Pennington, Horstman lead Men's Basketball past Penn State-Beaver 78-60 for W&J Classic title

By Tim Glon

WASHINGTON, Pa. -- Sophomore Lucas Pennington scored 21 points and junior Jared Horstman added 15 points to lead the Ohio Northern men's basketball team to a 78-60 victory over Penn State-Beaver in the championship game of the Washington & Jefferson Classic on Sunday at the Henry Memorial Center.

The Polar Bears improve to 2-0, while the Nittany Lions fall to 1-1.

Pennington was named the Tournament MVP and Horstman was named to the All-Tournament Team for their efforts.

Sophomore Isaiah Roux added 14 points for Ohio Northern.

Penn State-Beaver was led by Nick Miller with 14 points, Robert Agurs with 13 points and Lamont Wright with 10 points.

Pennington was 7 of 10 from the floor, including a 5 of 6 effort from three-point range.

ONU used an early 9-0 run to take a 17-8 lead with 9:02 left in the first half, only to see PSU rally with an 11-2 run to go up 20-19 with 5:07 to play in the opening stanza.

But Northern closed the half on a 10-2 run to go up 35-28 at intermission.

The Polar Bears then scored the first six points of the second half to extend the run to 16-2 and take a 42-30 advantage.

Back-to-back 3-pointers from Pennington would extend ONU's lead to 58-39 with 12:17 remaining in the game.

Northern's largest lead came at the 2:01 mark when Pennington made a pair of free throws to make it a 76-55 score.

The Polar Bears made 30 of 56 field goal attempts for 53.6 percent, while the Nittany Lions made 22 of 45 field goals for 48.9 percent.

Northern dominated the glass by a 32-17 margin, led by nine rebounds from Horstman.

The Polar Bears will open its home schedule on Tuesday night in the second game of a double header with the ONU women.

The Polar Bear women will host Kenyon at 6 pm and the men will host Defiance at 8 pm at the ONU Sports Center.