Late 10-0 run rallies Men's Basketball to 74-68 victory over No. 15 Heidelberg

By Tim Glon

ADA — Ohio Northern outscored No. 15-ranked Heidelberg 10-0 over the final 1:37 of the contest to post a 74-68 men's basketball victory on Friday night at the ONU Sports Center.

Junior Brandon Waugh (Columbus/Northland) had a double-double with 18 points and 10 rebounds to lead the Polar Bears (3-3 overall, 3-3 Ohio Athletic Conference).

Sophomore C.J. Napier (Miamisburg/Bishop Fenwick) scored 18 points and grabbed nine rebounds and sophomores Grant Heileman (Millersport/Sheridan) and Landen Long (Mason) added 10 points each for ONU.

The Student Princes (6-2, 6-2) got a game-high 24 points from Emmanuel Perdue and 14 each from Seth Hohman and Dylan Woods.

Perdue scored HU's first 10 points after ONU led 35-32 at halftime as the visitors grabbed a 42-38 lead five minutes into the second period.

A layup by Heileman gave ONU a 63-61 lead with 3:36 left.

Perdue hit a 3 with 2:11 to go and scored again with 1:37 remaining as HU went up 68-64.

Napier converted a 3-point play with 1:12 to play to make it 68-67 and sophomore Adam Scott (Wapakoneta) gave ONU the lead for good with a nifty driving layup with 47 seconds left.

The ONU defense got a stop and sophomore Daniel Unruh (Elida) hade one of two free throws to extend the lead to 70-68 with 19 seconds left.

Perdue missed a pair of free throws with 12 seconds left and Waugh converted a pair of free throws with 10 ticks left and it was 72-68.

Long then iced the game with two more free throws with 4 seconds left.

"We did a much better job of executing down the stretch tonight," ONU head coach Rich Bensman said. "We got a couple of stops in the final minute and were much better coming out of timeouts late in the game. I'm proud of the way our guys battled the entire 40 minutes and I'm happy for them to get a win against a nationally-ranked opponent."

Ohio Northern made 23-of-54 field goal attempts for 42.6 percent and were 8-of-19 from 3-point range for 42.1 percent. Heidelberg was 26-of-55 from the floor for 47.3 percent but made only 5-of-24 three-pointers for 20.8 percent.

HU outrebounded ONU 36-28.

Ohio Northern was scheduled to play Capital and Heidelberg was slated to play Baldwin Wallace this weekend but CU and BW had to cancel due to COVID-19 protocols.

ONU and HU hurriedly put the game together Friday afternoon and will play again on Saturday at 6 pm at Sieberling Gymnasium in Tiffin.