ONU holds off late rally to beat Grace Bible (Mich.) 72-67

Nov. 17, 2007

By Steven Wright

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Kyle Gehle, Kurtis Brown and Loudan Hammersmith all scored double-digits to help Ohio Northern’s men’s basketball team fend off Grace Bible (Mich.) 72-67 Saturday afternoon in the Consolation Game of the Calvin Tip-Off Tournament at the Calvin Fieldhouse.

The Polar Bears are now 1-1 after the weekend while GBC falls to 4-6.

Gehle led the way with 19 points, connecting on five three pointers in 12 attempts. He also added six rebounds and a steal for ONU.

Brown had the touch from outside as well, hitting 4-of-7 three-point shots to end the game with 16 points. Hammersmith added 15 points and seven rebounds.

Jake Cannan was one point shy of his first double-double of the season with nine points and 10 rebounds.

After shooting just 16.7% from beyond the three-point line against Washington (Mo.) the night before, Northern responded with a 36% performance against GBC.

Grace Bible had a 14-12 lead at the 11:44 mark in the first half before Hammersmith connected on a layup, drew the foul and converted the free throw to give the Polar Bears a lead they would never surrender.

ONU held a 28-24 lead with 3:42 left in the first half before ending the half on an 11-5 run to give the Polar Bears a 39-29 halftime lead.

Northern got off to a great start in the second half, scoring the first seven points of the half that was capped off by a Brown three pointer with 17:22 left that gave the Bears a 46-29 lead.

Grace Bible fought back to cut the lead to 53-45, but Ohio Northern responded with a 9-2 run to build the lead back to up to 15 points.

With the game seemingly out of reach, GBC kept fighting, chipped away at the lead and came within three points when Brandon Clahassey nailed a three pointer to make it 67-64 with 1:05 left in the game.

Cannan split a pair of free throws to increase the lead by one then Brown canned four consecutive free throws that surrounded another Clahassey three point bucket to end the game 72-67.

Northern again shot well from the free throw line, going 9-11 on the day.

Brandon Herlein led GBC with 15 points, followed by Clahassey with 14 and Dan Dame with 10 points and 10 rebounds off the bench.

Ohio Northern will return to action next Saturday and Sunday as it travels to the Carnegie Mellon (Pa.) Tournament.