Landon Long scores 15, but Denison edges Men's Basketball 79-75 in home opener
By Tim Glon
ADA — Senior Landen Long (Mason) scored a team-high 15 points to lead the Ohio Northern men's basketball team in a 79-75 loss to Denison in the Polar Bears' home opener on Saturday.
ONU falls to 1-1, while the Big Red improves to 2-1.
Senior C.J. Napier (Miamisburg/Bishop Fenwick) scored 14 points and grabbed a game-high nine rebounds, senior Michael Berner (Springboro) added 14 points and sophomore Ethan Bell (Marion/River Valley) chipped in 11 points for the Polar Bears.
DU was led by Nick Heath with 18 points off the bench.
Northern trailed by 10 points at 24-14 with 6:33 left in the first half, but battled back to within 40-37 by halftime.
Berner scored inside with 1:28 gone in the second half and it was 40-39.
But the Big Red slowly increased their lead and pulled back out to a 71-61 advantage with 5:00 left in the game.
Again the Polar Bears roared back and an 8-0 run made it 71-69 with 3:05 to play.
Bell drilled a 3-pointer with 1:27 remaining to get Northern within 73-72.
Denison's Will Hunter scored with 54 seconds left and DU's Tyler Miller hit a pair of free throws with 19 ticks left and the visitors were ahead 77-72.
ONU made 29-of-51 field goal attempts for 56.9 percent and was 8-of-17 from 3-point range for 47.1 percent while making 9-12 free throws for 75.0 percent. DU was 30-of-53 from the field (56.6), 10-of-25 from beyond the arc (40.0) and was 9-of-12 from the foul line (75.0) on the day.
Denison edged Ohio Northern 26-22 in the rebounding battle.
The Polar Bears will return to action Friday and Saturday at the Wooster Invitational, where ONU will open play Friday night at 6 pm against Randolph (Va.)
