Thress scores 17 as Men's Basketball drops 79-71 decision to No. 23 Mount Union

By Caleb Scott

ADA — The Ohio Northern men's basketball team fell to No. 23-ranked Mount Union 79-71 Wednesday evening at the ONU Sports Center.

The Polar Bears fall to 4-4 overall and 1-2 in the Ohio Athletic Conference, while the Purple Raiders improve to 6-2, 3-0.

Northern was led offensively by junior Aron Thress who scored a team-high 17 points and pulled down seven rebounds. 

Sophomore Travis Feitshans chipped in 12 points, while juniors Joey Hurless and Devon Allen added 13 and 10 points, respectively. 

Freshman Ryan Bruns also scored in double figures for the Polar Bears, posting 11 points and adding a game-high three blocks.

Junior Konnor Baker grabbed a team-high eight rebounds for Northern.

ONU would force an early Mount Union timeout with 15:05 remaining in the first half as Northern jumped out to a quick 13-2 lead behind six points from Thress and five points from Allen.

Ohio Northern would continue their hot start as back-to-back three pointers from Hurless and a three pointer from Feitshans pushed the lead to 24-6 with 11:33 remaining in the first half. 

After Northern pulled ahead 29-17 with 8:20 to go in the first half, the Purple Raiders would fight back with a 10-0 run to close the gap to 29-27 with 5:02 remaining in period.

From there Mount Union would outscore the Polar Bears 12-8 to take a 39-37 lead into halftime.

An 11-0 run by MtU pushed the lead to 55-41 with 14:12 remaining in the contest. 

Northern would respond with a 14-3 run capped off by a 3-pointer from sophomore Joey DiOrio to pull within 58-55 and force a Mount Union timeout with 11:15 left in the game. 

Northern couldn't manage to get any closer as Mount Union went on to win the game 79-71.

Northern shot 22-of-59 (37.3 percent) from the field, including 6-of-19 (31.6 percent) from behind the 3-point line.

Mount Union shot 29-of-64 (45.3 percent) from the field, including 11-of-25 (44.0 percent) from three point land.

Mount Union won the rebounding battle 40-35.

The Polar Bears will return to action Saturday as they travel to Columbus to take on Capital at the Capital Center at 3 pm.