Men's Basketball falls just short in 70-66 loss at Defiance

By Tim Glon

DEFIANCE — The Ohio Northern men's basketball team suffered its first loss of the season, falling 70-66 at Defiance on Tuesday at the Weaner Center.

The Polar Bears fall to 2-1 on the season, while the Yellow Jackets improve to 4-0.

Junior Lucas Pennington led ONU in scoring with a season-high 18 points. Junior Jordan Martin added 12 points and senior Dominique Royal added 10 points.

DC was led by Ryan Hicks with game-highs of 27 points and 11 rebounds and Travis Schomaeker with 26 points.

The Polar Bears would rally from sizeable deficits three different times in the game, only to see the Yellow Jackets go on a run to re-establish a lead each time.

ONU scored the game's first four points, but DC would answer with a 20-2 run to take a 20-6 lead with 10:08 left in the first half.

But Ohio Northern would rally with a 17-2 run to pull within 22-19 at the 5:03 mark of the half.

Defiance then scored the next nine points to go up 31-19 with 2:12 left in the half and would lead 33-23 at intermission.

Trailing 42-31, ONU went on a 12-1 run to tie the game at 43-43 with 9:45 left.

But the Yellow Jackets would go on a 10-2 run to take a 53-45 lead at the 7:05 mark.

Again the Polar Bears would rally and a pair of free throws by Pennington with 2:37 left to play would tie the game at 57-all.

Defiance again had an answer, scoring the next six points to regain a 63-57 lead with 1:20 to play.

A three-point play by junior Isaiah Roux with five seconds left would get ONU within 69-66, but DC would hold on for the win.

Ohio Northern made good on 23-of-57 feld goal attempts for 40.4 percent and Defiance made 22-of-43 shots for 51.2 percent.

The Polar Bears will open the home portion of its schedule on Saturday with a 3 pm contest against Bethany (W.Va.) at the ONU Sports Center.