Gehle leads ONU to 70-59 win over Susquehanna (Pa.) in first round of Carnegie Mellon (Pa.) Tournament

Nov. 24, 2007

By Tim Glon

PITTSBURGH, Pa. — Kyle Gehle nailed back-to-back three-pointers to stem a Susquehanna (Pa.) run and lead the Ohio Northern men’s basketball team to a 70-59 victory in the first round of the Carnegie Mellon (Pa.) Tournament Saturday afternoon.

The Polar Bears (2-1) will face host Carnegie Mellon (2-1) in the championship game Sunday at 3 pm.

The Tartans defeated Haverford (Pa.) 73-59 in the other first round game on Saturday.

Gehle led Ohio Northern with 16 points, Kyle Meyer scored a career-high 12 points and Jake Cannan had 12 points to lead ONU.

Northern led 44-29 after a bucket by Loudan Hammersmith with 18:29 left and still had a comfortable 56-45 lead after a layup by Ezra Bradshaw with 10:05 left to play.

But the Crusaders (2-1) would score the game’s next 10 points to pull within 56-55 with 7:34 remaining.

That’s when Gehle sparked the Polar Bears with two consecutive three-pointers.

His first made it 59-55 with 8:02 to go and his second gave the Polar Bears a 62-55 advantage with 5:55 left.

Cannan drilled two free throws at the 4:19 mark, Hammersmith scored inside at the 2:24 mark and Gehle made one of two free throws with 1:56 left to cap an 11-0 run and give Northern an insurmountable 67-55 lead.

SU led 15-7 early on, but Northern used a 14-1 run to regain the lead for good at 21-16 with 8:40 left in the half.

Northern closed out the first half with a 10-2 run to take a 40-28 advantage into intermission.

ONU made 24-of-53 field goals for 45.3 percent, while holding the Crusaders to 39.3 percent shooting on 22-of-56 attempts.

The Polar Bears were 8-of-22 from three-point range for 36.4 percent and made 14-of-21 free throws for 66.7 percent. SU was only 2-of-15 from beyond the arc for 13.3 percent and made 13-of-21 from the foul line for 61.9 percent.

Susquehanna, led by 14 points and a game-high 10 rebounds from Kevin Cuff, out-rebounded ONU 37-34.

Josh Robinson led all scorers with 19 points for SU.