compete with anybody in the country, even a great team like UNC. We were ready for the tip. Obviously we got down a bit but we fought our way back.
"I was in the situation and was so consumed, but I'll probably going to look back and be really grateful that I was in the Sweet 16. I'm grateful l now, but your surrounded by it and you don't really get a chance to look at how lucky we were and how blessed we were."
And with nearly their entire roster returning next season, the Bobcats hope to get back in the same situation again. And if they do, they won't be intimidated. They proved that Friday.
