Donner has a career-high 23, Bruns flirts with a triple-double but Men's Basketball falls at hot-shooting Otterbein 92-78

By Tim Glon

ADA — Senior Daniel Donner (Bellville/Northmor) had a career-high 23 points and senior All-American Ryan Bruns (Chickasaw/Marion Local) flirted with a triple-double, but Otterbein made 18 3-pointers en route to a 92-78 victory over the Ohio Northern men's basketball team on Wednesday evening at the Rike Center.

The Polar Bears fall to 4-12 overall and are 0-9 in the Ohio Athletic Conference, while the Cardinals are now 5-11, 2-7.

Bruns had his second consecutive double-double and the 21st of his career with 17 points and 13 rebounds. He also added a career-high seven assists to just miss what would have been the second triple-double in ONU men's basketball history.

Junior Austin Allemeier (Elida) had 14 points and sophomore Colton Bachman (Piqua) had 13 points for ONU.

Otterbein had six players score in double figures, led by Maurice Beavers with 21 points.

The Cardinals were red-hot from the floor, finishing the game 18-of-36 from 3-point range.

Donner had 11 points in the first half as the Polar Bears led 43-42 at intermission.

OU made 11 of its first 14 shots of the second half, scoring 31 points in the first eight minutes, to take a 73-63 lead with 11:54 left in the game.

The Cardinals' lead was 78-65 when Donner made two free throws and Allemeier nailed a 3-pointer to get ONU within 78-71 with 6:25 to go.

But Otterbein out-scored Ohio Northern 14-4 to take a 92-75 lead with 1:07 to play.

"You are just not going to win too many games when the other team makes 18 3-pointers," ONU head coach Rich Bensman said. "We were not very good defensively, but give them credit - they knocked down a bunch of shots."

ONU made 29-of-67 shots from the field for 43.3 percent and were 9-of-25 from three-point range for 36.0 percent, while OU converted 29-of-60 shot attempts for 48.3 percent and were 16-of-19 from the foul line for 84.2 percent.

Ohio Northern out-rebounded Otterbein 44-26 and did not allow an offensive rebound in the contest, but lost the turnover battle 16-7.

The Polar Bears will return to action on Saturday when they host Capital in an OAC battle at 2 pm at the ONU Sports Center, weather permitting. Check back to ONUSports.com for more details should Winter Storm Harvey develop as forecast.