Men's Basketball opens Neal Young era with 62-58 victory at Oberlin
By Tim Glon
OBERLIN — The Ohio Northern men's basketball team opened its Neal Young era with a 62-58 victory at Oberlin on Tuesday night at Phillips Gymnasium.
It was the season opener for both teams and the first for Young as head coach of the Polar Bears.
Senior C.J. Napier (Miamisburg/Bishop Fenwick) scored 18 points and senior Heath Jeffries (Newark/Catholic) added 11 points for the Polar Bears.
Northern used a 12-0 run, holding the Yeomen scoreless for nearly six minutes, to take a 45-36 lead with 10:05 remaining in the game.
OC chipped away and pulled within 54-52 with 3:20 left, but Napier nailed a 3-pointer with 2:50 to go to extend the lead to 57-52.
After the Yeomen got within 57-54, freshman Mason Studer (Galion/Colonel Crawford) made one of two free throws with 39.1 seconds to go to make it 58-54.
The Polar Bear defense got two stops and freshman Will Miller (Ottoville) made a free throw with 14.5 seconds left and it was 59-54.
Oberlin nailed a three with 8.4 ticks on the clock to pull back within 59-57.
Junior Carson Conley (Newark/Licking Valley) got fouled with 6.6 seconds remaining and made a pair of free throws and it was 61-57.
OC made a free throw with 3.7 seconds left, but Napier drilled one of two free ones with 2.8 seconds to ice the game.
"It felt good to get the first win," Young said. "We played hard all 40 minutes, but I think we were a bit tentative and sluggish at times. But we kept at it and got some big stops and made enough free throws to win the game."
Ohio Northern made 21-of-56 field goal attempts for 37.5 percent and was 4-of-17 from 3-point range for 23.5 percent while making 16-of-24 free throws for 66.7 percent. Oberlin was 22-of-56 from the field (39.3), 5-of-16 from beyond the arc (31.3) and was 9-of-13 from the foul line (69.2) on the night.
Each team finished with 37 rebounds.
The Polar Bears will open the home portion of its schedule on Saturday with an 11 a.m. contest against Denison at the ONU Sports Center.
