Men's Basketball: Ohio Northern (10-14 Overall) at No. 2 Marietta (22-2 Overall) - OAC Tournament Quarterfinals
Tuesday, February 22, 2022, 8 p.m. - Ban Johnson Fieldhouse, Marietta, Ohio
Tuesday's Preview: The Polar Bears are the No. 8 seed in this week's Ohio Athletic Conference Tournament and will play at top-seeded and No. 2-ranked Marietta in the quarterfinals on Tuesday at 8 p.m. … The semifinals are scheduled for Thursday with the championship game to follow on Saturday with all games being hosted by the better-seeded team … Northern advanced to the quarterfinals with an 82-73 overtime win over No. 9 seed Muskingum in a first round matchup on Monday at the ONU Sports Center. ... Junior C.J. Napier scored eight of his game-high 27 points and picked up his eighth double-double of the season and the 14th of his career with 11 rebounds ... Senior Brandon Waugh had his fourth double-double of the season and the fifth of his career with 19 points and 11 rebounds ... Junior Landen Long added 11 points for ONU … Northern currently has three players averaging double figures in scoring in Napier (15.9 ppg), Waugh (13.1 ppg) and Scott (10.9 ppg) … Napier ranks eighth in the OAC in scoring average and is tied for second in the conference in rebounding (8.5 per game) … Waugh leads the team with 43 made 3-pointers on 39.8% shooting from beyond the arc … Waugh ranks fifth in the OAC in assists (88) and third in steals (38) … Waugh ranks 10th on the program's all-time career steals list with 150, and his 275 career assists rank 14th on ONU's all-time leaderboard in that category … ONU is looking for its sixth OAC Tournament championship … The Polar Bears won the title in 2001, 2000, 1999, 1995 and 1980 … Northern advanced to the tournament championship game last season before falling 100-49 at then-No. 6 Marietta to finish as the runner-up … Marietta is riding a 20-game winning streak and won the OAC Regular Season title with a 17-0 mark ... Senior Luke Isaly reached the 1,000-point mark as MC defeated Heidelberg 86-62 in its regular season finale on Feb. 19 ... Senior Jason Ellis leads the team and is fourth in the OAC in scoring this season at 17.5 ppg ... Isaly is second on the team and ninth in the league at 14.5 ppg ... Junior Sahmi Willoughby is fifth in the OAC in rebounding at 8.1 rpg.
ONU Statistical Leaders:
| Scoring | Rebounding | 3FGs | Assists | Steals | ||||||||||||||
| 1. | Napier | 15.9 | 1. | Napier | 8.5 | 1. | Waugh | 43 | 1. | Waugh | 88 | 1. | Waugh | 38 | ||||
| 2. | Waugh | 13.1 | 2. | Waugh | 5.7 | 2. | Long | 29 | 2. | Bell | 64 | 2. | Napier | 24 | ||||
| 3. | Scott | 10.9 | 3. | Scott | 5.3 | 3. | Bell | 22 | 3. | Long | 45 | 3. | Bell | 17 |
All-Time Series: Ohio Northern leads the all-time series with Marietta by a 59-43 margin ... MC is riding a 9-game winnins streak in the series, including 80-64 and 94-58 wins this season ... Marietta is 4-3 in OAC Tournament games.
Head Coach Rich Bensman: Bensman is in his sixth season at ONU with a 66-74 record, a winning percentage of .471.