Maurice Ndour dunks home a game-winner over Buffalo to give the Bobcats their second win in MAC.
It’s a play that Buffalo coach and former Duke point guard Bobby Hurley should be very familiar with.
With less than three seconds on the clock on Saturday, Ohio and Buffalo's game in The Convo rested in the balance and the ball rested 94-feet away from the bucket. It would take the arm of a former quarterback and a finish by a “nature boy.”
After using their final timeout, junior forward Antonio Campbell took the ball and fired a deep pass that seemed to hang in the air. On the other end, senior forward Maurice Ndour snatched it, turned and faked a pass, and spun towards the rim. It only took one dribble before gathered himself and threw down a game-winning dunk with 0.6 seconds on the clock.
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The bucket that gave Ohio the 63-61 victory was a play the Bobcats just practiced Friday, but though the ball wasn’t supposed to go Ndour. He was supposed to receive the pass and then find senior guard Javarez “Bean” Willis for the last shot.
Coach Saul Phillips and the rest The Convo crowd were glad that he didn’t end up passing it off.
“Mo obviously made the smart decision, but Beane was jumping up and down like ‘you’re not running the play right, you’re not running the play right',” Phillips said. “That play is going to overshadow a lot of scrappy play that lead up to that.”
For a while, it looked like it would be Buffalo that would be on the winning end of the close fought game, but they were never able to close out Ohio. After fighting offensive frustrations throughout most of the second half, the Bobcats found their rhythm Maurice Ndour.
He put the team on his back down the stretch by scoring 10 of the Bobcats’ final 12 points en route to finishing with a season-high 31 points.
Defensively, Ndour faced the assignment of stopping the MAC’s top scorer in Buffalo junior forward Justin Moss. The Bulls’ offense featured Moss early on as he had seven points in the first 10 minutes.
The second half was a different story as the Bobcats swarmed the 6-foot-7-inch forward, who was only able to score two points the remainder of the game.
“He had some foul issues and he had to sit some in the second half,” Hurley said. “They’re a tough deal with their inside guys in Campbell and Ndour who has the shot blocking ability. So, it was a tough deal for him.”
It is unlikely that Campbell to Ndour will resonate quite like Hill to Laettner did 23 years ago, but it will likely stick in the mind of Hurley who had a front row seat to both.
Saturday, Hurley came up short, but come March 3 when these teams play again he will make sure it’s not Ndour that beats them.
“Since Wednesday we’ve just been trying to play better basketball and I think that’s what we did,” Ndour said. We’re going to try and carry this momentum from now on. I’m just really excited and proud of our guys.”
@Kovarandrew
ak840511@ohio.edu
