Men's Basketball goes 2-0 at Buffalo State Classic with 72-57 victory over Johnson & Wales

By Tim Glon

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Senior Dominique Royal led three players in double figures with 19 points as the Ohio Northern men's basketball team defeated Johnson & Wales (R.I.) 72-57 at the Buffalo State Coles Classic Saturday afternoon at the Buffalo State Sports Arena.

The Polar Bears finish their season-opening tournament with a 2-0 record, while the Wildcats fell to 0-2 at the tournament and are 1-3 overall.

Royal was awarded with All-Tournament Team honors, as was senior Branden Rushton.

Royal was 6-of-7 from the floor and was a perfect 7-of-7 from the line and joined three other ONU players with a team-high five rebounds in the game.

Junior Lucas Pennington scored 18 points and Rushton added 16 points for Ohio Northern.

JWU was led by Robert Lewis with 18 points and Matt Barboza with 16 points.

Northern held Quarry Greenway to just 13 points, 16.3 points under his 29.3 ppg season  average.

Back-to-back 3-pointers by Pennington broke a 19-all tie and gave the Polar Bears the lead for good at 25-19 with 4:31 left in the first half.

Two consecutive layups by junior Jordan Martin extended the ONU lead to 33-23 and the Polar Bears eventually led 33-25 at intermission.

A Greenaway basket at the 10:25 mark of the second half pulled JWU within 46-43, but Penning would answer with a three and Rushton would score to give ONU a 51-44 lead with 9:27 left in the game.

Rushton made a pair of free throws and followed with a basket on ONU's next possession and the lead was 64-53 with 5:01 remaining.

Rushton's jumper with 59 seconds left gave ONU its largest lead of the game and ended the scoring at 72-57.

ONU made good on 25-of-54 field goal attempts for 46.3 percent, while the Wildcats made 18-of-45 shots for 40.0 percent.]

Ohio Northern out-rebounded Johnson & Wales 35-29.

The Polar Bears will return to action Tuesday with a 7:30 pm contest at Defiance.