Isaiah Roux's career-high 26 points leads Men's Basketball in 90-85 victory at league-leading Mount Union

By Tim Glon

ALLIANCE -- Junior Isaiah Roux scored a career-high 26 points to lead Ohio Northern to a 90-85 men's basketball victory at league-leading Mount Union on Saturday at the MAAC.

The Polar Bears have now won four consecutive games and six of their last seven.

ONU improves to 14-9 overall and is 10-6 in Ohio Athletic Conference play, while the Purple Raiders see their 7-game winning streak end and fall to 19-4, 14-2.

Roux had 26 points and dished out five assists, senior Branden Rushton scored 18 points, senior Jared Horstman scored 14 points, senior Dominique Royal added 13 points and junior Jordan Martin added 12 points for ONU.

MtU was led by Jarrett Ruffin with 18 points.

Trailing 83-82, Rushton drained a 3-pointer to put ONU ahead 85-83 with 1:44 left to play.

After a pair of missed free throws by Mt Union at the 1:08 mark, Rushton scored with 48 seconds to play to make it an 87-83 Polar Bear advantage.

Ruffin scored with 20 seconds left to pull the Purple Raiders within 87-85.

Roux made one of two free throws with 17 second to go to to push ONU's advantage to 88-85.

Rushton stole the ball with seven seconds left and Horstman made a pair of free throws with two seconds to play to ice the game.

Northern trailed 68-58 with 10:19 left in the game and responded with an 18-7 run to grab a 76-75 lead with 5:21 to play.

ONU made 29-of-56 field goal attempts for 51.8 percent, while MtU made 28-of-59 field goals with 47.5 percent.

Mount Union, the league's top 3-point shooting team, made 11-of-23 attempts from beyond the arc for 47.8 percent. But the Polar Bears were nearly as good, making 8-of-19 3-pointers for 42.1 percent.

The Purple Raiders won the rebounding battle by a slim 33-32 margin.

The Polar Bears will return to action Wednesday at Wilmington at 7:30 pm.