The Otterbein men’s basketball team proved their abilities after four straight losses to beat out Ohio Northern 92-78 Wednesday evening inside the Rike Center.
With the win, the Cards scored their second conference win, improving to 5-11 overall and 2-7 in the OAC. Ohio Northern drops to 4-12 overall and 0-9 in the OAC.
Otterbein had six double-digit scorers paced by Maurice Beavers with 21 points. Jay Joseph, Hunter Dennison, Austin Springer, Justin Carter and Kobe Long-Weber were among the other double-digit contributors. Dennison registered a career-high 11 points.
In the opening minutes, the visitors led 8-7 at the 16:53 mark. The teams began to trade baskets on the way to a fast-paced first half.
Ohio Northern lead with a score of 34-29 with a little over five minutes left. The Cardinals would respond with 9-5 run spanning over 2 1/2 minutes. Otterbein gained a 39-36 lead at the 1:49 mark of the half during the run.
Ohio Northern’s Colton Bachman scored a three-pointer to even the score at 39 at the 1:08 mark. The Polar Bears ended the first half leading with a score of 43-42.
The second half began with the teams going back-and-forth trading leads. Otterbein began to build separation, acquiring a 73-63 lead with 11:54 left to play on a three-pointer scored by Joseph.
With the score sitting at 78-71 with 6:28 left to play, Joseph continued to lead the charge by scoring seven consecutive points, allowing the home team to expand their lead to 85-71 with little under five minutes remaining.
Otterbein would lead by as much as 17 points on the way to securing the home victory. The Cards scored an impressive 50 points in the second half.
The Cardinals shot 48 percent from the field overall, as well as shooting 84 percent from the free-throw line. The Cardinals also made 50 percent of their three-point shots.
The Cardinals will finish out the week playing host to Heidelberg Friday evening at 7 p.m. inside the Rike Center.
