Aron Thress and Ryan Bruns lead Men's Basketball to 84-66 victory over Heidelberg

By Caleb Scott

TIFFIN -- Junior Aron Thress and freshman Ryan Bruns led the Ohio Northern men's basketball team to an 84-66 victory over Heidelberg Wednesday evening at Seiberling Gymnasium in Tiffin.

The Polar Bears improve to 6-10 overall and 3-6 in the Ohio Athletic Conference, while the Student Princes fall to 9-7, 4-5.

Thress and Bruns paced Northern with 19 and 16 points, respectively, and pulled down a game-high eight rebounds each.

Junior Devon Allen added 10 points for ONU.

Bruns also posted a game-high three blocks, while Thress added two for the Polar Bears.

Thress wasted no time in getting Northern the early advantage as he scored six of the teams first seven points to give ONU a 7-2 advantage just over three minutes into the game. 

After Heidelberg pulled within 26-21 with 7:27 remaining in the first half, Northern would go on a 14-3 run capped off by a three pointer from junior Joey Hurless to extend the lead to 40-24 with 2:56 remaining in the first half. 

From there, Heidelberg would close the half out on a 9-3 run to narrow the gap to 43-33 at the intermission.

After an HU jumper pulled the Student Princes within 47-37 with 18:51 remaining in the contest, Bruns and Thress would score the Polar Bears next 11 points to open up a 58-44 advantage with 12:46 to go. 

Northern would gain its biggest advantage of the night after a 12-0 run fueled by six points from sophomore Joey DiOrio pushed the Polar Bear lead to 76-52 with 5:37 left in the contest. 

The Polar Bears would go on to win 84-66.

Northern shot 32-of-74 (43.2 percent) from the field, including 8-of-20 (40.0 percent) from beyond the arc, while Heidelberg shot 25-of-70 (35.7 percent) from the field, including 3-of-9 (33.3 percent) from the three point line.

ONU won the rebound battle by a 53-44 margin. 

Ohio Northern will return to action Saturday as the welcome OAC-foe Capital to the ONU Sports Center at 3 pm.