Men's Basketball falls to Muskingum despite late rally 68-66

NEW CONCORD— The Ohio Northern men's basketball team trailed early by double digits and fought to take the lead late in the second half, but fell just short of completing the comebck at Muskingum, falling 68-66.

The Basics

• Records: Ohio Northern (11-10 overall, 5-9 OAC), Muskingum (12-9 overall, 10-4 OAC).
• Venue: Muskingum Recreation Center — New Concord, Ohio.

The Game

• Junior Will Miller (Ottoville) scored 16 points to lead the Polar Bears.
• Sophomore Carter Reese (Westerville/South) scored 12 points, including the last 5 for the Polar Bears. 
• Freshman Aiden Harris (Pandora Gilboa) added 11 points off the bench
• Sophomore Jadi Cunningham Jr. (Westerville/North) Jr. pitched in 10 points and grabbed 6 boards.
• Luken Hill led the Muskies with 18 points.
• The Polar Bears trailed at halftime 33-24.
• ONU would trail by as much as 10 points, but a made free throw by Cunningham Jr. tied the game at 52-52 with 5:19 left in the game
• The following possession two made free throws by Miller would give Ohio Northern the lead at 54-52 for the first time since the 11:29 mark in the first half. 
• Muskingum responded with a lightning quick 5-0 to retake the lead with 3:22 remaing in the game.
• A Harris three-pointer would cut the Muskie lead to 65-61 after MU started to pull away.
• Two missed free throws by Muskingum kept the door open for Norther, and sophomore Carter Reese (Westerville/South) would drill a top of the key three pointer to make it a one point game. 
• Cunningham Jr. took a jumpshot to tie the game after MU would go 1-2 at the line, but the shot would not go down. 
• Ohio Northern was 18-of-55 from the floor for 32.7 percent and made 8-of-25 three-pointers for 32.0 percent, while Muskingum finished 20-of-46 from the field for 43.5 percent and 2-of-9 from three-point range for 22.2 percent.
• ONU made 22-of-23 free throws for 95.7 percent and MU was 26-of-35 from the foul line for 74.3 percent.
• The Muskies out-rebounded the Polar Bears 36-29.

Notables

• Ohio Northern leads the all-time series between the two schools by a 71-51 margin.
• Miller is now ranked 17th in ONU history with 120 steals.
• Cunningham Jr.  leads the OAC in steals with 49 and assists with 113. 
• Ohio Northern is ranked 1st in the conference in assists per game (16.1) turnovers forced (15.4 tpg), and points per game allowed (67.3 ppg).
• Sophomore Theo Maag (Ottawa/Ottawa-Gandorf) is 2nd in the OAC in field goal percentage, at 60.9 percent.
• Ohio Northern continues its 114th season of varsity men's basketball and has a record of 1382-1085, a winning percentage of .560.
• Head coach Neal Young is in his third season at Ohio Northern with a 34-37 record.

Up Next

• The Polar Bears will return to action on Wednesday evening to face off against Heidelberg at home at the ONU Sports Center.