Gaston sinks game winner with :07 left as Men's Basketball downs #17 Otterbein 54-53

ADA — Sophomore Conye Gaston (Toledo/Christian) scored with :07 left to lift the Ohio Northern men's basketball team to a 54-53 victory over No. 17-ranked Otterbein on Wednesday night.

• Records: Ohio Northern (16-8 Overall, 11-4 OAC), #17 Otterbein (20-4 Overall, 12-3 OAC).
• Venue: ONU Sports Center — Ada, Ohio.

The Game

• Gaston led the Polar Bears in scoring with 12 points, including the game-winning layup. He also grabbed a team high 8 boards. 
• Junior Theo Maag (Ottawa/Ottawa-Glandorf) added 10 points and 5 boards. 
• Julian Heckman led the Cardinals with 14 points.
• In a thrilling final minute Ohio Northern took the lead 54-53 with :07 to play on a putback by Gaston.
• Jarius Jones then looked to grab the lead back for Otterbein, but sophomore Aiden Harris (Pandora Gilboa) stepped up to take a charge to seal the game with 1.6 seconds remaining.
• Senior Will Miller (Ottoville) drew a foul and knocked down two free throws to tie the game at 52-52 with :56 left to play.
• A 9-0 scoring run from the 2:42 mark in the 1st half to the 18:43 mark in the 2nd helped ONU build a 28-25 lead.
• ONU led 26-25 at half.
• Neither team led by more than 7 points in a highly contested game throughout. 
• Ohio Northern was 19-of-58 from the floor for 32.8 percent and made 1-of-13 three-pointers for 7.7  percent, while Otterbein finished 22-of-49 from the field for 44.9 percent and 2-of-16 from three-point range for 12.5 percent. 
• ONU made 15-of-17 free throws for 88.2 percent and OC was 7-of-13 from the foul line for 53.8 percent.
• Otterbein outrebounded the Polar Bears 37-34.

Notables

• Ohio Northern now trails in the all-time series with Otterbein 79-52. 
• Miller is now 22rd all-time in Northern with 1241 points in 100 career games. Miller is also ranked 6th in the conference in ppg with 16.1. 
• Miller is now in the 10th in ONU history with 155 steals.
• Ohio Northern has clinched its third consecutive winning season with its 16-8 record.
• The Polar Bears also clinched a top 3 spot in the 6-team OAC Tournament slated for Feb. 24-28 which gurantees them at least one home game.
• Ohio Northern continues its 115th season of varsity men's basketball and has a record of 1397-1091, a winning percentage of .561.
• Head coach Jon Tropf is in his first season at Ohio Northern with a 16-8 record.

Up Next

• The Polar Bears will wrap up their regular season when they host Marietta on Senior Day on Saturday at 1 pm.