DaytonDailyNews.com

CLEVELAND — A second after he took the shot, Doug Penno knew something was wrong.

"As soon as it left, it felt good leaving, but as I watched it go through the air I thought, man, it's not going in," the Miami University senior guard and Alter High School graduate said.

Penno's 3-point shot at the buzzer was too strong and was slightly off to the right. But the basketball banked off the backboard and plopped through the net, setting off pandemonium as the RedHawks clinched — following a 9-minute delay — their first NCAA tournament berth in eight years.

Penno's second buzzer-beating shot of the season gave the RedHawks a dramatic 53-52 victory over the Akron Zips in the championship game of the Mid-American Conference tournament.

But hold everything.

"I was kind of looking around in disbelief, like are you serious? I just made a shot to put us in the tournament," Penno said of his last-second heroics.

"As I hit the floor (beneath every one of his exuberant teammates), I saw something going on at the scorer's table. There was kind of a moment of doubt."

It seemed the game wasn't quite over yet.

"I thought they were reviewing whether or not the shot was good," Miami coach Charlie Coles said, "and I became unruly. I almost got into three fights. It all happened in a blur ... but when I found out the basket was good, then I was OK."

The problem was with the clock and the official timer.

That's what Akron coach Keith Dambrot told the officials, so they began reviewing the play, which began with the Zips holding a 52-50 lead and Akron's Cedrick Middleton missing a free throw with 6.6 seconds remaining. Then Miami's Michael Bramos grabbed the rebound.

"I saw Mike coming right at me," Penno said, "and the guy on my left (Middleton) left me to go guard Mike. Mike passed it to me, and (Nick) Dials came out on me. ... I got a nice shot fake and a one-dribble pull-up. I said a little prayer while it was in the air, and God answered that prayer."

The clock read 0:00 following Penno's shot, but after the delay the officials put six-tenths of a second back on the clock. The Zips (26-7) tried a long pass down the sideline, but it went out of bounds, giving Miami (18-14) the victory.

According to official Lamont Simpson, "On the missed free throw, the ball was touched with 6.6 (seconds) left. The clock did not start. In order to get the correct time on the clock, we ran the play live (from a TV monitor) and used a stopwatch. We started it on the touch and stopped it on the made basket, as the ball came through the net. ... The stopwatch read six seconds. We did it at least five times."