Men's Basketball: Otterbein (9-2 Overall, 3-1 OAC) at Ohio Northern (5-6 Overall, 1-3 OAC)
Wednesday, Jan. 4, 2023, 7 pm - ONU Sports Center, Ada, Ohio
Wednesday's Preview: The Polar Bears wrapped up the non-conference portion of their schedule Dec. 29-30 with a 1-1 record at the Naples (Fla.) Classic ... ONU topped Clarkson (N.Y.) 70-65 and fell to Suffolk (Mass.) 78-70 ... Northern finished its non-conference schedule with a 4-3 mark, the fifth consecutive season with a winning non-league record … Against Clarkson, senior Landen Long tied a career high with 6 made 3-pointers and had a game-high 25 points for ONU … Senior C.J. Napier became the 40th member of ONU's 1,000-Point Club with a team-high 18 points against Suffolk ... He entered the game with 986 career points and now has 1,004 … Napier is averaging a team-best 15.2 points per game, which ranks sixth in the OAC ... He is also fifth in the OAC with a team-best 7.0 rebounds per game average … Long is averaging 12.7 points per game, and senior Adam Scott is averaging 9.5 points per game … Senior Michael Berner is second on the team in rebounding at 5.0 rpg … Long has made a team-leading 18 3-pointers and is shooting 46.2% from beyond the arc … Sophomore Ethan Bell leads the team with 34 assists, which ranks fourth in the OAC … Freshman Will Miller has a team-high 18 steals, which is sixth in the OAC … Berner leads the team with 12 blocks, which is tied for fifth in the OAC ... Otterbein is riding a 6-game winning streak, which includes victories over Manchester (Ind.) and Alma (Mich.) at its own Smokey Ballinger Classic Dec. 29-30 ... Senior Dallas Patrick was named the OAC Player of the Week after posting two double-doubles in the tournament, earning himself Tournament MVP honors in the process ... Junior Cam Evans leads the OAC in scoring, averaging 21.3 ppg ... Sophomore Alex Hannah is second at 12.3 ppg, Patrick is third at 12.1 ppg and freshman Julian Heckman is fourth at 10.3 ppg.
ONU Statistical Leaders:
Scoring | Rebounding | 3FGs | Assists | Steals | ||||||||||||||
1. | Napier | 15.2 | 1. | Napier | 7.0 | 1. | Long | 18 | 1. | Bell | 34 | 1. | Miller | 18 | ||||
2. | Long | 12.7 | 2. | Berner | 5.0 | 2. | Bell | 12 | 2. | Conley | 19 | 2. | Studer | 13 | ||||
3. | Scott | 9.5 | 3. | Scott | 4.6 | 3. | Conley | 9 | 3. | Long | 16 | 3. | Bell | 12 | ||||
Scott | 16 | Long | 12 |
All-Time Series: Ohio Northern leads the all-time series between the two schools by a 74-59 margin ... ONU is 43-24 in games played in Ada and is 30-15 against OU inside the ONU Sports Center ... OU has won four consecutive games in the series, including 71-67 and 57-53 wins last year.
Head Coach Neal Young: Young is in his first season at ONU and has a 5-6 record. He is 133-127 in 10 seasons overall after five seasons as head coach at Covenant (Ga.) and four seasons as head coach at Goshen (Ind.).