Waugh's double-double leads Men's Basketball to 68-64 victory at Wilmington

By Andrew Loewe

WILMINGTON — Senior Brandon Waugh (Columbus/Northland) earned his second double-double of the season as the Ohio Northern men's basketball team defeated Wilmington 68-64 at Raizk Arena on Wednesday night.

The Polar Bears were led in scoring by Waugh and junior Adam Scott (Wapakoneta) with 17 points apiece.

Waugh grabbed 10 rebounds for his fifth career double-double and added eight assists.

Junior C.J. Napier (Miamisburg/Bishop Fenwick) tallied 15 points and seven rebounds, and freshman Ethan Bell (Marion/River Valley) added nine points.

Senior Jeffrey Mansfield led all scorers with 20 points for Wilmington.

After Wilmington's Noah Dado made two pairs of two free throws each in a span of 41 seconds to cut the ONU lead to 62-57, Scott responded with a pair of his own free throws to give the Polar Bears a 64-57 lead with 1:52 remaining.

The Quakers responded with a pair of Dado free throws and a Mansfield layup that shrank the Polar Bears' lead to 64-61 with 46 seconds left.

Waugh was fouled with 44 seconds remaining and made 1-of-2 free throws to give Ohio Northern a 65-61 lead.

Mansfield hit a free throw to cut the lead back to three, but the Polar Bears shut down the comeback by hitting three more free throws and earning a defensive stop to secure the victory.

Ohio Northern made 22-of-48 field goals for 45.8% and was 6-of-15 from 3-point range for 40.0%, while Wilmington made 21-of-57 field goals for 36.8% and were 6-of-23 from beyond the arc for 26.1%.

ONU was 18-for-25 for 72.0% at the foul line and WC shot 16-for-20 for 80.0%.

The Polar Bears led the rebounding battle by a 42-25 margin.

Ohio Northern travels to nationally-ranked No. 11 Mount Union on Saturday for a 4 p.m. tip-off as part of an Ohio Athletic Conference women's-men's doubleheader.