Pennington and Royal lead Men's Basketball past Mount Union
By: Andrew Korba
ALLIANCE — Sophomore Lucas Pennington scored 21 points and junior Dominique Royal added a career high 18 as the Ohio Northern men's basketball team defeated Mount Union 69-63 Saturday at the MAAC.
With the win, the Polar Bears move to 7-6 overall and 3-3 in the OAC, while the Purple Raiders fall to 5-8, 3-3.
Royal was 9-of-15 from the field while Pennington was 6-of-12. Both players also pulled down seven rebounds apiece.
ONU used an early 7-0 run to open up a 14-11 lead with just over 11 minutes left in the first half.
The Polar Bear expanded their lead to 30-23 with 2:43 left on a jumper by Royal.
But Mount Union scored the final 10 points of the first half to take a 33-30 lead into the half.
ONU would come storming out of the half and use a 21-7 run to build a 51-40 lead with 13 minutes remaining.
Pennington and Royal each scored six points during the run, senior Taylor Kuhlman added four points, junior Branden Rushton scored three and junior Jared Horstman chipped in with a basket to give ONU their largest lead of the game.
Mount Union would chip away and cut the ONU lead to 53-50, but the Polar Bears responded with six quick points to open up a 59-50 lead with just more than six minutes left.
The Purple Raiders would make one more run and cut the Northern lead to 65-63 with 30 seconds left.
Sophomore Isaiah Roux was fouled and made both free throws to put ONU up 67-63 with 26 seconds to play.
ONU got a stop and Pennington drained two more free throws to put the game away.
The Polar Bears shot 25-of-53 (47.2 percent), while Mount Union was 20-of-50 (40 percent).
The Purple Raiders were a solid 17-of-20 (85 percent) from the free throw line, while Northern was 12-of-18 (66.7 percent), but was 7-of-8 in the last two minutes.
Mount Union held the advantage in rebounding, 33-31.
ONU committed only 12 turnovers while Mount Union had 17.
The Polar Bears will be in action again on Wednesday when they host Heidelberg at 7:30 pm.