The Ohio Northern men's basketball team opened its 2021-22 season with a 72-65 victory over a very good Saint John Fisher (N.Y.) squad in the opening game of the Case Western Reserve Bill Sidlack Tournament on Saturday night, November 6, at Horsburgh Gymnasium.
The Polar Bears (1-0 overall) will advance to the championship game on Sunday at 3 pm against either Case Western Reserve or Wisconsin-Eau Claire.
The Cardinals (0-1), who are receiving votes in the D3hoops.com preseason Division III poll, fall to the consolation game at 1 pm on Sunday.
Junior Landen Long (Mason) led four Northern players on double figures in scoring with 14 points.
Junior Michael Berner (Springboro) added 13 points, freshman Garrett Chapin (Norwalk) scored 11 points and junior Grant Heileman (Millersport/Sheridan) added 10 points for ONU.
Brendan Trapper led SJFC with a game-high 16 points.
The Polar Bears led 32-22 at halftime, but the Cardinals opened the second half on a 23-12 run to go ahead 45-44 with 12:11 left to play.
Freshman Ethan Bell (Marion/River Valley) nailed a 3-pointer to give ONU the lead for good and Heileman added a layup to put ONU up 49-45 with 10:49 left.
A 7-0 run, capped by a layup by Long, gave ONU a 63-55 lead with 4:45 to play.
Northern then made 7-of-8 free throws in the final 38 seconds to ice the game.
ONU made 24-of-59 field goals for 40.7 percent and was 4-of-16 from 3-point range for 25.0 percent. SJFC was 24-of-60 from the floor for 40 percent and made 4-of-11 from 3-point range for 36.4 percent.
Northern won the rebounding battle by a 41-36 margin.
