Men's Basketball drops 72-64 decision to Baldwin Wallace despite 22-point effort from Napier
By Tim Glon
ADA — The Ohio Northern men's basketball team dropped a 72-64 Ohio Athletic Conference contest to Baldwin Wallace on Wednesday night at the ONU Sports Center.
The Polar Bears fall to 9-13 overall and are 5-10 in the OAC, while the Yellow Jackets improve to 10-12, 6-9.
Senior C.J. Napier (Miamisburg/Bishop Fenwick) led ONU with 22 points and nine rebounds.
Freshman Will Miller (Ottoville) added 15 points and senior Landen Long (Mason) chipped in 13 points for Ohio Northern.
BW was led by Anthony Mazzeo with a game-high 28 points.
Neither team led by more than four points in a tight first half and a basket by sophomore Ethan Bell (Marion/River Valley) with 55 seconds to go gave the Polar Bears a 26-24 lead at intermission.
Baldwin Wallace opened the second half on a 17-6 run to grab a 41-32 lead with 16:18 left in the game.
Napier scored eight points in the next 2:34, as the hosts answered with an 10-2 run to pull within 43-42 at the 13:44 mark.
A 7-0 Yellow Jacket run extended the lead back to 52-44 with 10:24 remaining.
A Miller basket got ONU within 64-62 with 3:59 to go, but the hosts would not make another basket as BW ended the game on an 8-2 run.
Ohio Northern made 26-of-51 field goals for 51.0 percent and was 2-of-9 from 3-point range for 22.2 percent, while Baldwin Wallace made 28-of-56 field goals for 50 percent and was 8-of-22 from beyond the arc for 36.4 percent.
ONU was 10-of-14 from the foul line for 71.4 percent, and BWU was 8-of-11 for 72.7 percent.
Northern out-rebounded Baldwin Wallace by a 30-28 margin.
The Polar Bears return to action on Saturday when they host No. 6-ranked John Carroll at 2 pm in the first game of a men's/women's double header at the ONU Sports Center.
