Branden Rushton's season-high 22 points leads Men's Basketball past UC-Clermont 73-63

CRESTVIEW HILLS, Ky. — Sophomore Branden Rushton scored a season-high 22 points, leading the Ohio Northern men's basketball team to a 73-63 victory over Cincinnati-Clermont Thursday afternoon in the Consolation Game of the Coach Connor Classic at the Connor Convocation Center.

The Polar Bears improve to 7-4 on the season and finish third in the tournament, while the Cougars fall to 10-12 on the season.

ONU senior Scott Schnelle was named to the All-Tournament Team as he scored 33 points and grabbed 14 rebounds in the two games.

Schnelle scored a season-high 24 points as ONU fell to No. 7-ranked Williams (Mass.) in the first round on Wednesday.

Williams and tournament host Thomas More (Ky.) will square off in the championship game Thursday evening.

Against UCC, the Polar Bears never trailed and raced to a 16-3 lead in the first 6:05 of the game.

The Cougars would get no closer than eight points the rest of the way.

Northern led 37-26 at halftime and used an 8-0 run to take its biggest lead at 65-47 with 5:34 left in the game.

Junior Taylor Kuhlman scored 10 points and Schnelle had nine points and grabbed a team-high nine rebounds for ONU.

UCC was led by Devin Bartlett with 16 points.

Northern made 28-of-65 field goal attempts for 43.1 percent, while Clermont made 26-of-60 shots from the floor for 43.3 percent.

The Polar Bears will return to action Jan. 4 with an Ohio Athletic Conference contest at Heidelberg.