Men's Basketball stays atop OAC standings, wins 10th straight game with 91-78 victory over Heidelberg

By Tim Glon

ADA — Ohio Northern extended its winning streak to 10 games with a 91-78 men's basketball victory over Heidelberg on Wednesday night at the ONU Sports Center.

The Polar Bears improve to 15-7 overall and remain in a first place tie in the Ohio Athletic Conference with No. 10-ranked Marietta with a 13-2 record.

The Student Princes fall to 9-13, 5-10.

Senior Devon Allen (Lima/Senior) led ONU in scoring for the fifth time in the last six games with a game-high 21 points. He has surpassed the 20-point plateau in all five of those games and in eight games overall this season.

Senior Konnor Baker (Ada) added 18 points, junior Nate Burger (Dayton/Alter) scored 16 points, junior Joey DiOrio (Columbus/Watterson) added 13 points and sophomore Ryan Bruns (Chickasaw/Marion Local) had eight points and a game-high 11 rebounds for Ohio Northern.

Heidelberg was led by Chris Moxley with 19 points.

The Polar Bears scored just eight seconds into the game and did not trail in the contest.

ONU shot 54 percent from the floor in the first half to take a 54-33 lead into halftime.

Heidelberg trimmed the lead to 69-60 with 9:28 to play, but ONU responded with a 7-2 run on a pair of free throws and a 3-pointer by Burger sandwiched around a basket by Allen to extend the lead to 76-62 with 7:43 to go.

Northern would keep the lead in double digits the rest of the way.

"Our guys understand what we need to do on offense together to be successful," ONU head coach Rich Bensman said. "I'm proud of how far we have come as a team so far. We still have a long way to go to get where we want to be, but I'm pleased with our effort and our progress. We are shooting the ball well because we are getting good shots in the flow of the offense."

ONU made 31-of-63 field goal attempts for 49.2 percent and was 8-of-21 from 3-point range for 38.1 percent.

HU was 32-of-70 from the floor for 45.7 percent and was 6-of-19 from beyond the arc for 31.6 percent.

Ohio Northern won the rebounding battle 38-34 and was 21-of-23 from the foul line for 91.3 percent.

The Polar Bears will take to the road for a key OAC matchup with John Carroll on Saturday.