Balanced scoring attack leads Men's Basketball to 75-71 victory over Capital

By Caleb Scott

ADA — The Ohio Northern men's basketball team saw four players score in double-digits as they won their seventh straight game and defeated Capital 75-71 Saturday afternoon at the Capital Center.

The Polar Bears improve to 12-7 and remain atop the Ohio Athletic Conference standings with a 10-2 mark, while the Crusaders drop to 10-9, 5-7.

Junior Joey DiOrio (Columbus/Watterson) led the Polar Bears with a game-high 20 points and added five rebounds.

Sophomore Ryan Bruns (Chickasaw/Marion Local) posted his fifth double-double of the season with 14 points and a game-high 10 rebounds.

Senior Devon Allen (Lima/Senior) chipped in 14 points and senior Konnor Baker (Ada) added 10 for the Polar Bears. 

Senior Joey Hurless added to his assist record with a game-high nine assists.

Northern came out firing after back-to-back 3-pointers from Baker and Allen gave ONU an earl 6-2 lead just over two minutes into the contest.

After Capital climbed within 15-14, DiOrio scored seven straight points before a Baker 3-pointer capped off the run to push the lead to 25-16 with with 6:13 left in the first half.

From there Northern would use a 15-4 run to take a commanding 40-20 lead into the break.

Capital would chip away at the lead throughout the second half and closed the gap to 73-71 with one second remaining in the contest.

DiOrio would seal the victory in the final second and his sunk two free throws to give Northern the 75-71 victory. 

ONU shot 29-of-56 (51.8 percent) from the field, including 9-of-18 (50.0 percent) from beyond the arc.

Capital edged Northern on the glass by a 36-30 margin.

The Polar Bears return to action Wednesday evening as they travel to Berea to take on Baldwin Wallace at 7 pm.