BEREA, OHIO -- Junior guard Kyle Meyer scored a game-high-tying 23 points as the Ohio Northern University men's basketball team defeated Baldwin-Wallace College, 82-79, today (Saturday, January 31, 2009) in Ohio Athletic Conference action in the ONU Sports Center in Ada.
With its win, ONU improves to 14-5 overall and 9-3 in the OAC and won for the fourth time in its last five games. With its loss, B-W falls to 6-13 overall and 2-10 in the OAC, is in ninth place and lost for the sixth straight time.
In addition to Meyer for the Polar Bears, sophomore guard Sam Bastian scored 18 points and tallied a team-high eight rebounds, senior wing Kurtis Brown scored 13 and freshman guard Gene Goering added 12. B-W was led by senior forward Andrew Bene (Hinckley/ Medina Highland) who tallied his ninth double-double of the season with a game-high-tying 23 points and a game-high 11 rebounds. Junior guard Louis Tumblin (Elyria/ Senior) scored 18 points, junior All-OAC forward Kyle Brown (Strongsville) tallied 12 and senior two-time Academic All-OAC guard Dennis Santiago (Brook Park/ Middleburg Heights Midpark) added 11.
In the first half, ONU opened a 2-0 lead at the 19:41 mark when Bastian made a jump shot. B-W scored the next six points to take a 6-2 lead at the 17:37 mark when Bene made two foul shots. ONU then tied the score at 6-6 when Meyer made a jump shot. The Yellow Jackets retook the lead at 8-6 at the 14:47 mark when Tumblin scored on a layup.
B-W maintained a lead as it traded baskets with ONU for more than five minutes before the Polar Bears were able to tie the game at 18-18 when freshman guard Matt Phillips canned a three-pointer with 9:12 remaining. Meyer then capped a 9-0 run with a jumper in the paint at the 5:08 mark to give ONU a 27-18 lead.
ONU increased its lead to 11 points on two separate occasions, with the last coming with just 1:14 left in the first half when Brown scored on a layup.
Undaunted, the Brown & Gold rallied to a 6-0 run and cut the ONU lead to five at 35-30 when Tumblin followed a triple from Brown with a trey of his own with five seconds on the clock.
In the second half, the Polar Bears outscored B-W 27-14 to extended their lead to 18 points at 62-44 at the 9:51 mark when sophomore forward Sean Whitney scored on a layup. B-W then began to threaten with a 9-0 run, spurred by seven Tumblin points, to close the gap to 62-53 with 7:25 remaining in the game.
The Yellow Jackets then closed to within five points at 70-65 with 3:16 left when Brown canned a triple. After three ONU leads of seven points and four more leads of five points, B-W trailed by just two points when Bene followed two free throws with a rebound and tip-in to cut the lead to 81-79 with three seconds left. B-W was forced to foul with one second remaining and Goering connected on one of two free throws. The Yellow Jackets could not complete the comback as Tumblin could not connect on a halfcourt shot.
The Yellow Jackets return to action on Wednesday, February 4 when they travel to Tiffin, Ohio to play OAC-rival Heidelberg University at the Seiberling Gymnasium at 7:30 p.m.
Media and fans are reminded that they can listen to all remaining B-W men's and women's basketball games LIVE on campus radio station WBW, 88.3 FM, and/ or via the WBW Internet web site at www.wBW.com . All home games are on Internet and all away games are both on radio and the Internet.
Also, the B-W versusMuskingum College game on Saturday, Feb. 14 will televised on a delayed basis by SportsTime Ohio (www.sportstimeohio.com) on Feb. 14 at 7:00 p.m., on Sunday, Feb. 15 at 12:00 noon and on Monday, Feb. 16 at 6:00 a.m. Previous B-W women's basketball games broadcast on STO can be viewed shortly on our Athletics web site at www.bw.edu/athletics/video/ .
FOR MORE INFORMATION, please contact B-W Sports Information Director Kevin Ruple by telephone at 440-826-2327, by FAX machine at 440-826-2329 or via e-mail at kruple@bw.edu. To contact Head Coach Duane Sheldon, please call 440-826-2115 or e-mail at dsheldon@bw.edu. You can get all of the latest B-W athletics information by visiting our Web site at www.bw.edu/athletics.
