Freshman quartet combine for 59 points as Men's Basketball tops Heidelberg 71-65

ADA —  Four Ohio Northern freshmen combined for 59 points, including career-highs of 15 points and 8 rebounds from freshman Theo Maag (Ottawa/Ottawa-Glandorf), leading the men's basketball team to a 71-65 victory over Heidelberg on Wednesday night.

The Basics

• Records: Ohio Northern (10-10 overall, 5-8 OAC), Heidelberg (12-8 overall, 8-5 OAC)
• Venue: ONU Sports Center - Ada, Ohio

The Game

• Freshman Carter Reese (Westerville/North) led the Polar Bears with 20 points.
• Maag got his career-highs of 15 points and 8 rebounds in 21 minutes off the bench.
• Freshmen Jadi Cunningham Jr. and Cayden Jacoby (Pettisville) chipped in 12 points each.
• Jashun Cobb led the Student Princes with 14 points.
• Northern opened the game on a 14-5 run in the first 5:22.
• HU answered with a 14-0 run to grab a 19-14 advantage with 6:33 left in the half, holding ONU scoreless for 8:05.
• But the Polar Bears regained their offensive rythm, out-scoring HU 20-9 the rest of the half to lead 34-28 at intermission.
• The second half was tight with neither team leading by more than six, until a 10-0 ONU run gave the hosts a 65-59 lead with 1:26 left in the game.
• Cobb scored a layup at the 1:13 mark to make it 65-61, but Maag answered with a layup with just three seconds left on the shot clok to extend the lead to 67-61 with 42 seconds left.
• Cobb scored again inside with 38 second to go, but sophomore Will Miller (Ottoville) hit a free throw with 29 seconds left and it was 68-63.
• Maag then hit one of two free throws with 16 seconds to play and Reese sealed the game with two free throws with eight seconds to play.
• ONU made 28-of-58 field goals for 48.3 percent and was 7-of-21 from 3-point range for 33.3 percent.
• HU made was 25-of-54 from the floor for 46.3 percent and made 3-of-14 3-pointers for 21.4 percent.
• Northern was 8-of-13 from the foul line for 61.5 percent and Heidelberg was 12-of-19 from the charity stripe for 63.2 percent.
• The Polar Bear defense forced the Student Princes into 21 turnovers while committing only 16 themselves.
• HU out-rebounded ONU 38-27

Notables

• Maag bettered his previous caareer-high totals by 7 points and 4 rebounds.
• Reese has 16 double-figure scoring games this season, including seven games with 20 or more points.
• Ohio Northern is now 109-68 all-time against Heidelberg, including a 59-27 mark in Ada.
• Ohio Northern is playing its 113th season of varsity men's basketball and has a record of 1368-1075, a winning percentage of .560.
• Cunningham had 4 steals, giving him 50 for the season. He is just one steal shy of ONU's freshman record of 51 set in 2009-10 by Tony Meyer.
• Cunningham has already set the ONU freshman single-season record with 88 assists, breaking the former record of 79 set by All-American Jim Conrad in 2000-01. Cunningham had seven assists against HU.
• Head coach Neal Young is in his second season at Ohio Northern with a 20-25 record.

Up Next

• The Polar Bears return to action on Saturday when they host Marietta at 2 pm at the ONU Sports Center.