BEREA, Ohio -- Sophomore forward Mike Kaminski (Medina) scored a career-high 18 points, but the Baldwin Wallace University men's basketball team lost to Ohio Athletic Conference rival Ohio Northern University, 84-75, in the Rudolph Ursprung Gymnasium inside the Lou Higgins Center. The Yellow Jackets (14-10, 9-8 OAC) play their final regular season game this Saturday, February 20 when they host Capital University on Seniors' & Parents' Day at 3 p.m.
In addition to Kaminski for BW, sophomore forward Jake Fetherolf (Norwalk) had his 12th double-double of the season with 14 points and a game-high 12 rebounds and junior guard Brandon Gleim (Hilliard/ Davidson) came off the bench to score 13 points. ONU (12-12, 9-8 OAC) was led by junior forward Aron Thress with a game-high 36 points and a team-high 11 rebounds. BW won the first meeting between the two teams when it overcame a 16-point deficit in the final 9:45 in Ada.
In the first half, ONU grabbed an early, 4-0 lead at 18:50 before BW went on an 8-0 run to take an 8-4 lead at 16:00 when Fetherolf made a layup. After BW grabbed a 14-13 lead at 13:12 on a layup by sophomore forward Jordan Richardson (Beachwood), the Polar Bears outscored the Yellow Jackets 16-5 to take a 29-19 lead at 9:05 and force BW to call a timeout.
ONU continued its strong effort and built its largest advantage of the first stanza at 49-26 at 2:08 when freshman center Ryan Bruns made two foul shots. The Polar Bears led at halftime, 51-31.
In the second half, BW cut the ONU lead to 64-49 at 10:52 when junior guard Zack Brandy (Hudson) made a layup. The Jackets cut the lead to73-63 at 5:21 when Brandy made a layup.
BW got as close as seven points on four separate occasions with the last at 82-75 with 15.1 seconds left when sophomore All-OAC Guard Cam Kuhn (Vermilion) made two foul shots. BW couldn't get any closer to the Polar Bears who evened their overall record and moved into a tie with BW in the OAC Standings.
The 2016 OAC Men's and Women's Basketball Tournaments begins on Tuesday, Feb. 23. Please visit the OAC web site (www.oac.org) on Sunday, Feb. 21 for all of the pairings sites and times.
