Anne Peltier/THE POST Sophomore Phil Basile reacts with disappointment during the Mid-American Conference Tournament semifinal game. Basile watched the game with several friends in Gamertsfelder Hall last night. Ohio lost the game 68-57.

TOLEDO - The dream began back on Dec. 4 in Syracuse, N.Y. It was on that date Ohio defeated a ranked Syracuse team to make its dream materialize, namely that a Mid-American Conference Tournament Championship was indeed possible following a 5-21 season the year before.

It was indeed possible that Ohio could be the team cutting down the nets at the SeaGate Centre in Toledo as MAC champs on its way to the NCAA Tournament.

Last night at that very same place in the semi-finals of the MAC tournament against Kent, Ohio's dream fell into the college basketball abyss faster than Ohio guard Dustin Ford's tears fell to the floor after the game.

Ohio lost to Kent, for the third time this season, 68-57.

"Boy, it's hard to say anything positive about our performance," Ohio coach Larry Hunter said. "I just think we didn't play very well at all. We were out-physicaled.

"You have to give Kent an awful lot of credit, they did the things they had to. I'm not sure it was any one particular player. We just were never able to stop them with any consistency and get a run, ourselves, where we were feeling good about the way we were playing and what we were doing."

What Ohio has to do now is wonder what's next. Ohio is in contention for a post-season bid, but that bid most likely will not come from the NCAA Tournament. The National Invitation Tournament, designed for successful teams that don't make the NCAA's, is a more legitimate possibility.

Number two seeded Kent, (22-6, 13-5) meanwhile, with the win advanced to the MAC Championship game tonight against No. 1 seeded Miami at 7:30 p.m.

Miami survived an overtime battle with No. 5 seeded Bowling Green, which it won 60-56.

The winner of the tournament receives an automatic bid to the NCAA's. However, both teams may already be good possibilities at being invited as the MAC's tournament picture is less overcast following Ohio's loss.

"I think (the NCAA's) are going to take two teams from the Mid-American Conference," Kent coach Gary Waters said. "There's a great chance that (Miami and Kent) will both go and there's even the possibility of a third one, but I doubt it. I think we took (the NCAA's) off the hook today in essence. They're cheering. They're cheering in their offices right now, 'Hey we don't have to worry about this anymore.'"

Ever since Ohio's dream for this season developed, about three months ago, the season became more of a worry as expectations were pushed further away with each loss, losses that many felt shouldn't have totaled 10 by now.

But Ohio still made it to the semi-finals and its dream was only two wins away. Ohio just couldn't stretch its dream that far.

"Hopefully our season isn't over," Ohio forward Shaun Stonerook said. "Hopefully we can go to the NIT and go do some things, but it's definitely been a frustrating season.

"I think our expectations were a lot higher than third in the MAC and then losing in this game. But we definitely think we should have been up there, if not winning the MAC, then making it a lot closer than it was. It's been disappointing."