Men's Basketball: Ohio Northern (6-3 Overall) at Music City Classic v Lynchburg (Va.) (5-4 Overall) v Keene State (N.H.) (7-2 Overall)
Friday-Saturday, December 29-30, 2017, Noon/2 pm - Pickel Field House, Gallatin, Tenn.
This Weekend's Games: The Ohio Northern men's basketball team will travel to Nashville, Tenn., to compete in the D3 Music City Classic ... Eight men's teams and 12 women's teams will each play against predetermined opponents on Dec. 29 and again on Dec. 30 at Trevecca Nazarene University in Nashville and Volunteer State Community College in Gallatin ... ONU will play both Lynchburg (Va.) and Keene State (N.H.) at Pickel Field House at VSCC in Gallatin ... Junior Ryan Bruns posted his second consecutive double-double and his sixth of the season to lead Ohio Northern to a 93-64 road victory at Denison on Dec. 20 ... Bruns led all scorers with a 34-point effort and pulled down a game-high 10 rebounds ... He now has 14 double-doubles in his career ... Senior Nate Burger added 23 points and six rebounds and senior Joey DiOrio chipped in 18 points on 6-of-8 shooting from 3-point range ... Burger currently leads the OAC and ranks seventh nationally in scoring at 25.7 ppg ... The senior also leads the OAC and ranks 15th in the nation with 6.2 assists per contest ... Bruns currently ranks second on the team and third in the OAC at 22.4 ppg ... The junior's 8.8 rebounds per game average leads the team and ranks third in the OAC ... Bruns also leads the team and conference with 26 blocks this season and is tied for eighth nationally in the category ... DiOrio is fourth in the OAC with a .5615 3FG shooting percentage ... Bruns ranks third all-time at ONU with 150 career blocked shots ... Lynchburg is coming off an impressive 131-64 victory at King's (Pa.) on Dec. 9 ... Brett Buisson led 5 players in double figures in scoring with a career-high 27 points ... The win tied the mark for second-most points scored in Lynchburg men's basketball history and was the largest margin of victory in head coach Hilliary Scott's tenure, and their 24 3-pointers shattered the previous single-game team record of 18, which the team tied earlier this year ... Chance Greene leads the team in scoring at 17.9 ppg ... Connor Schroeder is second in scoring at 11.8 ppg and Austin Wrighten is third at 10.4 ppg ... Keene State used a 16-2 run over the final 3:41 to defeat Southern Maine 73-58 on Dec. 9 ... Ty Nichols led the Owls with 25 points, 18 of which came in the second half ... He also added six rebounds, six assists and four steals ... Nichols leads the team in scoring at 19.9 ppg ... Dizel Wright is second in scoring at 11.6 ppg and James Anozie is third at 10.0 ppg.
Ohio Northern Probable Starters:
G - #12 Nate Burger, Sr., (25.7 ppg, 31 3FG, 56 Ast)
G - #5 Austin Allemeier, So., (3.9 ppg, 19 Ast)
F - #22 Joey DiOrio, Sr., (15.4 ppg, .515 3FG, 34 3FGs, 5.8 rpg)
F - #1 Brandon Waugh, Fr. (9.9 ppg, 14 Stls, 19 Ast)
C - #21 Ryan Bruns, Sr. (22.4 ppg, 8.8 rpg, 26 Blocks)
ONU Statistical Leaders:
Scoring | Rebounding | 3FGs | Assists | Blocked Shots | ||||||||||||||
1. | Burger | 25.7 | 1. | Bruns | 8.8 | 1. | DiOrio | 34 | 1. | Burger | 56 | 1. | Bruns | 26 | ||||
2. | Burns | 22.4 | 2. | DiOrio | 5.8 | 2. | Burger | 31 | 2. | Allemeier | 19 | 2. | DiOrio | 7 | ||||
3. | DiOrio | 15.4 | Burger | 5.8 | 3. | Waugh | 9 | Waugh | 19 | 3. | Waugh | 2 | ||||||
Allemeier | 2 |
All-Time Series: The Polar Bears lead the all-time series with Lynchburg by a 1-0 margin ... Northern defeated the Hornets 86-84 at the Transylvania Tournament last December ... ONU and Keene State have net yet met in men's basketball.
ONU head coach Rich Bensman: Bensman is in his second season at ONU with a 22-13 record, a winning percentage of .629.