Men's Basketball uses fast start to cruise past Wilmington 71-55

ADA — The Ohio Northern men's basketball team opened the game on a 14-0 run and cruised to a 71-55 victory over Wilmington on Wednesday night.

The Basics

• Records: Ohio Northern (12-12 overall, 7-10 OAC), Wilmington (9-15 overall, 5-12 OAC)
• Venue: ONU Sports Center - Ada, Ohio

The Game

• Freshman Jadi Cunningham Jr. (Columbus/Westerville South) nearly had a triple-double, finishing with 11 rebounds, 10 assists and nine points.
• Sophomore Mason Studer (Galion/Colonel Crawford) scored a game-high 16 points, freshman Carter Reese (Westerville/North) scored 11 points and sophomore Will Miller (Ottoville) added 10 points for ONU.
• Matthew Dugue and Rashid Chisholm led the Quakers with eight points each.
• The Polar Bears held WC scoreless for the first 5:11 of the contest, racing to a 14-0 lead.
• Miller nailed a 3-pointer as the lead grew to 29-12 with 6:37 left in the half.
• Northern led 42-18 after layup by freshman Theo Maag (Ottawa/Ottawa-Glandorf) and was up 42-20 at intermission.
• The lead grew to as many as 66-35 on a free throw by Cunningham with 4:28 left.
• Ohio Northern was 29-of-64 from the floor for 45.3 percent and made 9-of-25 three-pointer for 36.0 percent, while Wilmington finished 20-of-57 from the field for 35.1 percent and 5-of-19 from three-point range for 26.3 percent.
• ONU made 4-of-12 free throws for 33.3 percent and WC was 10-of-14 from the foul line for 71.4 percent.
• The Polar Bears out-rebounded the Quakers 40-39.

Notables

• With Marietta's 87-72 win over Mount Union, Ohio Northern was eliminated from contention to qualify for next week's 6-team OAC Tournament.
• Northern will finish seventh in the 10-team league, regardless of Saturday's ONU-Muskingum result.
• Cunningham Jr.'s 13-point game makes this his 16th game to score double digits this season.
• Cunningham Jr. continues to add to his freshman single-season record of 60 steals and 125 assists. 
• Ohio Northern is now 45-33 all-time against Wilmington, including a 25-13 mark in Ada.
• Ohio Northern is playing its 113th season of varsity men's basketball and has a record of 1370-1076, a winning percentage of .561.
• The Polar Bears can post their first winning season since 2017-18 with a victory on Saturday.
• Head coach Neal Young is in his second season at Ohio Northern with a 22-27 record.

Up Next

• The Polar Bears return to action on Saturday when they host Muskingum in a 2 pm contest. The game is the season finale and will be Senior Day at the ONU Sports Center.