BOWLING GREEN — Ben Roderick watched and held his arms in the air as his free-throw attempt sailed to the hoop.
The crowd at the Stroh Center was as its loudest point of the night, but Roderick could’ve quieted them if the ball sailed through the net. Ohio was clinging to a one-point lead with 19 seconds left. His shot wouldn’t have sealed a win, but it would’ve given the Bobcats a crucial boost toward their biggest upset of the season.
Instead, the ball clanked off the rim and fell into the hands of Justin Turner. He sprinted down the court and created enough space between him and Ben Vander Plas to step back, shoot and drain the game-winning field goal.
With two seconds left, Ohio didn’t have enough time to build a similar sequence to salvage a 62-61 loss to Bowling Green on Saturday afternoon.
“It’s disappointing,” coach Jeff Boals said. “It comes down to little plays. I don’t know how many wide open shots we had that hit the backboard or were airballed. In a game like this, you have to knock those in. I thought we should have won the game.”
Boals is right — Ohio had every opportunity to pull off the upset.
The Bobcats thrashed the Falcons in the first half with nine 3-pointers and capitalized on slow starts from Bowling Green’s top offensive weapons. Ohio went into halftime with a 39-24 lead and plenty of optimism for a win that would’ve shown that it could not only compete, but defeat the best teams in the MAC with a new coach and new players.
A comeback felt inevitable from the Falcons, though. Bowling Green has converted on late, game-winning plays all season. Nine of the Falcons’ 10 conference wins before Saturday were decided by six points or less.
Ohio has played in close games, too, but the Bobcats’ don’t have the talent to win every one. Not yet.
But that didn’t mean Ohio couldn’t fend off Bowling Green, who began the second half on a 14-2 run and exposed a Bobcats defense that was without one of its top defensive players in Lunden McDay, who missed the game with an injury.
The Bobcats never allowed the Falcons to push a lead past one possession, though. They only needed to make a couple more defensive stops to win after Vander Plas made a layup and a free throw with 48 seconds left to put Ohio ahead 61-58 with 48 seconds left.
That wasn’t enough. Turner converted on two free throws after a Connor Murrell foul and landed the game-winning points seconds later.
“We just got to play a full game,” Vander Plas said. “There’s a lot of plays that led up to it, but that last one hurts a little bit.”
The Bobcats have been in this spot before. They lost in similar fashion to Northern Illinois, Akron and Buffalo — all losses that could’ve changed the outlook of Ohio’s season had one or two plays gone differently.
Saturday’s loss, perhaps, was the most draining. A win would’ve sent a message to the MAC that Ohio can beat any team with a roster that’s vastly different from a year ago. Sure, the Bobcats are young, but they’ve learned how to win.
While it didn’t make that statement with a win, Ohio can still make that gripe.
In their last two games against Akron and Bowling Green — the two teams most likely to win the East Division — the Bobcats have only lost by three points.
The losses hurt, but Ohio has continued to show signs that talent is improving and things are heading in the right direction under their new coach.
It didn’t show with a win Saturday, but it might later.
And if it does, Ohio could cap off what was supposed to be a rebuilding season with promising upsets and positivity before the MAC Tournament.
“I’m not a huge fan of moral victories,” Vander Plas said, “but it’s good to see that we can play with anyone.”
