Meyer perfect from the field as ONU Men's Hoops dominates Marietta for 98-44 win in home opener

Dec. 1, 2007

By Zach Stipe

ADA — Sophomore Kyle Meyer was a perfect 12-of-12 from the field and scored a career-high 24 points as the Ohio Northern men’s basketball team jumped out to an early lead and never looked back in defeating Marietta 98-44 in the Ohio Athletic Conference opener for both teams at the ONU Sports Center.

The 54-point victory was ONU’s biggest home win since Northern defeated Westminster 109-54 in the Ada Rotary Classic during the 1975-76 season.

The Polar Bears improved to 4-2 with the home-opening win, while the Pioneers dropped to 2-4.

In addition to Meyer’s career game, juniors Mitch Anderson and Steve Young, and freshmen Sam Bastian and Ross Steinecker also scored career-highs.

Anderson scored 15 points and shot 3-of-6 on 3-pointers, Young tied his career-best with nine points, Bastian scored 12 points and Steinecker scored 10 points. Senior Kyle Gehle also scored in double figures, adding 11 points.

Junior Jake Cannan led ONU in rebounds with nine and blocks with three.

Sophomore Ezra Bradshaw had a game-high six assists.

Adam Rockhold was the only player to score in double figures for the Pioneers, dropping 12 points to go along with nine rebounds.

Northern broke the game open with an 18-0 run in the middle of the first half.

Anderson sparked the run with a 3-pointer five minutes into the game which gave ONU an 11-7 lead.

Meyer, who scored six points in the spurt, capped the run with a jumper at the 9:37 mark to give ONU a 26-7 lead.

The Polar Bears then ended the half on a 20-1 run.

Bradley Hinton scored for the Pioneers to make the score 29-11 seven minutes before intermission, but Anderson answered right back with another 3-pointer to spark another run.

Meyer scored six straight points in the run, while Gehle and Bastain each knocked down threes as Northern took a 49-12 lead into halftime.

The Polar Bears stayed hot on offense and continued to play shut down defense in the second half.

After Marietta’s Isaiah Creasup hit a 3-pointer 37 seconds after intermission, ONU put together a 19-4 run. Gehle hit a jumper at 18:59 to start the run and Meyer capped the spurt with a jumper at 15:26 to make the score 68-19.

ONU went up by 50 points with 9:49 left in the game after Young found Meyer for a layup to make the score 80-50.

“It was nice to come home,” ONU head coach Jeff Coleman said. “Our players weren’t greedy and they took good shots. We were in sync pretty good defensively, too.”

Northern’s defense held Marietta to just 5-of-26 (19 percent) shooting from the field and 1-of-10 (10 percent) shooting from behind the 3-point arc in the first half, while burying 20-of 34 (59 percent) shots overall and 6-of-14 threes (43 percent) before halftime. In the second half, the Polar Bears shot 61 percent from the field and finished the game shooting 60 percent overall.

Northern held a huge 53-30 advantage on the boards and held a 27-13 edge on assists.

The win was ONU’s fourth straight victory in an OAC opener and the Polar Bears biggest victory since they beat the College of the Bahamas 113-45 on Nov. 24, 2006.

Northern returns to action Wednesday when it travels to Tiffin to take on Heidelberg at 7:30 p.m.