Royal's 14 points leads Men's Basketball past Muskingum 63-48 in OAC opener

NEW CONCORD — Three players scored in double figures to lead the Ohio Northern men's basketball team a 63-48 road in their OAC opener against Muskingum Saturday afternoon at Performance Court.

With the win the Polar Bears are now 4-1 overall and 1-0 in the OAC while Muskingum is now 2-4 and 0-1 in conference.

Sophomore Dominque Royal led the Polar Bears with 14 points on 6-of-7 shooting from the field.

Senior Scott Schnelle added 13 points and five rebounds while sophomore Brandon Rushton chipped in with 11 points.

The Polar Bears got going early, taking a 10-4 lead four minutes into the game capped off by a layup  Rushton.

Northern then used a 9-0 run to take a 30-19 lead with 4:47 left in the first half.

Royal had five points during the run while Schnelle had four.

ONU took a 32-26 lead into the half.

Muskingum trimmed the lead down to 40-37 with 12:36 remaining but Northern responded with another 9-0 run.

Freshman Lucas Pennington had three points while Royal, Schnelle and freshman Reco Spears each scored two points.

In the last 12 minutes of the game, the Polar Bears outscored the Muskies by a 23-8 margin.

Northern shot 21-of-44 (47.7 percent) from the field while Muskingum was 17-of-53 (32.1 percent).

Josh Brindley led Muskingum with 17 points while Kyle Clinedinst posted a double-double with 14 points and 15 rebounds.

Ohio Northern will be in action again when they host Otterbein on Wednesday at 7:30 p.m.