Junior Jared Horstman scored a career high 20 points to lead the Ohio Northern men's basketball team to a 60-59 victory over Baldwin Wallace in their OAC opener on Wednesday night at Ursprung Gymnasium.
The Polar Bears improve to 5-3 on the season and 1-0 in the OAC, while the Yellow Jackets fall to 3-3, 0-1.
Horstman's 20 points came on a solid 9-of-12 shooting from the field. He also added nine rebounds.
Senior Taylor Kuhlman added a season high 13 points for Northern.
The Polar Bears found themselves in front 55-54 with 4:18 left.
Kuhlman then drained a three to expand the ONU lead to 58-54 with 3:45 remaining.
ONU then forced a turnover and junior Dominique Royal sunk two free throws to put the Polar Bears up six with just under three minutes to play.
Baldwin Wallace would chip away and cut the ONU lead to 60-59 with 1:02 to play.
Northern came up empty on their next possession.
The Yellow Jackets were unable to convert on their last possession, when Grant Fairhurst misfired on a three with two seconds left.
Horstman secured the rebound to give the Polar Bears the win. The Polar Bears used an early 8-0 run to build an 8-2 lead early in the game.
ONU continued to expand their lead and a layup by Kuhlman gave ONU their largest lead of the night at 18-6 with 12:58 left in the first half.
B W chipped away and cut the ONU lead to 26-21 at the break.
The Polar Bears were 27-of-55 (49.1 percent) from the field, while the Yellow Jackets shot 20-of-51 (39.2 percent).
Northern won the rebounding battle 33-27, but turned the ball over 11 times compared to nine for Baldwin Wallace.
ONU also outscored the Yellow Jackets in the paint by a 34-22 margin.
Ohio Northern will be in action again on Saturday when they return home to face John Carroll at 3 pm.
