Late rally falls short as Men's Basketball drops OAC tilt at John Carroll
By Tim Glon
UNIVERSITY HEIGHTS — Freshman C.J. Napier (Miamisburg/Bishop Fenwick) scored 20 points and freshman Landen Long (Mason) added 17 points to lead the Ohio Northern men's basketball team in an 85-72 loss at John Carroll on Saturday afternoon at the DeCarlo Center.
The Polar Bears fall to 4-7 overall and are 0-4 in the Ohio Athletic Conference, while the Blue Streaks improve to 8-3, 1-3.
Junior Thomas Phillips (Kenton) added 16 points for ONU.
JCU was led by Ryan Berger with 20 points and Emmett Chambers with 19 points.
John Carroll led 58-40 with 13:17 left in the game when the Polar Bears went on a 15-2 run to pull within 60-55 with 10:32 to play.
The hosts pushed the lead back to 68-55 with an 8-0 run over the next 3:26.
But again Ohio Northern answered as Napier scored seven points to key a 10-0 run to pull within 68-65 with 5:42 to go.
JCU scored the next seven points to push its lead to 75-65 at the 3:30 mark.
Phillips hit a three-pointer and Napier scored inside as ONU got within 77-70 with 2:26 left.
John Carroll would again answer with a 6-0 run to extend the advantage to 83-70 with 43 seconds to play and would hold on for the victory.
Ohio Northern was 24-of-57 from the floor for 42.1 percent and made 9-of-26 3-pointers for 34.6 percent and JCU was 31-of-60 from the floor for 51.7 percent and was 8-of-18 from three for 44.4 percent.
The Blue Streaks won the rebounding battle by a 37-32 margin.
The Polar Bears will return to action on Wednesday with a 7 pm contest at Heidelberg.