The Otterbein men's basketball team tried to continue their recent success as they faced the Ohio Northern (ONU) Polar Bears in an Ohio Athletic Conference game last night.
The Cardinals (5-15, 4-9) came off a 83-79 overtime victory against Muskingum Saturday.
However, ONU jumped to an early lead last night and did not trail the entire game. ONU came away with the victory 103-74.
The Polar Bears shot 67 percent from the field (24 of 36). ONU's defense was able to hold Otterbein's leading scorers, Ross Banaszak and Adam Wells, to two and five points, respectively. At the intermission, Otterbein trailed 60-31.
"From the get-go, they just physically took us away from what we wanted to do," said assistant coach Scott Davis. "They got a lot of uncontested threes and just out-played us at both ends of the court."
The Polar Bears played almost flawlessly in the second half. Good defense by ONU didn't allow an Otterbein player to attempt a free throw until sophomore guard Brian Pollock connected on a pair at the 8:34 mark in the second half.
"We need to be more aggressive on the offensive end as a team," said Davis. "We can't just rely on our perimeter game. We need to take the ball to the hoop more."
The Cardinals had a second-half offensive push, but it was too little, too late.
Pollock led Otterbein with 20 points, and Banaszak added 15 in the loss.
For the second game in a row, the post play of Otterbein juniors Sean Cross and Frank Hall was effective. The duo combined for 20 points and 12 rebounds, nine of which came from Hall.
"We really think both guys have improved greatly over the course of the season," said Davis. "Both have battled through injuries and are coming along nicely."
The Polar Bears had a balanced offensive attack, with five players scoring in double figures. Kyle Meyer led all scorers with 23 points, along with nine rebounds.
The Cardinals will travel to Alliance this Saturday to face the Purple Raiders of Mount Union. The Cardinals beat Mount Union (7-13, 4-9) in their first meeting this season, 89-82.
In that game, Wells led the Cardinals with 26 points, including seven three-pointers, matching a career high that Wells also had last season against Wittenberg.
Sophomore Cory Ratai contributed 21 and Banaszak had 20.
The Cardinals have been paced by their two senior leaders, Banaszak and Wells. Banaszak, who was named OAC player of the week for the second time last week, leads the team and conference in scoring at 20.7 points a contest. Wells isn't far behind, averaging 18.1 a game.
"[The Mount Union] game is very important for our program. We need this win to help ourselves get into the OAC Tournament," said Davis. "We just have to take each game from here on out one at a time."
Tip-off is scheduled for 3 p.m. Saturday in Alliance.
