Junior Aron Thress lead's Men's Basketball in 84-75 victory over Baldwin Wallace

By Caleb Scott

BEREA -- Junior Aron Thress poured in a career-high 36 points to lead the Ohio Northern men's basketball team to an 84-75 victory over Baldwin Wallace at the Rudolph Ursprung Gymnasium Wednesday evening in Berea.

The Polar Bears improve to 12-12 overall and 9-8 in the Ohio Athletic Conference, while the Yellow Jackets fall to 14-10, 9-8. 

Thress registered his third consecutive double-double as he led the way with a game-high in points (36) and pulled down a team-high 11 rebounds. 

Freshman Ryan Bruns added 10 points and seven rebounds along with a game-high three blocks, while sophomore Nate Burger added 13 points.

After a three pointer from BW pulled the Yellow Jackets within 20-19 with 11:33 remaining in the first half, Northern would respond with a 13-0 run to stretch the lead to 33-19 as Bruns capped the run off with a layup from sophomore Joey DiOrio.

BW would close the gap to 36-24 before Burger went on a personal 11-0 run and nailed back-to-back-to-back 3-pointers and finished the run off with a layup to push the lead to 47-24 with 2:48 remaining in the half.

Thress was able to beat the halftime buzzer to give ONU a 51-31 edge at the intermission.

The Polar Bears were able to keep a double-digit lead for the majority of the second half before Cameron Kuhn made a layup to pull BW within 73-65 with 4:04 remaining in the contest.

Northern would answer quickly as junior Konnor Baker recieved a pass from junior Joey Hurless to push the lead to 75-65 with 3:41 remaining in the contest.

ONU would hit 5-of-6 free throws in the final minute to seal the 84-75 victory. 

Northern shot 33-of-66 (50.0 percent) from the field, including 7-of-16 (43.8 percent) from beyond the arc, while the Yellow Jackets shot 27-of-63 (42.9 percent) from the field, including 9-of-27 (33.3 percent) from the three point mark.

The Polar Bears won the rebounding battle by a 42-32 margin.

Ohio Northern will close out the regular season Saturday as they celebrate Alumni Day and welcome No. 4-ranked Marietta to the ONU Sports Center at 3 pm.