Ohio University guard D.J. Cooper took the ball behind the 3-point line, closely guarded. With the seconds on the shot clock waning down, he drove, stopped, ducked his shoulder underneath Nikola Cvetinovic and threw the ball up, hoping for a foul. Then the ball went in anyway.
It was that kind of night for the Ohio University Bobcats, winners of the 2012 MAC Men’s Basketball Championship, 64-63 over Akron, and on their way to the NCAA Tournament. The 27-win Bobcats (the most in school history) were once again led by Cooper, who finished the game with 24 points, six assists, and four steals.
It capped off an impressive three-game stretch for Cooper, who averaged 19.7 points and 6.7 assists in three games, earning him the honor of being named the top player in the tournament.
“He loves the big stage,” said Ohio head coach John Groce. “You don’t get a chance to coach a lot of players like him very often and we feel very blessed to have him on our team.”
The game was an aggressive, closely contested match-up from the start. Neither team was able to create much of a run, though the most telling statistics of the night were Ohio’s 20 points off turnovers and 17 second-chance points.
The Bobcats managed to build an eight-point lead with 3:18 left in the game, but Akron came storming back, cutting the deficit to one point with just over 1:30 left.
What followed was a bizarre turn of events. With 3.1 seconds left and Akron down 64-61, guard Alex Abreu, who finished with 15 points to lead the Zips, went to the line for two shots. He made the first and attempted to intentionally miss the second, only to see it bounce all over the rim and go in.
It appeared that the ball was tipped in and the score was tied at 64. However, after plenty of reviews, the officials simply called it a made free throw to make the score 64-63.
“I didn’t think the ball was tipped in, so I’m not going to complain about it,” said Akron head coach Keith Dambrot. “In my view, the ball wasn’t tipped in. As long as [the call] is right, who cares if it’s reviewable or not?”
Cooper missed both of the following free throws – the second on purpose - and Akron missed a desperation half-court heave at the buzzer, making Ohio the MAC champions.
Now the Bobcats get to look forward to the NCAA Tournament. Players like Cooper, Ivo Baltic and Reggie Keely have experience from the team’s last run in the tournament, when they dominated Georgetown for a 97-83 first-round win in 2010. Cooper, a freshman at the time, scored 23 points and had eight assists in that game.
How would he feel about another first-round match-up against the Hoyas?
“I wouldn’t mind it,” he said.
