Napier joins 1,000-Point Club as Men’s Basketball falls 78-70 to Suffolk (Mass.) in Naples (Fla.) Classic

By Wes Mayberry

NAPLES, Fla. — Ohio Northern senior C.J. Napier (Miamisburg/Bishop Fenwick) scored a team-high 18 points to surpass 1,000 career points as the Polar Bear men's basketball team closed out its two-game set in the Naples (Fla.) Classic with a 78-70 loss to Suffolk (Mass.) at the Community School of Naples on Friday night.

The Polar Bears fall to 5-6 overall while the Rams improve to 5-5.

Napier added a game-high nine rebounds to his stat line on Friday and is the 40th member of ONU's 1,000-Point Club. He entered the game with 986 career points and now has 1,004.

Senior Adam Scott (Wapakoneta) tallied 16 points for ONU, while senior Landen Long (Mason) and sophomore Ethan Bell (Marion/River Valley) added 10 points each.

Keenan Robertson and Aidan Sullivan finished with 21 and 18 points, respectively, to lead the Rams.

Northern finished with a 1-1 record in the Naples Classic, as it opened with a 70-65 victory over Clarkson (N.Y.) on Thursday.

ONU finished its 2022-23 non-conference slate with a 4-3 record, marking the fifth straight year that the Polar Bears have posted a winning record in their non-conference games.

Suffolk opened Friday's game on an 8-0 run, but 3-pointers from junior Carson Conley (Newark/Licking Valley) and freshman Mason Studer (Galion/Colonel Crawford) highlighted a 10-2 ONU run that knotted the score at 10-all.

Triples from Scott and Long helped the Polar Bears take an 18-15 edge with 11 minutes left in the opening half, and neither team led by more than four points the rest of the way up to halftime.

The Rams took a 41-37 lead into the intermission and opened the second half with a 15-4 run for a 15-point edge with just over 15 minutes remaining.

A 3-pointer from sophomore Blake Michael (Fremont/St. Joseph Central Catholic) got ONU back within single digits, 60-51, with 8:34 left, and the Polar Bears continued to gradually cut into the deficit.

A triple from Bell made it a six-point game, 66-60, with 2:31 remaining, and a pair of free throws from freshman Will Miller (Ottoville) got ONU within four, 74-70, with 18 seconds left.

Following an ONU timeout, Sullivan made two free throws to put Suffolk up by six en route to the eight-point victory.

Ohio Northern made 25-of-66 field goals for 37.9% and was 9-of-24 from 3-point range for 37.5%, while SU made 28-of-52 field goals for 53.8% and was 7-of-18 from beyond the arc for 38.9%.

ONU was 11-of-16 from the free-throw line for 68.8%, and Suffolk was 15-of-24 for 62.5%.

ONU out-rebounded SU by a 38-35 margin.

The Polar Bears return to action on Wednesday hosting Ohio Athletic Conference foe Otterbein at 7 p.m.