Will Miller scores 23 points as Men's Basketball falls 80-76 at Wilmington

WILMINGTON — Sophomore Will Miller (Ottoville) scored 23 points to lead the Ohio Northern men's basketball team in an 80-76 loss at Wilmington on Wednesday night.

The Basics

• Records: Ohio Northern (9-7 overall, 4-5 OAC), Wilmington (7-9 overall, 3-6 OAC)
• Venue: Fred Raizk Arena - Wilmington, Ohio

The Game

• Miller was 4-of-8 from 3-point range as part of his 23 points.
• Sophomore Mason Studer (Galion/Colonel Crawford) and freshman Carter Reese (Westerville/North) joined Miller in double figures on Wednesday. Studer made a trio of 3-pointers and tallied 11 points and five rebounds, and Reese added 10 points, four rebounds and three assists.
• Freshman Jadi Cunningham Jr. stuffed the stat sheet with two points, six rebounds, five assists and three steals.
• Matthew Dugue scored a team-high 14 points off the bench for the Quakers, who finished with four double-figure scorers.
• Wilmington built an early 12-4 lead and was up 26-13 with 10:42 left in the opening half.
• A layup from freshman Noah Langford (Perrysburg/Toledo Central Catholic) started an 8-0 ONU run that also included 3-pointers from Reese and Studer to cut the deficit to five, 26-21, with 7:30 left in the half.
• Reese tied the score at 28-all with a 3-pointer with 4:49 remaining, and back-to-back triples from Miller and junior Blake Michael (Fremont/St. Joseph Central Catholic) put ONU up 39-32 with just 32 seconds left in the half.
• ONU led 39-34 at halftime.
• WC regained the lead at 45-43 with 14:00 left in the game, but a 3-pointer from Studer put ONU up 52-47 with 11:41 remaining.
• Another Studer triple followed by a layup gave Northern a 65-58 edge with 6:32 left.
• A personal 5-0 run from Miller gave ONU a 70-62 lead with 5:09 left, but the Quakers responded with a 7-0 run to get back within one, 70-69 with 3:57 remaining.
• The teams continued to battle in a tightly contested game down the stretch, as a Miller 3-pointer tied the score at 75-all before WC answered with a pair of free throws for the lead.
• Leading 78-76 with 10 seconds left, the Quakers made a pair of free throws to seal the victory.
• Ohio Northern made 26-of-60 field goal attempts for 43.3% and was 11-of-28 from 3-point range for 39.3%.
• Wilmington was 28-of-66 shooting for 42.4% and was 4-of-15 on 3-pointers for 26.7%.
• ONU was 13-of-18 from the foul line for 72.2%, and WC was 20-of-31 for 64.5%.
• Both teams tallied 38 rebounds in the game.

Notables

• Wednesday's loss ended the Polar Bears' six-game win streak, which was the team's longest since it won 10 straight games during the 2016-17 season.
• Miller recorded his third 20-plus-point game and 10th double-figure scoring game of the season.
• Reese has scored in double figures in 13 games this season.
• Ohio Northern is now 44-33 all-time against Wilmington, including a 19-19 mark in Wilmington. The Polar Bears had won six straight meetings entering Wednesday.
• Ohio Northern is playing its 113th season of varsity men's basketball and has a record of 1367-1072, a winning percentage of .560.
• Head coach Neal Young is in his second season at Ohio Northern with a 19-22 record.

Up Next

• The Polar Bears return to action on Saturday hosting an OAC game against No. 3 John Carroll at 2 p.m. Earlier this season, on Dec. 2, the Blue Streaks defeated the Polar Bears 89-65 in University Heights.