Men's Basketball rallies for 72-68 overtime victory over Wilmington
By Tim Glon
ADA — Junior C.J. Napier (Miamisburg/Bishop Fenwick) had a double-double with 25 points and 12 rebounds and Ohio Northern rallied from a late 8-point deficit to force overtime and defeat Wilmington 72-68 in an Ohio Athletic Conference men's basketball game at the ONU Sports Center.
The Polar Bears (5-2 overall, 1-1 OAC) also got 14 points from senior Brandon Waugh (Columbus/Northland) and 12 points from junior Michael Berner (Springboro).
The Quakers (2-5, 0-2) got 24 points and 11 rebounds from Jeffrey Mansfield and 13 points and 13 rebounds from Obed Achirem.
Waugh scored nine of his 14 points in the final 34 seconds of regulation as ONU battled back from a 61-55 deficit to force overtime.
Waugh nailed a 3-pointer with 34 seconds left to get ONU within 61-58 and made three free throws with 14 seconds left to make it 62-61.
After a pair of WC free throws made it 64-61, Waugh nailed a contested three just ahead of the buzzer to tie the game at 64-all and send the game into overtime.
Northern scored on its opening possession of overtime on a layup by Napier and did not trail in the extra session.
A 3-pointer by freshman Ethan Bell (Marion/River Valley) to put ONU on top 70-66 with 2:37 left in the game.
Napier scored inside with 10 seconds left to put ONU up 72-68 and the Polar Bear defense forced a WC turnover with five seconds left to ice the contest.
With Mansfield on the bench with three first half fouls, ONU went on a 16-0 run to turn a 24-18 deficit into a 34-24 lead before settling for a 34-25 advantage at intermission.
Wilmington went on a 13-1 run, holding Northern without a field goal for 6:26, to grab a late 57-49 lead. A Waugh basket broke the scoring drought and got ONU within 57-51 with 1:54 left in the game.
Two free throws by Naper made it 57-53 with 1:20 to go and a pair of free throws by junior Landen Long (Mason) got the hosts within 59-55 with 52 seconds left.
"I was happy with the way we kept battling," ONU head coach Rich Bensman said. "We did not play well tonight, but give Wilmington credit - they took us out of some stuff that we wanted to do. We made some big plays late in game to get us into overtime."
Ohio Northern made 26-of-58 field goal attempts for 44.8 percent and was 4-of-14 from 3-point range for 28.6 percent. Wilmington was 26-of-60 from the floor for 43.3 percent and made 2-of-10 from beyond the arc for 20.0 percent.
Each team grabbed 40 rebounds.
The Polar Bears will return to action on Saturday when they host No. 17-ranked Mount Union in the second game of a women's/men's double header at approximately 4 pm.