Mount Union Wins OAC Tournament Championship - Mar 1, 2015

Mount Union won the Ohio Athletic Conference Men's Basketball Tournament title with an 85-81 win Saturday at Marietta. It is the Purple Raiders first tournament title since 1997.
Mount Union, now 22-6 overall, claim the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament with the selections being announced Monday at 12:30 p.m. on NCAA.com.
The Purple Raiders got a career-high 21 points off the bench from freshman JJ Kukura (6'3''-G) (Alliance/Alliance) and 20 points from OAC Tournament Most Valuable Player Deallen Jackson (6'2''-G-94) (Akron/Archbishop Hoban).
Cody Dillon (6'4''-G-93) (Newton Falls/Newton Falls) scored 12 points and Nate Jacubec (5'11''-PG-93) (Struthers/Struthers), who also named to the all-tournament team, added 11 points for Mount Union,
Marietta (25-3) had four players in double figures as Raneal Ewing (6'0''-PG) had 16 points, Garrett Stephenson (6'7''-F) with 14, Eddy Grenert (6'5''-F/G) had 13 and Andy Dollman (6'2''-G) added 11 points as the Pioneers wait to see if they will get one of 19 national at-large bids from the NCAA.
Mount Union started the game on an 11-4 run to give itself an early seven point lead with 15:51 left in the half but Marietta responded by going on its own 11-5 run to close within a point and eventually the Pioneers tied the game at 18-18.
Kukura came off the bench for the Raiders and scored the eight straight Mount Union points but the Raiders could only build a four point lead, 29-25, after a three-pointer from Michael Shull (5'10''-PG) (Massillon/Massillon Jackson).
Marietta took their first lead of the game with a 5-0 run, making the score 30-29 with 5:28 until the break. The Pioneers held a one point a minute on the clock before Kukura hit his third three-pointer of the half. Marietta got a tip-in at the buzzer to tie the score at 42-42 going to the locker room.
Mount Union pushed the lead back out to seven points, 58-51 in the first five minutes of the second half and pushed that lead to 67-56 when Evan Keeslar (6'3''-G) (Green/Green) hit a layup with just under 12 minutes to play.
The Pioneers came back with a 14-0 run to retake the lead 70-67 with 5:49 to play.
The Raiders scored nine of the next 12 points and a Stevie Griffin (6'4''-F-92) (Massillon/Massillon Jackson) layup gave Mount Union a 76-73 lead with 2:19 left.
Marietta managed just one field goal the rest of the way while Mount Union made 7-of-8 free throws in the final minute to close out the win.

OAC Tournament Final: Mount Union - Marietta 85-81
OAC Tournament Semifinals:
Mount Union - John Carroll 89-88, OT
Marietta - Baldwin Wallace 78-74

Courtesy of OAC