WESTERVILLE, Ohio – In a semifinal matchup between the No. 2 and No. 3 seeds, the No. 20 nationally ranked Otterbein men's basketball team delivered in the closing seconds Thursday night inside the Rike Center, defeating Ohio Northern 53-51 to advance to the OAC Tournament championship game. With the win, the Cardinals improve to 22-4 overall and 13-3 in OAC play.
Senior Julian Heckman paced Otterbein with 12 points and five assists, while freshman Dominic Theado added 10 points on 4-of-5 shooting. Sophomore Micah Germany finished with nine, and senior Reece Huber recorded five points and eight rebounds.
Ohio Northern carried a 33-23 lead into halftime after limiting the Cardinals to six first-half field goals.
Otterbein responded immediately out of the break. Germany buried a three early in the half, and the Cardinals steadily chipped away at the deficit. With 12:43 remaining, Heckman finished at the rim to tie the game at 37-37.
From there, the contest turned into a possession-by-possession battle. Huber knocked down a three with 4:36 left to give Otterbein a 48-43 edge, and Theado followed with another triple at the 3:47 mark to push the margin to six.
The Polar Bears answered late, tying the game at 51-51 with 35 seconds remaining to set up one final possession.
Out of a timeout, Heckman dribbled to the wing and attempted a three-pointer that bounced off the rim. Huber crashed in from the weak side, elevated in traffic and secured the rebound in midair. With his back to the basket with just under two seconds remaining, he banked the putback off the glass to give Otterbein a 53-51 advantage.
Ohio Northern had just 1.5 seconds to respond but could not get a shot off before time expired, sending the Cardinals to the OAC championship.
Otterbein finished with nine three-pointers and won the rebounding battle, 36-29, helping fuel the second-half surge.
The Cardinals will host No. 5 seed Heidelberg on Saturday in the OAC Tournament championship game, with tip-off time still to be determined. Otterbein is seeking its first conference tournament title since 2002.
