Meyer scores career-high as Men's Hoops defeat Mount Union 77-76

Feb. 23, 2008

By Zach Stipe

ADA — Junior Kurtis Brown made a pair of free throws with nine seconds left in overtime to lift the Ohio Northern men’s basketball team to a 77-76 Senior Day victory over Mount Union on Saturday at the ONU Sports Center in Ada.

Senior guards Kyle Gehle and Mark Pratt were honored before their final regular season home game.

With the win, the Polar Bears finish the regular season with a record of 14-11 overall and 10-8 in the Ohio Athletic Conference. The victory also clinches Northern’s 18th consecutive winning season.

The Purple Raiders dropped to 9-16 overall and 6-12 in the OAC.

ONU’s win and Muskingum’s 108-102 double overtime loss to Heidelberg gives the Polar Bears the No. 4 seed in the OAC Tournament. Northern will host the fifth-seeded Muskies on Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. at the ONU Sports Center.

Mount Union will receive the eighth and final OAC Tournament seed if Otterbein loses to Capital on Saturday night.

Sophomore Kyle Meyer scored a career-high 26 points and junior Jake Cannan recorded his seventh double-double of the season to lead ONU.

Cannan scored 20 points and grabbed 10 boards.

Chris Switzer led the Raiders with 29 points, while Dave Pellerite added 16.

Cannan put Northern on the board first in overtime by hitting a jumper while being fouled and making his free throw to make the scored 68-65 18 seconds into the extra period.

Switzer tied the game with a 3-pointer 22 seconds later.

Northern regained the lead with 3:28 left in overtime when Meyer was fouled while making a layup. Meyer made the free throw and then scored on another layup with 2:58 left to put ONU up 73-69.

Switzer hit another 3-pointer to cut ONU’s lead to one-point with 2:38 remaining and Andrew Hoefner’s layup gave the Raiders a 74-73 lead with 1:20 left in the game.

Brown followed with a jumper to put ONU back up by one with 47 seconds left and Switzer put Mount Union ahead 76-75 by making a layup in the lane with 22 seconds left.

With the shot clock turned off, Brown drove the lane and was fouled with 9.1 seconds remaining. He hit the free throws to give ONU the 77-76 lead.

Same King’s desperation 3-pointer was no good as time expired.

Mount Union led for most of the game and held a 57-52 lead with six minutes left in regulation, but ONU took control of the game with a 9-0 run.

Pratt and Meyer each hit a pair of free throws and Cannan followed with a 3-pointer to put ONU up 59-57 at the 4:32 mark. Cannan added another jumper to cap the run and give ONU a 61-57 lead with 3:51 left in the game.

The Raiders tied the game 63-63 on a layup by Sam Shepherd and after Ezra Bradshaw put ONU up by two points, Mike Fatigante made a layup with 27 seconds left in the game to tie the score 65-65.

Junior Steve Young’s 3-pointer bounced off the top of the rim as time expired to send the game into overtime.

Mount Union scored eight straight points in the final two minutes of the first half to go up 36-26 and take its biggest lead of the game 39 seconds before intermission.

ONU shot 50 percent (25-of-50) for the game and held a 35-34 edge on rebounds. Mount Union shot 41.8 percent (28-of-67) from the field.

“We gutted it out,” ONU head coach Jeff Coleman said. “We started out strong out of the gate in the second half and that got us back into the game.”