Box Score Photo GalleryWESTERVILLE, Ohio – Otterbein University dropped a fast-paced contest with the University of Mount Union Saturday evening, falling 94-73 during men's basketball action inside the Rike Center.
The Cardinals, now 1-6 on the season and 0-3 against the Ohio Athletic Conference (OAC), will stay at home and next host Muskingum University Wednesday evening at 7:30 p.m. Otterbein took both matchups with the Muskies a year ago.
Mount Union, the defending OAC regular-season champion, improves itself to 4-2 overall and a perfect 3-0 within the league.
Otterbein, playing without leading scorer Matt Hughes (injury), opened the game strong by taking a 16-7 lead at the 14:36 mark after a pair of free throws from Chase Moyer. The Cardinals remained ahead until 8:24 remaining in the first when Nate Jacubec found Jarrett Ruffin for a Mount Union bucket, tying the contest at 26-26.
The game remained a one-possession battle over the next five minutes, seeing ties at 28, 33 and 35 before the Purple Raiders finished the period on an 8-1 run, taking a 43-36 advantage entering the break.
Mount carried the momentum over to the second frame, opening the half on a 14-3 run to balloon its margin to 18. A three-pointer from Otterbein's Jake Phillis stopped the run, but Mount widened the lead all the way up to 22 points before hanging on to a double digit lead throughout.
Phillis scored 15 points to lead three Cardinals in double figures, shooting 6-of-11 from the field and making both three-point attempts. Moyer and classmate Bryan Mackenzie each scored 12.
Mount Union leading scorer DeAllen Jackson led his team with a game-high 21 points while Jacubec totaled 15.
Both sides shot 47 percent from the field, but the Raiders connected on twice as many three pointers, at 12-6, and made 24 of 30 free throws. Otterbein was 15 of 21 at the charity stripe.
