Long's season-high 20 leads Men's Basketball to 75-53 victory over Alma (Mich.)
By Tim Glon
ADA — Senior Landen Long (Mason) scored a season-high 20 points to lead the Ohio Northern men's basketball team to a 75-53 victory over Alma (Mich.) on Sunday afternoon at the ONU Sports Center.
The Polar Bears (3-2 overall) also got career-highs of 13 points and five assists from freshman Will Miller (Ottoville).
The Scots (2-3) were led by Connor Riley with 17 points.
Northern came out hot, making its first five field goal attempts, and took a 12-2 lead four minutes into the game.
A basket by Ethan Bell (Marion/River Valley) extended Northern's lead to 23-9 with 7:54 left in the half.
A putback at the horn by senior Michael Berner (Springboro) put the Polar Bears on top 31-19 at intermission.
ONU started the second half on a 9-0 run, capped by a slam dunk by Berner against the AC press, to make it 40-21 with 16:09 left in the game.
Alma would not get within 14 points the rest of the way and a pair of free throws by Miller at the 8:29 mark gave Ohio Northern its biggest advantage at 58-34.
The Polar Bears took advantage of the Scot full-court press and scored 21 fast break points in the contest.
Northern made 29-of-58 field goal attempts for 50.0 percent and was 6-of-14 from three for 42.9 percent, while Alma was 21-of-65 from the floor for 32.3 percent and hit just 3-of-26 from beyond the arc for 11.5 percent.
ONU out-rebounded AC 41-36 behind a career-high 11 rebounds from Berner to go with hie eight points.
The Polar Bears will return to action on Saturday when they open Ohio Athletic Conference play with a 2 pm contest against No. 17-ranked Marietta as part of a men's/women's double header at the ONU Sports Center.
