Kyle Meyer's first career double-double leads ONU past Wilmington 66-62

Jan. 9, 2008

By Zach Stipe

WILMINGTON — The Ohio Northern men’s basketball team allowed only one basket during the final 5:24 of the game to hold off Wilmington and capture a 66-62 victory on Wednesday night at Fred Raizk Arena.

Freshman Kyle Meyer recorded his first career double-double to lead the Polar Bears, who improved to 9-4 overall and 5-1 in the Ohio Athletic Conference.

Wilmington dropped to 9-4 and 4-2 in the OAC.

Meyer had 14 points and a career-high 10 rebounds off the bench for Northern, while senior Jake Cannan added 19 points.

Freshman Sam Bastian tied his career-high with 13 points.

Leading the Quakers in scoring were Brandon Rogers with 16 points and Fred Harrison with 13 points.

After Kevin Colson hit a jumper with 5:24 left in the game to put Wilmington up 59-57, the Polar Bears forced the Quakers to miss six consecutive shots and also forced a turnover.

Meyer hit a pair of free throws to tie the game at 3:58, Cannan followed with a another make from the line, and Bastain and Cannan capped a 7-0 run with a pair of jumpers to give ONU a 64-59 with 1:06 left.

Harrison ended the Quakers’ drought with a 3-pointer with 46 seconds left to close the gap to 64-62, but Bastain answered back by nailing a jumper with eight seconds remaining in the game.

Northern jumped out to a big lead midway through the first half.

After Rogers buried a 3-pointer to give the Quakers an 11-9 lead, the Polar Bears ripped off 16-4 run over the next 5:47 to take a 25-15 lead nine minutes before halftime.

Wilmington fought its way back, though.

The Quakers snatched the lead back when Justin Gaines hit a 3-pointer to put Wilmington up 50-48 at the 10:32 mark in the second half.

Rogers extended the lead to 55-50 on jumper with 8:24 left in the game, but Northern clamped down on defense and rattled off a 16-7 run down stretch to win the game.

The Polar Bears made 9-of-15 shots in the second half for 60-percent shooting, while holding the Quakers to 13-of-30 for 43.3 percent.

For the game, ONU shot 56.5 percent (26-of-46), while Wilmington shot 41.7 percent (25-60).

Northern held a 32-27 edge in rebounding.

With the win, the Polar Bears sit in sole possession of second place in the OAC, a half-game behind No. 16-ranked Capital (5-0).

Northern gets a shot at the league-leaders this Saturday as the Crusaders travel to the ONU Sports Center for a 3 p.m. conference match-up.