Balanced attack leads Men's Basketball to 88-85 victory over Capital on Senior Day
ADA — A balanced offensive attack helped propel the Ohio Northern men's basketball team to a 88-85 victory on Senior Day against Capital on Saturday afternoon at the ONU Sports Center.
The Polar Bears improve their record to 16-9 on the season and 12-6 in Ohio Athletic Conference play and ran their winning streak to six games, while the Crusaders fall to 12-13, 9-9.
Ten different ONU players scored in the game with four scoring in double figures.
The Polar Bear attack was led by junior Isaiah Roux's 13 points and five assists.
Senior Dominique Royal chipped in 12 points, senior Branden Rushton recorded 11 points and junior Lucas Pennington added 10 points for ONU.
Capital was led by Andrew Bolka's game-high 22 points and eight rebounds.
The Polar Bears clinched the #4 seed in next week's OAC Tournament and will play the winner of the #5 vs #8 seed Tuesday night at the ONU Sports Center as the second game of a women's/men's doubleheader at approximately 8 pm.
"Tonight was a great team win," said head coach Kevin Byrne. " Everyone we put in contributed to the game. It was nice to get our seniors a win today and we are looking forward to some good OAC basketball Tuesday night."
ONU led 84-82 with 17 seconds remaining in the game when Royal made a layup on a pass from Roux to put ONU ahead 86-82 with eight seconds remaining.
Capital had an answer as AJ Dixon hit a quick 3-pointer with three seconds remaining in the game to cut the lead to 86-85.
After a Crusader foul, Rushton sunk two free throws to ice the game and give the Polar Bears 88-85 advantage and Capital's desperation half-court shot at the buzzer fell short.
ONU shot 60.4 percent on 32-of-53 shooting from the floor and 35.7 percent on 5-of-14 shooting from three point land. Capital hit 29-of-54 (53.7 percent) from the floor and 7-of-21 (33.3 percent) from beyond the arc.
Capital out rebounded Ohio Northern 29-24 on the night.
ONU led the final 25 minutes of the game, but could not put the Crusaders away as the Polar Bear lead bounced from one to eight points the entire second half.
