Men's Basketball edged 53-51 by No. 20 Otterbein in semifinals of OAC Tournament on last second basket
February 26, 2026
OTTERBEIN — No. 20 Otterbein scored on a putback with 1.5 seconds left to post a 53-51 victory over Ohio Northern in the semifinals of the Ohio Athletic Conference Men's Basketball Tournament on Thursday.
- Records: Ohio Northern (18-9 Overall), #20 Otterbein (22-4 Overall).
- Venue: Rike Center — Westerville, Ohio.
The Game
- Junior Theo Maag (Ottawa/Ottawa-Glandorf) led the Polar Bears in scoring with 18 points.
- Sophomore Aiden Harris (Pandora Gilboa) pitched in 12 points and a team-best six rebounds.
- Senior Will Miller (Ottoville) added nine points and three steals.
- Otterbein led 51-45 with 3:47 left, but Harris would score six consecutive points to tie the game at 51-all with 35 seconds remaining.
- The Cardinals missed a 3-pointer with four seconds to go, but Reece Huber collected the rebound and scored with 1.5 seconds left to give OU a 53-51 advantage.
- Northern raced to a 25-9 lead with 8:20 left in the first half and eventually led 33-23 at intermission.
- Otterbein out-scored ONU 14-4 in the first 7:17 of the second half to tie the game at 37-all.
- Ohio Northern was 22-of-55 from the floor for 40.0 percent and made 3-of-15 three-pointers for 20.0 percent, while Otterbein finished 17-of-48 from the field for 35.4 percent and 9-of-30 from three-point range for 30.0 percent.
- ONU made 4-of-4 free throws for 1.000 percent and OU was 10-of-14 from the foul line for 71.4 percent.
- The Cardinals outrebounded the Polar Bears 36-29.
Notables
- Ohio Northern now leads the all-time series 78-64 over Otterbein.
- ONU was the No. 3 seed, while OU was the No. 2 seed.
- Miller is now 19th all-time in Northern with 1,308 points in 103 career games. Miller is also ranked 7th in the conference inscoring at 15.6 ppg.
- Miller is now in the 8th in ONU history with 165 steals.
- Ohio Northern wraps up its 115th season of varsity men's basketball and has a record of 1403-1098, a winning percentage of .561.
- Head coach Jon Tropf is in his first season at Ohio Northern with a 18-9 record.
Up Next
- Season complete.
