Napier's 22 points powers Men's Basketball into championship game of Wooster Classic

By Tim Glon

WOOSTER — Senior C.J. Napier (Miamisburg/Bishop Fenwick) scored 22 points to lead the Ohio Northern men's basketball team to an 88-81 victory over Randolph (Va.) in the opening game of the Wooster Al Van Wie Classic on Friday afternoon at the Timken Gymnasium.

The Polar Bears (2-1 overall) advance to Saturday's championship game at 4:30 pm against Wooster, who topped Mount Aloysius (Pa.) 86-56 in the other game Friday night.

The Wildcats (2-2) will play in the consolation game on Saturday at 2 pm against MAC.

Napier scored his 22 points on just 13 shots to go with six rebounds.

Senior Landen Long (Mason) added 14 points and freshman Will Miller (Ottoville) chipped in 12 points for ONU.

RC was led by Jordan Phillips with a game-high 26 points.

Northern closed the first half on a 10-0 run, holding Randolph scoreless for the final 3:11, to take a 50-37 lead into intermission.

ONU's lead was 71-57 with 9:11 remaining when the Wildcats went on a 12-0 run to draw within 71-69 with 6:21 to play.

Napier answered with a three with 5:48 to go to give ONU a 74-69 lead.

The ONU defense would hold RC scoreless for the next four minutes as the Polar Bears would score their final 14 points of the game from the foul line.

Randolph got within 84-81 with :24 left, but Miller and sophomore Ethan Bell (Marion/River Valley) would each nail a pair of free throws to ice the game.

Ohio Northern was 27-of-53 shooting from the floor for 50.9 percent and hit 10-of-19 from beyond the arc for 52.6 percent. ONU also made 24-of-24 free throws (70.6 percent), including 14-of-18 down the stretch.

Randolph made 30-of-65 field goals for 46.2 percent, hit 7-of 19 threes for 36.8 percent and was 16-of-18 from the foul line for 87.5 percent.

Each team had 31 rebounds, with Napier and senior Adam Scott (Wapakoneta) leading ONU with six boards each.