Men's Basketball plagued by second-half turnovers in 93-84 loss at Wilmington

By Scott Beaton

WILMINGTON — Despite shooting a season-high 58.7% from the the floor and building a 50-42 halftime lead, the Ohio Northern men's basketball team dropped a 93-84 road decision at Wilmington Wednesday evening at Fred Raizk Arena after committing 16 second-half turnovers in the contest.

With the loss, ONU falls to 3-4 overall and to 0-2 in the OAC. Meanwhile, WC advances to 5-1 on the season and 2-0 in conference action.

The Polar Bears were led by senior All-American Ryan Bruns (Chickasaw/Marion Local), who scored 20 points, grabbed eight rebounds, and added three assists.

Additionally, three other Polar Bears registered double-figure scoring efforts. Sophomore Colton Bachman (Piqua) made 6-of-8 beyond the three-point arc for 18 points in just 12 minutes off the bench. Junior Austin Allemeier (Elida) chipped in 16 points to go with six rebounds and three assists. Classmate Caleb Bryan (Pittsburg, Pa./Montour) provided 12 points, in addition to nine rebounds, including four offensive boards.

Following 11 minutes of back-and-forth action, Allemeier hit a layup to tie the game at 22 with 8:53 to go in the first half. From there, Bachman drilled 5-of-6 shots from three-point range in the final eight minutes of the first half to help Ohio Northern build a 50-42 halftime advantage.

Despite shooting a solid 52.6% from the field in the second half, Wilmington's defense limited ONU to a mere 19 shot attempts. Additionally, the Polar Bears committed 16 turnovers in the second half as the Quakers recorded 12 steals.

WC scored six straight points out of the halftime break and eventually took a 61-58 lead with 12:45 remaining in the game. Wilmington would go on to steadily build its largest lead to 81-68 at the 5:25 mark.

ONU came within nine points of WC on four occasions in the final 4:32, but drew no closer before time expired.

As a team, the Polar Bears made 27-of-46 from the field for a season-high 58.7% shooting mark and 7-of-17 from three-point range for a 41.2% shooting clip. Wilmington converted 32-of-66 shot attempts for 48.5% shooting and 13-of-30 on three-pointers for 43.3% overall.

Ohio Northern will resume action Saturday at Capital. The game is slated for a 2 p.m. start in Bexley.