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Ohio Northern University

Late push not enough as Men's Basketball falls 90-82 at JCU

Late push not enough as Men's Basketball falls 90-82 at JCU
Video Box Score
February 11, 2017

By Caleb Scott

ADA — The Ohio Northern men's basketball team's late rally in the second half came up just short as they fell 90-82 at the DeCarlo Center on Saturday afternoon. 

The Polar Bears fall to 15-8 overall and are tied for second place with a 13-3 record in the Ohio Athletic Conference.

The Blue Streaks improve to 16-6 and move into a tie for second place in the OAC with a 13-3 conference mark.

Junior Joey DiOrio (Columbus/Watterson) led Northern on the afternoon as he scored a team-best 17 points and grabbed a team best eight rebounds.

Senior Devon Allen (Lima/Senior) added 16 points and grabbed five rebounds, while sophomore Ryan Bruns (Chickasaw/Marion Local) added 14 points, five rebounds and a game-high four blocks.

Senior Konnor Baker (Ada) chipped in 12 points and junior Nate Burger (Dayton/Alter) added 11 points for Northern.

The Polar Bears found themselves in an early hole as they fell behind 51-35 at the intermission. 

JCU would open up their biggest lead of the afternoon as David Linane earned an and-one and hit the free throw to push the lead to 58-38 with 17:51 remaining in the contest.

With 8:04 left in the game, the Polar Bears began chipping away at the JCU lead, using a 11-3 run to close the lead to 78-68 with 4:19 left in the game.

Baker would hit a layup with thirty seconds left in the game to close the lead to eight points before John Carroll answered with a free throw to gain a 88-79 lead with 25 seconds remaining in the contest.

Allen was able to sink back-to-back-to-back free throws in the closing seconds to pull Northern as close as six points but Northern could not complete the comeback as JCU went on to win 90-82.

The Polar Bears shot 26-of-66 (39.4 percent) from the field, including 12-of-24 (50.0 percent) from beyond the 3-point line.

John Carroll won the battle on the glass by a 49-39 margin.

The Polar Bears return to action Wednesday evening as they host Otterbein on Senior Night in the final home regular season game at 7 pm.