Hot-shooting Polar Bears post 93-78 Men's Basketball victory over Wilmington

By Tim Glon

ADA — Ohio Northern shot 65 percent from the floor in the first half and held on for a 93-78 men's basketball victory over Wilmington Wednesday night at the ONU Sports Center.

The Polar Bears improve to 7-7 overall and are 2-5 in Ohio Athletic Conference play, while the Quakers fall to 5-8, 2-5.

Sophomore Devon Allen led four ONU players in double figures in scoring with a season-high 18 points.

Senior Isaiah Roux added 17 points and a season-high six assists, sophomore Konnor Baker had 15 points and a team-high six rebounds and sophomore Joey Hurless added 14 points for ONU.

Wilmington was led by Jonathan Bibbs with 25 points and Christian Jones with 16 points.

The Polar Bears made 19-of-29 field goals, including a blistering 8-of-12 from 3-point range, and had runs of nine and 10 points in the first half and led 53-44 at intermission.

The early 9-0 run gave ONU a 16-5 lead just 3:37 into the contest.

After the Quakers had climbed to within 27-25, a 10-0 run extended Northern's advantage to 37-25 with 6:58 left in the half.

A 3-point play by Roux gave ONU it's largest lead of the half at 47-33 at the 4:14 mark.

WC pulled within 67-61 with 10:46 left in the game, but a 3-pointer by Allen and a steal and two free throws by freshman Joey DiOrio pushed the lead to 72-61 with 10:07 to play.

Three minutes later, DiOrio blocked a WC 3-pointer and went the other way for a fast break layup to put ONU ahead 79-65 with seven minutes to go.

Wilmington would get no closer than 11 points the rest of the way.

"We shot the ball very well in the first half," ONU head coach Kevin Byrne said. "It was nice to see the ball go in the basket for us. From there, we did enough to maintain the lead. We had some big defensive plays in the second half. The two defensive plays by Joey DiOrio were huge and came at key points in the game for us."

ONU finished the game shooting 34-of-60 from the floor for 56.7 percent, while Wilmington was 23-of-51 for 45.1 percent.

Northern made 10-of-21 3-pointers for 47.6 percent, compared to 6-of-16 shooting from beyond the arc for WC for 37.5 percent.

The Quakers made 26-of-29 free throws for 89.7 percent, while the Polar Bears made 15-of=21 for 71.4 percent.

Ohio Northern out-rebounded Wilmington 31-29.

The Polar Bears will return to action on Saturday with a 3 pm contest at Baldwin Wallace.