Men's Basketball: Ohio Northern (15-6 Overall, 10-4 OAC) at Heidelberg (9-12 Overall, 5-9 OAC)

Wednesday, February 7, 2018, 7 pm - Seiberling Gymnasium, Tiffin, Ohio

Wednesday's Game: Ohio Northern is in a tie for second place in the OAC standings with Marietta, just one game behind #24 John Carroll with a road game at a dangerous Heidelberg squad up next on Wednesday ... The game will be the 15th OAC tilt of its 18-game round-robin schedule ... With a victory at Heidelberg, ONU would clinch a top-4 finish in the OAC regular season standings and a quarterfinal home game in the upcoming OAC Tournament on Feb. 20 as part of a Women's/Men's doubleheader ... Senior Nate Burger and junior Ryan Bruns each posted double-doubles as the Ohio Northern men's basketball team rallied from a 17-point first half deficit to claim an 82-69 victory at Muskingum on Saturday ... Bruns led the way in the contest as he posted his ninth straight game with at least 20 points, while scoring a team-best 26 points and grabbing a game-high 14 rebounds ... Burger added 19 points and 10 rebounds and fell just four assists shy of recording a triple-double ... Senior Joey DiOrio added 14 points for Northern ... Through 21 games this season, Bruns leads the league and is fourth nationally with 61 blocked shots, is second in the league (and 7th nationally) in scoring at 25.4 ppg and is second in the OAC in rebounding at 8.9 rpg ... Burger is second on the team and third in the OAC (11th nationally) in scoring at 24.2 ppg, leads the OAC (21st nationally) with 117 assists and is fourth in the OAC with 60 3FGs ... Combined, Bruns and Burger provide the nation's top 1-2 punch, averaging 49.6 ppg combined ... They lead Shea Feehan (31.8 ppg) and Hank Thomas (17.7 ppg) of Eureka (Ill.), who combine for 49.5 ppg ... DiOrio leads the OAC in 3FG percentage at .489, is third on the team in scoring at 13.1 ppg and is third in the OAC with 65 3FGs ... DiOrio is 150-of-316 in his career from beyond the 3-point arc, and is 3rd all-time in ONU history at 47.5 percent from beyond the arc ... Bruns is ONU's all-time career blocked shots leader with 185 in 70 career games, breaking Stan Mories' school record of 171 from 1979-82 ... He is also 31st all-time at ONU with 1,094 career points and is second with a career field goal shooting percentage at .579 (416-718) ... Burger is 39th all-time in ONU history with 1,020 points in 85 career games and is 8th in free throw shooting percentage at .842 (197-of-234) ... He also moved into 20th place all-time at ONU with 237 career assists ... Earlier this season, Bruns had game-highs of 29 points and 11 rebounds, but Heidelberg rallied for an 84-80 victory ... Burger added 20 points and eight rebounds, senior Travis Feitshans added 15 points and DiOrio chipped in 12 points for Ohio Northern ... Heidelberg was led by Kiere Bennie with 17, Chris Moxley with 15 and Myron Prewitt with 13 points that night ... Heidelberg enters Saturday's game off a 71-65 win at then-#22 Marietta on Saturday ... Chris Moxley had a game-high 19 points and added seven rebounds in a reserve role ... Mike Mason also came off the bench and had a major impact against his former team with 14 points and seven rebounds ... Myron Prewitt added 18 points and five boards ... The win is The Berg's third over a Top-25 team this season. HU beat then-No. 12 North Central in November and then-No. 24 Baldwin Wallace in January ... Bennie leads a balanced HU attack with a 14.9 ppg average ... Prewitt is second at 13.1 ppg and Moxley is third at 11.3 ppg ... Prewitt leads the team and is fifth in the OAC in rebounding at 7.2 rpg and is fourth in the OAC in FG percentage at .514.

Ohio Northern Probable Starters:

G - #12 Nate Burger, Sr., (24.2 ppg, 60 3FG, 6.3 rpg, 117 Ast, 28 Stls)
G - #5 Austin Allemeier, So., (4.4 ppg, 3.1 rpg, 46 Ast)
F - #22 Joey DiOrio, Sr., (13.1 ppg, .489 3FG, 65 3FGs, 5.9 rpg)
F - #33 Travis Feitshans, Sr., (4.1 ppg, 3.0 rpg)
C - #21 Ryan Bruns, Sr. (25.4 ppg, 8.9 rpg, 61 Blocks)

ONU Statistical Leaders:

All-Time Series: Ohio Northern leads the all-time series between the two schools by a 103-58 margin ... ONU had its 4-game winning streak in the series snapped as HU won 84-80 in Ada on 1/17 ... ONU is 45-26 in games played in Tiffin and has won two straight at Seiberling Gymnasium.

ONU head coach Rich Bensman: Bensman is in his second season at ONU with a 31-16 record, a winning percentage of .660.