Pennington, Royal, Rushton combine for 61 as Men's Basketball wins at Otterbein 82-73

By Tim Glon

WESTERVILLE — Sophomore Lucas Pennington scored 21 points and juniors Dominique Royal and Branden Rushton had 20 points each to lead Ohio Northern to an 82-73 men's basketball road win at Otterbein Wednesday night at the Rike Center.

The Polar Bears improve to 9-11 overall and are 5-8 in Ohio Athletic Conference play, while the Cardinals fall to 7-13, 4-9.

Pennington nailed 8-of-11 field goal attempts, including 4-of-5 from 3-point range, to lead ONU.

Northern got on top quick and never trailed in the contest, scoring eight of the first nine points to take an 8-1 lead.

A basket by Rushton at the 9:02 mark of the first half capped a 10-2 run and gave the Polar Bears a 28-13 lead.

A basket by Jon Jergens with 10:38 left to play pulled Otterbein within 58-55, but ONU would score the next six points to push the lead to 64-55 with 8:49 to play.

But the hosts would make one more run at the Polar Bears, and a basket by Max Van Meter with 59 seconds left trimmed the lead to 74-70.

Northern put the game away at the foul line, making its final eight free throws in the final 46 seconds.

Van Meter led all scorers with 22 points and Jake Bischoff added 11 points for OU.

Northern made 29-of-57 field goal attempts for 50.9 percent, while Otterbein made 25-of-60 for 41.7 percent.

The Polar Bears will return home on Saturday for a 3 pm matchup against Muskingum at the ONU Sports Center.