Men's Basketball falls 79-65 to Heidelberg despite 18 from Carter Reese

ADA — The Ohio Northern men's basketball team rallied from a 16-point deficit, but Heidelberg pulled away late to post a 79-65 victory on Wednesday afternoon.

The Basics:

• Records: Ohio Northern (11-11 overall, 5-10 OAC), Heidelberg (15-7overall, 11-4 OAC).
• Venue: ONU Sports Center — Ada, Ohio.

The Game

• Sophomore Carter Reese (Westerville/South) led the Polar Bears with 18 points. 
• Sophomore Jadi Cunningham Jr. (Westerville/North) Jr. pitched in 15 points and grabbed 8 boards.
• Elijah Harden led the Student Princes with 25 points.
• ONU trailed 29-13 late in the first but was able to cut the lead to 63-57 with just 4:24 left in the game on a made layup by Theo Maag (Ottawa/Ottawa-Glandorf).
• But Heidelberg would respond with 5 quick points to push the lead to 68-57 with 3:49 to go and would hang on for the win.
• ONU trailed 36-27 at the half.
• The Polar Bears scored 9 staight points spanning from the :04 mark in the 1st to the 17:42 mark in the 2nd half to get within 36-32.
• But the Student Princes would score the next eight points to push the lead to 44-32 with 16:09 remaining.
• Ohio Northern was 25-of-56 from the floor for 44.6 percent and made 6-of-21 three-pointers for 28.6 percent, while Heidelberg finished 27-of-46 from the field for 58.7 percent and 7-of-13 from three-point range for 53.8 percent.
• ONU made 9-of-15 free throws for 60.0 percent and HU was 18-of-23 from the foul line for 78.3 percent.
• The Polar Bears out-rebounded the Student Princes 28-25.

Notables

• Ohio Northern leads the all-time series between the two schools by a 109-71 margin.
• Tip-off time for the game was moved up to 4 pm due to an ice storm that was expected to move through the area on Wednesday evening.
• Miller is now ranked 17th in ONU history with 123 steals.
• Cunningham Jr. went into today's game leading the OAC in steals with 49 and assists with 113. 
• Ohio Northern entered the contest ranked 1st in the conference in assists per game (16.1) turnovers forced (15.4 tpg), and points per game allowed (67.3 ppg).
• Maag came into today ranked 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 1382-1086, a winning percentage of .560.
• Head coach Neal Young is in his third season at Ohio Northern with a 34-38 record.

Up Next

• The Polar Bears will return to action on Saturday afternoon for Senior Day to face off against Marietta at approximately 3 pm at the ONU Sports Center.