Bassett Hounds Zips, Takes MAC Title
This season had been one of agonizingly close calls for the Ohio Bobcats. They finished the regular season 17-14 overall (7-9 in the Mid-American Conference), but those numbers didn't tell the whole story. Close calls followed them everywhere, as the team finished 2-7 overall and 1-4 in conference in games decided by three points or less.
Still, there was always the conference tournament. Ohio finished 9th in the conference during the regular season, but were only two games behind second place Buffalo. The Bobcats had been led all season by senior transfer Armon Bassett. Bassett started his collegiate career at Indiana, but was dismissed from the team after the 2007-08 season for skipping a meeting, and then skipping the run he was supposed to go on as punishment.
The team featured Bassett averaging 17 points per game, and five other players contributing 10 or points per game of their own. Surely, this wasn't the offense of a team hovering around .500?
In their first game of the tournament the Bobcats faced Kent State, the regular season champs that beat Ohio in both regular season meetings. Bassett went for a career-high 38 points and led the Bobcats to a completely dominant 81-64 win over the Golden Flashes.
Then Ohio went up against Miami (OH), and dominated again. They held the Redhawks to only 12 points in the first half and received another 28 points from Bassett in winning 54-42. That left only the conference regular-season runners-up Akron between the Bobcats and a surprising NCAA tournament slot.
It looked like Ohio's luck had finally run out, as with10 minutes left in thegame, Bassett had only eight points and the Bobcats were starting to have foul problems that were jeopardizing their ability to keep hanging with Akron.
Unfortunately for the Zips, Bassett finally found his groove, scoring 13 points in the remainder of regulation, then sealing the win with a breakaway dunk in overtime to clinch Ohio's 81-75 win and a trip to the NCAA tournament.
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