By Tim Glon
Sophomore Ryan Bruns had a double-double to lead the Ohio Northern men's basketball team to a 91-85 victory at Muskingum on Saturday afternoon at the Rec Center.
The Polar Bears improve to 8-7 overall and stay in first place in the Ohio Athletic Conference with a 6-2 record, while the Muskies fall to 10-5, 4-4.
Bruns scored a career-high 21 points and grabbed 11 rebounds to lead five ONU players in double figures in scoring.
Junior Joey DiOrio (Columbus/Watterson) scored 18 points, senior Konnor Baker (Ada) scored 16 points, senior Aron Thress (Lancaster/Amanda Clearcreek) added 13 points and nine rebounds and senior Devon Allen (Lima/Senior) had 12 points for Ohio Northern. Jarrell Marsh had 29 points to lead Muskingum.
Northern shot 60 percent from the floor in the first half and led 49-42 at intermission. Muskingum would get within 58-54 with 15:40 left to play, but ONU responded with an 11-4 run to extend its lead to 69-58 with 12:10 to play. The lead grew to 73-60 on a basket by Thress with 10:27 remaining. MU cut the lead to 83-79 with 2:04 left, but the Polar Bears made 8-of-10 free throws in the final minute to ice the victory.
Ohio Northern made 36-of-70 field goal attempts for 51.4 percent and was 8-of-17 from 3-point range for 47.1 percent, while Muskingum made 33-of-69 shots from the floor for 47.8 percent and was 9-of-26 from three for 34.6 percent. ONU out-rebounded MU 42-34.
The Polar Bears will return to action on Wednesday with a road game at Heidelberg.
