BEREA, OHIO - Junior center Scott Schnelle scored 36 points, grabbed 11 rebounds and blocked nine shots as the Ohio Northern University men's basketball team defeated Ohio Athletic Conference rival Baldwin Wallace University, 73-70, today (Saturday, February 19, 2011) in the Rudolph Ursprung Gymnasium in the Lou Higgins Center. This was the nightcap of a women's and men's doubleheader that is being televised by SportsTime Ohio.
With its win, ONU improved to 13-12 overall and 10-8 in the OAC. In addition to Schnelle for ONU, freshman guard Branden Rushton scored 14 points and sophomore guard Taylor Kuhlman had 10. With its loss, BW ends its season at 9-16 overall and 5-13 in the OAC. The Yellow Jackets were led by freshman forward Kyle Payne (Brunswick) with 19 points, junior All-OAC point guard Promis Cabbil (Elyria/ Senior) had 15 and freshman guard Kevin Krakowiak (Valley City/ Parma Heights Holy Name) had 12.
In the first half, BW jumped out to a 2-0 lead at the 19:45 mark on a layup from Payne. ONU took its first lead of the game at 4-2 at the 18:21 mark on jumper from Schnelle and continued its 9-0 run to build a 9-2 lead at the 17:03 mark. ONU continued to build its lead to 10 points at 16-6 at the 13:03 mark when Schnelle scored again. He had 11 of the team's 16 first points.
The Yellow Jackets outscored the Polar Bears 8-5 to cut into the ONU lead at 21-14 at the 8:49 mark when
Payne connected on a layup. BW continued to fight back, using a 9-0 of its own, to close to 24-23 with 5:32 remaining when sophomore forward
Sean Rothermel (Delaware/ Hayes) connected on a layup.
The Yellow Jackets were able to tie the game at 29-29 with 1:41 remaining on a Rothermel layup. ONU shortly retook the lead at 31-29 with 51 seconds remaining on a layup by sophomore guard Tony Meyer. To end the half, Polar Bear Rushton made a jumper to extend the lead to 33-29.
In the second half, Schnelle increased the lead to 35-29 but Yellow Jacket Krakowiak made a layup, was fouled and connected on the foul shot and Cabbil made two foul shots at 19:02 to close the gap to 35-34.
After a Schnelle jumper gave ONU a 37-34 lead, BW sophomore center
Chris Ameen (Broadview Heights/ Walsh Jesuit) made a three-pointer to tie the score at 37-37 with 18:22 left. BW continued its run and took the lead at 39-37 with 17:10 left when
Cabbill made two more foul shots. ONU then tied the score again on another Schnelle basket. Schnelle later connected on two free throws which grew the Polar Bears lead to 47-43 with 13:19 left in the game. ONU used a 5-0 run to build the lead to eight, 53-45, when Kuhlman made a layup at 10:07.
The Jackets cut the lead to 53-49 at 8:41 as freshman forward
Aaron Selmek (Delaware/ Columbus St. Francis DeSales) made a pair of free throws. The deficit for BW kept shrinking when freshman guard
Grant Fairhurst (Ashland/Senior) was fouled and made all three free throw attempts.
Krakowiak continued to make it to the free throw line, going 5-for-6 on three straight positions, giving the Jackets the lead at 57-56 with 6:11 remaining.
ONU regained the lead on two free throws from Kuhlman and Rushton connected on a layup for a 60-57 lead with 4:57 left in action. The game became squared up at 62-62 after a three-pointer from
Fairhurst with 3:41 and then BW regained the lead at 63-62 on a free throw from
Cabbil with 2:56 left.
ONU answered right back with an old-fashioned three-point play from Schnelle to take a 65-63 lead with 2:42 left. Schnelle made another jumper to give ONU a 69-65 lead at the 1:58 mark. Payne answered with two free throw makes for BW with 1:43 left to make the score 67-65. ONU countered with one of two foul shots from Kuhlman at 1:14 for a 68-65 lead, but Payne countered right back with one of two charity tosses of his own at 49 seconds to cut ONU's lead to 68-66.
Kuhlman again made one of two foul shots at 47.9 seconds for a 69-66 lead, but sophomore guard
Ben Umbel (Poland/ Seminary) grabbed an offensive rebound and scored at 33.2 seconds to make it a 69-68 contest. With 16.2 seconds left, ONU's Rushton gave the Polar Bears a 71-68 lead when he made two foul shots. BW countered with a Payne basket at 5.8 seconds to again cut the lead to one point at 71-70.
ONU increased its lead to 73-70 when Rushton made two foul shots with 5.8 seconds left. BW had one last chance to tie, but Fairhurst triple attempt was off the mark and ONU earned the win.
Today's BW versus ONU doubleheader was taped is being televised by SportsTime Ohio. The women's game will air on Saturday, Feb. 19 at 6:00 p.m. and the men at 8:00 p.m. The women's game also will be shown on Monday, Feb. 21 at 5:00 a.m. The men's game also will be shown on Sunday, Feb. 20 at 12:00 noon and on Monday at 7:00 a.m.
FOR MORE SPORTS INFORMATION, please contact Sports Information Director Kevin Ruple by telephone at 440-826-2327 and e-mail at kruple@bw.edu or Assistant SID Jeff Miller by phone at 440-826-2780 and email at jefmille@bw.edu. Fans can access the latest BW athletics information at www.BWyellowjackets.com and we invite you to join us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/bwyellowjackets and Twitter at http://twitter.com/bwathletics.
