With 4:13 remaining, Kenneth van Kempen walked off the court to chants of KVK from the O Zone and a standing ovation from an appreciative crowd.
The lone senior's night was finished, fouling out after recording eight points and eight rebounds in Ohio's 82-60 rout of Bowling Green last night at The Convo.
That would be the last time van Kempen would play on The Convo's floor, as Western Michigan defeated Ball State last night. The Bobcats earned the ninth seed and a first-round away game at Ball State in the Mid-American Conference Tournament.
I couldn't really keep my tears in
van Kempen said. I didn't expect to go out with five fouls like that but it was definitely emotional.
The game was also emotional for van Kempen because his family came and the Dutch national anthem was played before the game.
It was an honor to hear my national anthem played in The Convo he said. In Holland
it's not like you hear it before every game like you do here.
The Bobcats gained momentum in the final three minutes of the first half, going on a 12-1 run.
DeVaughn Washington slammed home two alley oops at the 2:33 and 2:01 marks. The first came from Tommy Freeman, and Armon Bassett gave Washington the second as the crowd erupted.
Washington was not done, as he and Reggie Keely denied a Falcon underneath with 1:03 remaining.
This led to a Freeman 3-pointer on the next possession, and Freeman drained another 3 with six seconds remaining to cap off the 12-1 run and go into halftime with a 33-15 lead.
We just tried to keep on pushing it
Bassett said. It always seems like there's a spot in the game where you keep on pushing that stuff will start to open up. In the last four minutes
it finally opened up for us.
The offensive outburst started because of the Bobcats' defensive pressure.
Ohio employed a full-court press, and the Falcons could not handle it. Bowling Green had five turnovers in the last three-minutes, 14 for the half, and the Bobcats turned them into 11 points.
They fed off our turnovers
Bowling Green coach Louis Orr said. We knew that once they got in transition
they were a dangerous team.
Early in the second half, Freeman and the Falcons' Scott Thomas provided an arsenal of 3's. On two straight possessions for both teams with 16:00 minutes remaining, Freeman and Thomas went back and forth, draining 3's on each other.
Thomas' spurt of 10 points kept Bowling Green within 20 points, but once he went cold, the rout was on.
Ohio extended the lead past 30 off a van Kempen jumper at the 6:42 mark, and the Bobcats cruised to victory.
Offense did not come to either side early.
The Bobcats and Falcons combined for five points in the first four minutes. Ohio did not score until the 16:26 mark, when Bassett drained a jumper at the top of the key.
The Bobcats opened up the game a bit afterward, starting with a Bassett 3-pointer with 10:22 remaining. Although Ohio still was not making shots, it stopped settling for half-court sets and running up and down the court.
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