Branden Rushton scores a team-high 25 points, but Men's basketball falls to Trine (Ind.) 73-68
January 4, 2014
By: Caleb Scott
ADA — Senior Branden Rushton scored a game-high 25 points to lead the Ohio Northern men's basketball team as they fell 73-68 to Trine (Ind.) on Saturday afternoon at the ONU Sports Center.
The Polar Bears had their four-game winning streak snapped and falls to 6-5 on the season, while the Thunder improved their record to 7-4.
Rushton finished the game shooting 11-17 from the floor, including 3-4 from 3-point range.
Down 70-68, Ohio Northern had a chance to send the game into overtime, but Rushton missed a short jumper in the lane with 11 seconds to go.
Trine then hit one of two free throws to push the score to 71-68. Junior Lucas Pennington missed a 3-point attempt with seven seconds to go that would have tied the score.
The Thunder than made a pair of free throws with three seconds left to ice the game.
"Rushton was terrific again today," ONU head coach Kevin Byrne said. "He's brought it every game this year. We just didn't have enough guys bring it with him today to get it done. He got a good look in the lane, but it just didn't go down."
Ohio Northern fell behind 19-30 with 6:44 to go in the first half before going on a 19-6 run to end the half and take the lead at the break 38-36.
The Polar Bears opened the second half by scoring on six of their first eight possession's to go ahead 51-47 with 15:24 left to play.
Northern then went cold from the field, not scoring for the next 7:02, while Trine capitalized with a 11-0 run to take the lead 58-51.
Rushton scored ONU's next seven points to bring the Polar Bears within 58-63 with 3:30 to play.
Ohio Northern shot 44.8 percent from the field on 26-of-58 shooting and finished 8-of-15 from beyond the 3-point arc shooting 53.3 percent.
Trine hit 47.8 percent of their shots from the field (22-of-46) and shot 35.7 percent (5-of-14) from beyond the arc.
The Polar Bears will be back in action Wednesday at 7:30 pm at the ONU Sports Center when they host No. 15-ranked Marietta.
