Brittany Bott / Staff Photographer / bb211605@ohiou.edu

Jerome Tillman made his only field goal of the game count Saturday against Ball State.

With 4.2 seconds remaining in the game, the junior forward hit a fadeaway jumper just outside the paint to give the Bobcats a 61-59 victory over the Cardinals. In doing so, Ohio avoided what would have been a tough loss to stomach against a pesky 3-15 Ball State team.

"Coach has confidence in me to make plays," Tillman said. "Everybody wants to make the big shot and the opportunity presented itself and I took advantage of it."

The Bobcats (13-6, 4-2 Mid-American Conference) held a 59-56 advantage until Ball State forward Anthony Newell hit a difficult 3-point shot with 26 seconds remaining to knot the score at 59.

Following the basket coach Tim O'Shea said the plan was to get Tillman the ball.

"We figured we'd go to him because we want him to go off the dribble because he's a good free throw shooter," he said. "It was a big-time shot by Jerome."

O'Shea added that he was unaware that Tillman had been held without a field goal when he drew up the game-winning basket for Tillman.

"Had I known that I wouldn't have called the play for him," O'Shea joked.

Despite their hapless record, the Cardinals led through much of the game, building a 35-23 at halftime. O'Shea said his team was just fortunate to get a victory against Ball State, who has lost three conference road games by a combined eight points.

"Sometimes you survive," O'Shea said. "It had all the makings of a Ball State win. This team has shown some grit and I thought they showed some in the second half by clamping down defensively."

With everything going the Cardinals way for much of the game, O'Shea repeatedly admitted that he thought that Saturday might not have been his team's day.

"It was one of those things where you're scratching your heading thinking ‘Is this going to be one of those days?'," O'Shea said.

"They're feeling really confident, our guys start getting tighter and tighter and when those two types of pressure collide, that's often times when you get an upset," he added.

Tillman said he was not surprised with the way that the Cardinals came into The Convo and silenced the season-high 10,182 in attendance throughout most of the first half.

"You have to give them a lot of credit," Tillman said. "They played really hard the whole game."

With Ohio struggling to find its stroke in the first half, the Bobcats turned to forward Leon Williams who dominated the smaller Cardinal defenders inside with 23 points (18 in the second half) and 14 rebounds.

"I think I took it upon myself to impose my will and try to make things better for my team," Williams said. "I was trying to pick the team up and carry them on my back."

Tillman encouraged his teammates to continue to feed the ball to the senior as Ohio made its second-half push to cut the Ball State lead.

"When guys are hot, you have to recognize that and go to the hot hand," Tillman said.

O'Shea echoed Tillman's sentiments and said that Williams's performance in the second half was why Williams is in the running for MAC Player of the Year.

"He really put us on his back when we had a lot of guys struggling from the field," O'Shea said.