Maurice Ndour’s dunk went viral, but that’s not how it was drawn.
Maurice Ndour’s game-winning dunk against Buffalo on Saturday quickly went viral on social media.
The highlight of sophomore forward Antonio Campbell’s three-quarter-length pass down court to Ndour was featured on ESPN’s popular “SportsCenter Top 10,” much to Ohio fans’ liking.
Ndour, being guarded man-to-man with the clock ticking down, caught the pass from Campbell, spun, drove through the key and dunked the ball with two hands. Less than a second remained in the game.
The dunk gave Ohio a 63-61 victory and its second consecutive win, but it wasn’t drawn up to get Ndour to the rim. The play was intended for redshirt senior guard Javarez “Bean” Willis, not Ndour.
“Mo obviously made the smarter play, but Bean was wide open jumping up and down like, ‘You’re not running the play right’,” coach Saul Phillips said. “We all settled down when Mo dunked it.”
The Bobcats (7-10, 2-3 MAC) practiced the same play on Friday, and Willis was supposed to be the one to take the last shot, but Ndour’s improvisation proved to be exactly what the Bobcats needed.
“It’s unbelievable,” Ndour said. “That was a great pass, perfect play. To be honest, the pass was for Bean to make a three. I knew my guy would gamble, so I just faked the pass and went to dunk it.”
Ndour scored Ohio’s first and last baskets of the game — and a lot in between. He finished with a career-high 31 points and played all 40 minutes. He also was 10 for 10 from the free-throw line.
Ohio trailed by seven points with seven minutes to play. The Bobcats still trailed by four points with less than four minutes left, before Ndour took the game into his hands — literally, by catching that final inbound pass — and scored Ohio’s final 10 points.
“That play is going to overshadow a lot of scrappy play that got us to that point, and that’s fine with me,” Phillips said.
A double technical was called in the first half after a skirmish between players on both teams. Buffalo coach Bobby Hurley said after the game he was “disappointed with the unprofessionalism of the Ohio coach” after Phillips and the Bobcats celebrated Ndour’s dunk.
“I got caught up in the moment. Listen, you be 7-10 and tell me how you feel after that,” Phillips said. “You can un-fist a fist pump.”
Ohio was excited about the play. The almost 10,000 fans in The Convo erupted in cheers. Phillips and the Bobcats jumped off the bench, Phillips gave a fist pump and then tried to contain his team from not stepping on the court before Buffalo attempted a final shot.
The Bobcats’ mood stood in stark contrast to that of a week ago.
Ohio started MAC play 0-4 and were alone in last place in the conference. Now the Bobcats are one of four MAC teams with a pair of conference wins and have momentum heading into two road games in Michigan this week.
“I’m just happy for our guys. It’s hard to go into a losing locker room night after night after night,” Phillips said. “You need to have success at some point. Nights like (Saturday) are the payoff.”
@chadlindskog
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