The Ohio Bobcats used some key play by reserves and some clutch free throw shooting by senior Brandon Hunter to break open a close game and salt away an eight-point win over the visiting Akron Zips Wednesday night at the Convo.

In the fourth overtime, that is.

In a game that had almost everything, Ohio played its first home quadruple overtime game in its illustrious basketball history, leaving players, fans, coaches, ushers, concession stand attendants, folks listening on the radio at home ? in other words, everyone who had anything to do with the game ? exhausted after Ohio won 112-104 in what would have been an Instant Classic if there had been television coverage. OU fans who thought Ohio's 104-101 OT win over St. Bonaventure at The Convo on New Year's Eve was exciting must have really loved this one.

"Tonight was really a remarkable game," said Ohio Coach Tim O'Shea. "I know The Convo has had many great moments in its life here, but I think a four-overtime game will stand out even to the old-timers here.?

The Bobcats survived a barrage of hoops by the Zip duo of JUCO transfers Jon Hollingsworth and Derek Tarver, who scored at will against whatever Ohio threw at him. Akron had chances to win the game on a final possession in the first three overtime periods, but each time the Bobcats held on for another five minute session. In the second overtime, Akron's Andy Hipsher had apparently won the contest for Akron at the buzzer, but officials ruled the shot was fired after time had expired.

In the fourth overtime, Bobcat sophomore Zack Kiekow, fresh off the bench after teammates Thomas Stephens and Jaivon Harris had fouled out, came up with several key buckets. Hunter found a lost touch at the charity stripe to knock down two free throws with 30 seconds left and put Ohio up 110-104, moments after he followed up a Stephen King miss to put Ohio up by four points with only 35 seconds left.

Despite making only 10 of 23 free throw attempts, Hunter paced Ohio with 30 points, a beastly 26 rebounds and had six assists. Frontcourt mate Delvar Barrett came up big with 21 points (11 of 13 from the line) and 11 boards as Ohio pounded the Zips inside the paint. The Bobcats, while outrebounded in a long-forgotten first half, finished the night with 60 rebounds compared to 41 for Akron.

"Fortunately for us, Delvar was able to make some incredibly pressurized free throws and I give him a lot of credit for that," said O'Shea. "Obviously Brandon, if he can just get the free throws with some consistency, it would make a big difference because teams are just going to foul him and make him shoot free throws. I know he works his butt off at it. It just hasn?t been going that well for him at the free-throw line. But the guy had 26 rebounds and 30 points, another monster game for Brandon Hunter."

Also scoring more than 10 points for Ohio were Steve Esterkamp with 17 points in 57 minutes and Sonny Johnson with 16 points. Thomas Stephens dished out 10 assists for the Cats.

Tarver scored a career best 41 points to pace Akron before fouling out with 2:11 left in the second extra period. Hollingsworth logged 54 minutes and tallied 24 points as the Zips only had two scorers in double digits.

Ohio moved to 1-1 in the MAC and 4-6 overall. The Bobcats will try to rest up for a road trip to Mt. Pleasant to face CMU on Saturday. The status of Barrett is up in the air; he left the contest in the third overtime with an apparent ankle injury.

"We?ll just shoot tomorrow," said O'Shea. "We?ll give our legs some rest. Thursday and Friday we?ll go light. I certainly hope Delvar is ready to go. With Chris Kaman there, we need Big Del."