Men's Basketball drops 86-81 decision to Wilmington
By Caleb Scott
WILMINGTON - The Ohio Northern men's basketball team dropped an 86-81 decision to Wilmington Wednesday evening at Fred Raizk Arena.
The Polar Bears fall to 5-9 on the season and 2-5 in the Ohio Athletic Conference, while the Quakers improve their record to 2-10, 1-6.
The Polar Bear offense was led by junior Konnor Baker with a team-high 20 points. Baker also pulled down five rebounds.
Junior Aron Thress added 19 points and a game-high eight rebounds, while junior Joey Hurless added 14 points and a game-high six assists.
Northern found themselves down by as many as 10 points as Wilmington jumped out to an early 16-6 lead with 16:02 remaining in the first half.
After the two teams exchanged buckets for the next several minutes, Northern would even the contest at 27-27 with 9:58 to go in the first half.
After falling behind 37-33 with 4:07 remaining the Polar Bears would close the half on a 14-4 run to take a 47-41 lead into the intermission.
Wilmington would retake the lead and open the second half with 21-2 run to take a 62-49 lead with 11:24 remaining in the contest.
Northern would fight back with a 10-2 run behind seven points from Hurless to pull within 64-59 with 9:30 remaining in the contest.
Wilmington would answer with a quick 9-4 run of their own to pull ahead 73-63 with 7:30 remaining in regulation.
Northern would fight back with a 14-4 run as Baker scored the final five points of the run to tie the game a 77-77 with 3:21 remaining in the contest.
From there Wilmington would close the game out on a 9-4 run as they went on the win the contest 86-81.
Wilmington was led by Zach McCorkle who scored a game-high 22 points.
The Polar Bears shot 30-of-55 (54.5 percent) from the field, including 4-of-17 (23.5 percent) from the three point line, while the Quakers shot 32-of-60 (53.3 percent) from the field, including 10-of-19 (52.6 percent) from the three point line.
Northern won the rebounding battle 34-25.
Northern will return to action Saturday as they play host to OAC foe Baldwin Wallace at 3 pm at the ONU Sports Center.