Men’s Basketball: Muskingum (6-19 Overall) at Ohio Northern (9-14 Overall) – OAC Tournament First Round

Monday, February 21, 2022, 7 p.m. - ONU Sports Center, Ada, Ohio

| OAC Tournament page | Game Program (.pdf) |

Monday's Preview: The Polar Bears are the No. 8 seed in this week's Ohio Athletic Conference Tournament and will host No. 9 seed Muskingum in the first round on Monday at 7 p.m. at the ONU Sports Center … The winner will play at top-seeded Marietta, which is ranked No. 2 in the country in the D3hoops.com poll, in the quarterfinals on Tuesday at 8 p.m. … The semifinals are scheduled for Thursday with the championship game to follow on Saturday with all games being hosted by the better-seeded team … Northern lost both its matchups with Muskingum this season, falling 83-56 in New Concord on Jan. 15 and 76-69 in Ada on Saturday … ONU was missing four starters and eight players overall due to COVID-19 protocols in the first matchup and played without its leading scorer in junior C.J. Napier on Saturday … Junior Landen Long led Northern in scoring in the first matchup with 16 points, and senior Brandon Waugh stuffed the stat sheet with 22 points, nine rebounds, five assists and five steals on Saturday … ONU is averaging 69.1 points per game and allowing 76.1 points per contest while shooting 43.9% from the field, 34.5% on 3-pointers and 62.9% from the foul line … Northern currently has three players averaging double figures in scoring in Napier (15.3 points per game), Waugh (12.8) and Scott (11.0) … Napier ranks eighth in the OAC in scoring average and is tied for second in the conference in rebounding (8.3 per game) … Waugh leads the team with 42 made 3-pointers on 39.6% shooting from beyond the arc … Waugh ranks fourth in the OAC in assists (86) and third in steals (35) … Waugh ranks 10th on the program's all-time career steals list with 147, and his 273 career assists rank 14th on ONU's all-time leaderboard in that category … ONU is looking for its sixth OAC Tournament championship … The Polar Bears won the title in 2001, 2000, 1999, 1995 and 1980 … Northern advanced to the tournament championship game last season before falling 100-49 at No. 6 Marietta to finish as the runner-up … Muskingum enters Monday's game on the heels of Saturday's win at Ohio Northern behind 39 points from senior Alex Masinelli, who played all 40 minutes … Masinelli scored 22 points in MU's first matchup with ONU this season and leads the OAC in scoring (21.5 points per game) and minutes per game (34.3) … Masinelli ranks eighth in the OAC in rebounding (7.2 per game) and fifth in in assists (85) and has a team-high 24 steals … Seniors MJ Smith and Noah Tomlinson are the Muskies' other top scorers at 7.1 and 6.9 points per game, respectively … Junior Noah Begue has made a team-high 37 3-pointers and leads the OAC in 3-point percentage (45.1%) … MU is averaging 72.3 points per game while allowing 77.5 points per contest and is shooting 43.4% from the floor, 32.5% on 3-pointers and 73.3% from the foul line … The Muskies fell 81-75 at ONU in last season's OAC Tournament semifinals.

ONU Statistical Leaders:

All-Time Series: Ohio Northern leads the all-time series with Muskingum by a 72-50 margin, including a 40-17 mark at home … The teams are an even 5-5 in OAC Tournament matchups … The Muskies have won two straight games against ONU after the Polar Bears had won the previous 11 dating back to 2015 … The teams last met on Saturday when MU came away with an 76-69 win in Ada.

Head Coach Rich Bensman: Bensman is in his sixth season at ONU with a 65-74 record, a winning percentage of .468.