Cannan's career-high 16 boards lead Ohio Northern past Otterbein 78-72

Dec. 12, 2007

By Zach Stipe

ADA — Junior Jake Cannan’s second career double-double led the Ohio Northern men’s basketball team past Otterbein 78-72 on Wednesday night at the ONU Sports Center.

The Polar Bears improved to 6-3 overall and 3-1 in the Ohio Athletic Conference, while the Cardinals dropped to 1-7 overall and 1-3 in the OAC.

Cannan had 20 points and shattered his career-high in rebounds with 16. His previous best was 10 boards.

Senior Kyle Gehle and sophomore Kyle Meyer also scored in double figures, tallying 15 and 14, respectively.

Junior Kurtis Brown dished out a career-high eight assists, while junior Loudan Hammersmith chipped in with a season-high eight rebounds.

All five of Otterbein’s starters reached double figures, led by Ross Banaszak’s 21 points.

The Polar Bears led 42-29 after Cannan made a free throw with 15:47 remaining in the game, but the Cardinals quickly cut the 13-point deficit to only two with an 11-0 run in less than three minutes.

Clinging to a 51-48 at the 8:35 mark in the second half, freshman Sam Bastain sparked a 9-1 run with a pair baskets and the Polar Bears held a 60-49 lead with 6:11 left in the game.

ONU increased the lead to 70-56 at 2:57 after Cannan grabbed a rebound and dribbled the length of the floor for a coast-to-coast layup.

Otterbein’s Adam Wells kept the Cardinals in the game by hitting three 3-pointers in a span of two minutes, the third cutting ONU’s lead to 74-67 with 44 seconds left.

Brown made a layup and Gehle buried a pair of free throws down the stretch to clinch the ONU victory, though.

Meyer scored eight straight points to give ONU a 16-6 lead 11 minutes into the game. Brown assisted on six of those points, including a no-look pass for a layup to ignite the run.

Otterbein cut the lead to 18-16 on a layup by Banaszak with 5:13 left in the first half, but Gehle buried three 3-pointers in less than 90 seconds to put the Polar Bears up 30-18 two minutes before intermission.

Neither team shot well in the first half, with ONU shooting 38.2 percent (13-of-34) and Otterbein going 39.2 percent (11-of-28) from the floor. Both teams heated up in the second half, though as Northern shot 66.7 percent (20-of-30) and Otterbein shot 48.8 (20-of-41). For the game, Northern shot 51.6 percent, while Otterbein shot 44.9 percent.

ONU held a 44-29 advantage on the boards and a 19-10 edge in assists.

ONU had 16 turnovers, while Otterbein made nine.

“Sometimes you’ve got to find a way to win,” ONU head coach Jeff Coleman said. “That’s what we did tonight. You’ve got to win them all at home.”

The Polar Bears are 3-0 at the ONU Sports Center this season, but don’t host another game until Capital travels to Ada on Jan. 12.

Northern travels to John Carroll for a 2 p.m. OAC contest this Saturday, before heading to the Trinity (Tex.) Holiday Classic on Dec. 29-30.