Late 3-pointer lifts Wilmington to 80-79 victory at Ohio Northern

Feb. 13, 2008

By Zach Stipe

ADA — Fred Harrison’s deep 3-pointer with 14 seconds left in the game lifted Wilmington past the Ohio Northern men’s basketball game 80-79 on Wednesday night at the ONU Sports Center.

The win improved the Quakers to 14-8 overall and 9-6 in the Ohio Athletic Conference. The loss drops the Polar Bears to 13-9 overall and 9-6 in the OAC.

Northern and Wilmington are now tied for third place in the conference.

After Harrison’s 3-pointer, Northern took a time out and set up a play for senior Kyle Gehle.

Gehle took a backdoor pass from junior Jake Cannan, drove baseline and lifted a floater that rimmed out. Sophomore Kyle Meyer’s tip-in also didn’t fall as the buzzer sounded.

Gehle led ONU in scoring with 24 points, while sophomore Ezra Bradshaw scored a season-high 13 points. Cannan added 10 points.

R.J. Brown’s 16 points led four players in double figures for the Quakers. Scott Walters had 13, Brandon Rogers finished with 12 and Harrison had 11 points.

A pair of free throws by Ezra Bradshaw put ONU up 60-56 with 11:22 remaining in the game.

Wilmington answered with a 10-4 run.

Rogers started the run at 10:37 with a jumper and Walters ended the run with a layup to put the Quakers up 68-64 with 7:26 left.

Northern regained the lead when junior Kurtis Brown found sophomore Kyle Meyer for a layup to give ONU a 72-70 advantage with just under four minutes to play.

Cannan increased the lead to 74-70 33 seconds later with a jumper.

The Polar Bears continued to hold the lead after Brown hit a jumper just inside the 3-point line to make the score 78-74 with 42 seconds to play, but Wilmington’s Zach Broermann drilled a 3-pointer to make it a 1-point game with 34 seconds remaining.

Brown was fouled with 33 seconds left, but split his free throws to put Northern up 79-77 before Harrison’s game-winning 3-pointer.

In the first half, Northern jumped out to a 19-11 lead after junior Mitch Anderson hit a 3-pointer 12:29 before halftime.

The Polar Bears were up by as many as 9 points when Gehle hit a pair of free throws to make the score 30-21 with 5:08 left in the first half.

However, the Quakers cut ONU’s lead to just 36-35 with 1:21 left before intermission as Wilmington went on a 14-6 run over a four-minute span.

Wilmington held a 31-29 advantage on the boards, a 19-13 edge in assists and a 14-2 lead on second chance points. The Quakers shot 49.1 percent from the floor, while the Polar Bears hit 52.4 percent.

“Wilmington hit some shots,” ONU head coach Jeff Coleman said. “We play Capital at Capital on Saturday, it’s not going to get any easier.”

Ohio Northern returns to action this Saturday when it travels to OAC-leading Capital for a 3 p.m. game.