Men's Basketball falls to No. 4-ranked Marietta 97-73 to conclude the regular season
By Ashley Birchmeier
ADA — The Ohio Northern men's basketball team fell to No. 4-ranked Marietta 97-73 Saturday afternoon at the ONU Sports Center to conclude the regular season.
The Polar Bears finish the season 12-13 overall, 9-9 Ohio Athletic Conference, while Marietta finishes 23-2, 17-1.
The Polar Bears were led in the contest by junior Joey Hurless and freshman Ryan Bruns both finishing with 10 points a piece.
Sophomore Travis Feitshans led ONU on the boards, finishing the contest with a team-high seven rebounds.
After falling behind 5-2 to open the contest, Northern would string together a 9-0 run led by junior Aron Thress to take the 11-5 advantage with 17:01 to play.
Marietta would respond moment later with a 10-0 run of its own to regain the lead 18-13 with 14:12 to play till the break.
The Polar Bears continued to battle as a three pointer from sophomore Joey DiOrio with 12:01 remaining would cut the deficit to 20-18.
The Pioneers would go on to withstand the Polar Bears surge to take the 51-37 halftime lead.
Northern would open the second half strong as junior Devon Allen and Bruns would combine for the first six points of the half to cut the lead to 53-43.
This is the closest the Polar Bears would come as the Pioneers would go on to out score ONU 46-30 in the half.
The Pioneers finished the contest 25-for-31 from the free throw line, shooting 80.6%.
Northern finishes the OAC Regular season tied for fifth and will travel to Berea Tuesday evening to take on No. 4 seed Baldwin Wallace in the OAC Tournament Quarterfinals hosted at the Ursprung Gymnasium.