Branden Rushton's 24 points leads Men's Basketball past Baldwin Wallace 89-77

By: Andrew Korba

BEREA -- Senior Branden Rushton scored a game-high 24 points to lead the Ohio Northern men's basketball team to a 89-77 road victory at Baldwin Wallace on Wednesday evening at Usprung Gymnasium.

The Polar Bears improve to 10-8 on the season and 6-5 in OAC play, while the Yellow Jackets fall to 9-9, 5-6.

Rushton finished 9-of-13 from the field and also recorded two steals.

Senior Dominique Royal added 14 points and six rebounds, while junior Isaiah Roux scored 13 points.

Kyle Payne paced BW with 17 points and five rebounds.

A jumper by Royal at the 14:52 mark of the first half capped a 6-0 run and put Northern up 17-10.

The Yellow Jackets would tie the game at 34-34 with four minutes left in the first half and would jump in front to take a 42-38 lead into halftime.

ONU scored the first seven points of the second half, capped off by a layup from Rushton, to take a 45-42 lead with just over 18 minutes left to play.

The teams would continue to battle and a basket by BW's Zach Brandy tied the game at 61-61.

But the Polar Bears stormed back and used a 12-3 run to pull ahead 74-63 with 4:23 left.

ONU would go 12-of-16 from the free throw line down the stretch, not letting the Yellow Jackets get closer than 10 points for the rest of the game.

Northern finished 32-of-62 (51.6 percent) from the field and were 21-of-29 (72.4 percent) from the charity stripe, while the Yellow Jackets finished 25-of-58 (43.1 percent) shooting and were 16-of-23 (69.6 percent) from the line.

The Polar Bears won the rebounding battle 36-32.

ONU also scored 21 points off of turnovers and held a 40-24 advantage in points in the paint.

Ohio Northern will return to action on Saturday, when it hits the road to take on Marietta at 3 pm.