Napier scores 17, Waugh adds 14 as Men's Basketball falls to Otterbein 71-67
By Tim Glon
ADA — Junior C.J. Napier (Miamisburg/Bishop Fenwick) scored 17 points and senior Brandon Waugh (Columbus/Northland) added 14 points, seven rebounds and six assists to lead the Ohio Northern men's basketball team in a 71-67 loss to Otterbein on Wednesday afternoon at the ONU Sports Center.
The Polar Bears fall to 8-10 overall and 2-9 in the Ohio Athletic Conference, while the Cardinals improve to 13-6, 7-5.
The game was moved up to a 3 pm start time due to the expected heavy snow across the area Wednesday night.
Junior Landen Long (Mason) chipped in 10 points for ONU.
Dallas Patrick led Otterbein with 22 points.
Northern closed the first half on an 11-3 run to lead 40-32 at intermission.
A layup by Long at the 6:59 mark gave ONU a 57-53 lead.
OU answered with a 10-2 run, holding Ohio Northern without a basket for the next 5:55, to go ahead 64-60 with 1:35 left.
A basket by Napier got the Polar Bears within 64-62 with 1:04 remaining, but the Cardinals would get a layup and make five of six free throws in the final 44 seconds to ice the game.
Ohio Northern made 25-of-54 field goals for 46.3% and was 7-of-20 from 3-point range for 35.0%, while Otterbein made 21-of-51 field goals for 41.2% and were 7-of-22 from beyond the arc for 31.8%.
ONU out-rebounded OU by a slim 32-31 margin.
The Polar Bears return to the court on Saturday at 4 p.m. when they play host to Capital.
