CLEVELAND — Confetti rained, a star player hoisted a trophy and another flashed his medal.
By that point, Ohio had long retreated to its locker room.
Minutes before, Akron had established itself as the surefire best team in the Mid-American Conference with a 65-46 win in its tournament title game.
It wasn’t clear in the first half, after which the Bobcats led by three, but by the midway point of the second half Akron appeared far and away the better team to take the playing floor in the MAC Championship game Saturday.
Little was jiving for Ohio (24-9) after the break. It converted only five shots from the field — less than half its opponents’ total — and was held without a field goal for 9:54 in the second half.
It hit only one of its 20 three-point attempts. Six of the Bobcats’ errant long balls came from the hand of senior guard D.J. Cooper, who failed to convert any of his eight field goal attempts and called his performance “unacceptable.”
Akron (26-6) senior center Zeke Marshall, the man who first hoisted the conference trophy, was candid in saying he thinks the Zips have a long road ahead of them before their season comes to a close.
“I’m trying to win the NCAA Tournament, honestly,” he said. “I feel like there’s nothing that can stop us.”
Ohio, on the other hand, is hopeful for a National Invitation Tournament bid.
The Bobcats’ second half demise began on the offensive end. That frustration boiled over into their defensive game.
The correlation was succinct.
“Obviously what happens when you go through a cold streak (is) it affects the other end of the floor,” Ohio coach Jim Christian said. “Guys kind of lose their mind defensively.”
Christian pointed to a stretch in the second half where the Bobcats made a string of defensive stops but came up empty on each ensuing possession as the tipping point for his team.
The Bobcats trailed by five at that point, but from then on out it was like they were trying to trudge uphill.
Some of that can be attributed to foul trouble and, as a result, tiredness. Ohio senior forward Reggie Keely, who scored 14 points and attacked the basket the best he has all season in the first half, said he was overworked — something Christian alluded to after beating Western Michigan in the semifinals Friday.
Keely played 32 minutes and had to pick up slack left because forwards T.J. Hall, a junior, and Jon Smith, a redshirt junior, were in foul trouble.
“I thought it was crucial, guys getting rest,” Keely said. “I had to play a lot of minutes tonight — minutes I’m not used to playing. So it was a big deal for our team. We can’t get our normal rotation going, and obviously you see it hurt us.”
At the end of the night, though, it came down to watching for the swish of a net that simply didn’t come.
And as a result, the Zips were more than happy to cut down those very nets to forever savor as a memento from the biggest win of their collegiate careers.
jr992810@ohiou.edu
