MIAMI ? An 18-foot jumper by Diamond Gladney (St. Louis) rattled out at the buzzer as the Ohio men?s basketball team fell 74-73 in overtime to Florida International in the championship game of the FIU Holiday Classic on Tuesday.

Junior guard Mychal Green?s (Columbus) third three-pointer of the game gave the Bobcats a 73-72 lead with 28 seconds left in overtime. Following an FIU timeout, however, Golden Panther guard Jayce Lewis drew a foul on Ohio center Clay McGowen (Westerville) with 3.3 seconds on the clock and sank both free throws to set up Gladney?s desperation shot.

?From where I sat, it didn?t look like much of a foul,? said Bobcat head coach Tim O?Shea about the critical call on McGowen. ?It leaves a bad taste in your mouth when the game is basically decided by the officials. If he got mugged, I?d understand it but boy if there was contact, it wasn?t a whole lot.?

Ohio (5-3) started slow but held a 32-28 advantage at halftime. Bobcat forwards Leon Williams (Baltimore) and Jeff Halbert (White Bear Lake, Minn.) each had eight points at intermission.

FIU (7-5) quickly erased that lead, however, and went up 50-49 with 9:30 remaining in the period. Green then hit a pair of three-pointers to give Ohio a 55-50 lead but the Golden Panthers again fought back to tie it at 57-57 with five minutes to play.

A pair of Terren Harbut (Lexington, Ky.) free throws and a three-pointer by Halbert pushed the Bobcat lead back up to five and a Sonny Troutman (Indianapolis) free throw made it 63-59 with three minutes left in regulation.

Ohio then turned the ball over on its next two possessions and FIU?s Ivan Almonte converted six straight free throws to put the Bobcats down by two with 33 seconds remaining. With just over 10 seconds to play, Williams received a feed down low from Troutman and was fouled in the act of shooting.

The 6-8 freshman sank both chances from the charity stripe to tie the game at 65-65 and the final attempt in regulation by the Golden Panthers was blocked and recovered by Ohio to send the contest to overtime.

?When I met with the team in the locker room, I really tried to accentuate the positive,? said O?Shea. ?For a kid like Leon Williams to go to the free-throw line down two with 10 seconds to go and knock down two free throws and put the game into overtime was just a demonstration of tremendous poise on his part.?

In the extra period, the Bobcats jumped out to a 70-65 advantage with a reverse layup by Troutman and a trey by Halbert. Ohio then missed three attempts from behind the arc as FIU scored seven unanswered points to take a 72-70 lead with 50 seconds left.

?When we were up by five in overtime, we had a few empty possessions in terms of our offensive execution,? said O?Shea. ?We really needed to run our stuff better and harder and we just didn?t do a good job of running our offense.?

The Bobcats regained the lead on a Green three-pointer with 28 seconds remaining in overtime but following a Golden Panther timeout, Lewis managed to draw the questionable foul on McGowen with a weak shot attempt.

Ohio entered the contest shooting 46 percent from the field but managed only 39 percent (28-of-71) Tuesday night. From behind the arc, they shot 29.2 percent (7-of-24) while making only 58.8 percent (10-of-17) of their free throws.

In comparison, FIU shot 49.1 percent (27-of-55) from the field, 36.4 percent (4-of-11) from three-point range and 72.7 percent (16-of-22) from the charity stripe.

Green led the Bobcats with 15 points and 12 rebounds while Williams and Halbert both finished with 14 points. Troutman added 13 for Ohio and Harbut and McGowen chipped in eight and seven points, respectively. Freshman point guard Jeremy Fears (Joliet, Ill.) recorded two points and a team-high six assists and three steals.

Almonte, who was named Tournament MVP, led the Golden Panthers with 25 points, 10 rebounds, seven assists and three steals. Rounding out FIU?s scoring were Ismael N?Diaye with 14 points, Sheldon Bailey with 11, Antonio Jones and Byron Burnett with eight apiece and Kenny Simms and Lewis with four each. Burnett also blocked seven shots in addition to grabbing six rebounds.

?If we learned anything from this game tonight, it?s that we need better leadership running our offense down the stretch,? said O?Shea. ?This was a very tough loss to swallow but we have to move on and make sure we bounce back against Akron. We can?t let there be a hangover from this loss.?

Ohio stays on the road as the Mid-American Conference season will begin with road trips to Akron on Jan. 2 and to Ball State on Jan. 5 before the Bobcats return to The Convo for a 1 p.m. showdown against Marshall on Sunday, Jan. 9.

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