Men's Basketball uses hot start, stingy defense to defeat Baldwin Wallace 63-47

By Tim Glon

ADA — Ohio Northern used a 20-4 first half run to take control, then played solid defense in the second half to post a 63-47 men's basketball victory over Baldwin Wallace Wednesday night at the ONU Sports Center.

The Polar Bears improve to 8-10 on the season and are 4-7 in Ohio Athletic Conference action, while the Yellow Jackets see their 10-game winning streak come to an end and are now 13-5, 8-3.

Junior Dominique Royal led ONU with 14 points, junior Jared Horstman added 12 points, junior Branden Rushton chipped in 10 points and senior Taylor Kuhlman scored seven points, grabbed a game-high nine rebounds, dished out four assists and had three steals for ONU.

Kyle Payne had 17 points and eight rebounds and Kevin Krakowiak scored 10 points for BW.

Northern took control of the game midway through the first half, going on a 20-4 run over a 7:49 span to turn a slim 15-13 lead into a commanding 35-17 advantage with 3:21 left in the half.

The Polar Bears led 39-23 at the break and scored the first seven points of the second half go ahead 46-23 with 18:26 left in the game.

ONU then turned to its defense to put the game away, holding BW to just 9-26 shooting and 24 points in the second half.

"Our guys played tough for 40 minutes tonight," ONU head coach Kevin Byrne said. "We did a good job of controlling the things we could control and did a great job defensively. We felt like we have played better that some of our recent scores would indicate and it was nice to see that hard work pay off tonight. It is just a matter of staying the course and we feel good about what direction we are heading."

The Polar Bears made 22 of 47 field goal attempts for 46.8 percent, while holding the Yellow Jackets to 18 of 51 shooting for 35.3 percent.

ONU won the rebounding battle by a 32-31 margin.

The Polar Bears will return to action Saturday at 3 pm with a home contest with league-leading Marietta at the ONU Sports Center.