CLEVELAND – Senior D.J. Cooper was named Ohio’s first Mid-American Player of the Year since Gary Trent in 1995.

The league made the announcement Wednesday, reporting that he won by a wide margin, collecting 16 of 27 votes from a media panel. Akron senior center Zeke Marshall was second with seven votes, while Buffalo junior forward Javon McCrea earned two votes. Ball State senior guard Juwan Scaife and Toledo junior forward Rian Pierson had one vote apiece.

On Monday, it was announced Cooper was an All-MAC selection for the fourth time, including for the third straight year as a first-team pick. He is sixth in the nation in assists per game at 7.2 and leads the Bobcats in scoring (14.8 ppg) and steals (2.1 per game).

“I’m very happy for D.J. he’s had a great season and has been integral in everything we’ve accomplished,” Ohio coach Jim Christian said in a press release. “He has left an unparalleled mark on the Ohio University men’s basketball program.”

Cooper recently became just the third player in NCAA history, along with Gary Payton and Sherman Douglas, to record 2,000 points and 900 assists in a career. Cooper is the only one to add 600 rebounds and 300 steals.

His 914 assists rank as the 12th-most all time and the most ever in the MAC, while his 323 steals are tied for 20th-all-time and is second in MAC history only to Bonzi Wells. Cooper is Ohio’s all-time leader in 3-pointers made with 267, games started with 136, games played with 140 and ranks fourth all-time in scoring with 2,035 points.

On Jan. 5, Cooper broke the single-game school record and tied the conference record with 17 assists against Marshall.

Cooper is the eighth Ohio player to earn MAC Player of the Year honors. Trent was the only Bobcat to win it more than once, taking the award three straight years.

It is the third straight year Cooper received votes for Player of the Year. Cooper finished fourth as a junior and tied for second as a sophomore. In 2010, Cooper was named the MAC Freshman of the Year and was given All-MAC honorable mention.

The Bobcats won a share of the MAC regular season title for the first time since 1994.

On Monday it was announced senior guard Walter Offutt and senior forward Reggie Keely were voted as All-MAC third-team selections. Offutt was an honorable mention pick a year ago, while it was the first All-MAC honor for Keely.

Offutt is third on the team in scoring at 10.9 points per game and also averages 3.8 rebounds, 2.1 assists and 1.3 steals per game.

Keely is the Bobcats’ second-leading scorer, averaging 11.9 points per game, including 13.6 in conference play. He leads the team in rebounding at 4.8 per game and is second in the MAC in field goal percentage, shooting 61.6 percent.

Other top MAC awards went to Akron’s Keith Dambrot, Coach of the Year; Marshall, Defensive Player of the Year; Western Michigan’s Darius Paul, Freshman of the Year; and Western Michigan’s David Brown, Sixth Man of the Year.

As the No. 2 seed in the MAC Tournament, Ohio earned a bye into the semifinals. The winner of tonight’s second-round game between No. 7 Eastern Michigan and No. 11 Miami plays No. 3 Western Michigan in the quarterfinals Thursday. That winner advances to face the Bobcats at about 9 p.m. Friday at Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland.