Balanced scoring and strong defense lead Men's Basketball to 73-65 victory over Muskingum

ADA — The Ohio Northern men's basketball team toughed out a hard fought and physical victory over Muskingum on Saturday afternoon 73-65 thanks to a balanced scoring attack and a late scoring surge. 

• Records: Ohio Northern (8-6 Overall, 3-2 OAC), Muskingum (11-3 Overall, 3-2 OAC).
• Venue: ONU Sports Center — Ada, Ohio.

The Game

• Junior Theo Maag (Ottowa/Ottowa-Glandorf) lead the way in scoring with 16 points also grabbing a team best 8 boards.
• Senior Will Miller (Ottoville) and sophomore Aiden Harris (Pandora Gilboa) each added 15 points as well as 5 and 6 rebounds respectively. 
• Senior Mason Studer (Colonel Crawford/Gallion) added 12 points and grabbed 6 boards of his own. 
• Duane Davis led the Muskies with 14 points.
• Northern trailed 59-53 with 6:54 to go in the game and finished the game on 20-6 run to grab the victory. 
• The Polar Bears went 9-10 from the free throw line in the final 2:30 of the game to close the door on any late comeback attempt from the Muskies. 
• ONU's defense only allowed two made field goals in the final 6:30 of the contest.
• Muskingum led 29-27 at the half.
• ONU took its first lead of the game on a made three-pointer by Bryce Stuart (Lucasville) to make it 27-26 with just over 90 seconds left in the first. 
• Ohio Northern trailed early 18-11 but a 6-0 run with 13:36 gone in the first cut the Muskingum lead to 18-17. 
• Ohio Northern was 21-of-53 from the floor for 39.6 percent and made 6-of-19 three-pointers for 31.6 percent, while Muskingum finished 25-of-60 from the field for 41.7 percent and 3-of-19 from three-point range for 15.8 percent. 
• ONU made 25-of-31 free throws for 80.6 percent and MU was 12-of-21 from the foul line for 57.1 percent.
• The Polar Bears outrebounded the Student Princes 40-34.

Notables

• ONU now leads the all-time series with Muskingum 79-51 and has won 7 of the last 8 matchups. 
• Miller now ranks 34th all-time in ONU with 1,092 points in 90 career games. 
• Miller is now 11th in ONU history with 149 steals, needing just 2 more to crack the top 10.
• Ohio Northern continues off its 115th season of varsity men's basketball and has a record of 1389-1090, a winning percentage of .560.
• Head coach Jon Tropf is in his first season at Ohio Northern with a 8-6 record.

Up Next

• The Polar Bears will return to action when they travel to face Otterbein on Wednesday Jan. 14 at 7 pm.