Box Score
ADA, Ohio – A second-half surge from Otterbein came up a bit short in men's basketball action Wednesday evening, ultimately being forced to walk away with a 100-92 conference loss at Ohio Northern University.

The Cardinals, playing without a pair of injured starters in Grant Fenner and Michael Howard, nearly erased a 20-point deficit in the second half before falling to 3-15 on the season and 1-10 against the Ohio Athletic Conference (OAC). The Polar Bears, meanwhile, improve themselves to 8-10 overall, 5-6 within the league.

Both teams exchanged buckets throughout the opening sequence of the game, with ONU holding a slim 15-13 at the 13:04 mark after a layup from Cardinal freshman Connor Clark.

Northern widened the gap from that point until halftime, using a 10-2 run to open a double-digit lead and then expanding the cushion to as many as 20 in the first half. ONU eventually took a 52-36 lead into the break after four-straight Otterbein points ended the period.

Otterbein quickly trimmed the deficit to just 11 after opening the second half with scores from Bryan Mackenzie and Matt Hughes, but the Polar Bears countered with a 10-1 run, spanning the next three-plus minutes, to elevate the margin back to 20.

The Cards would refuse to go away quietly, slowly drawing closer and ultimately getting the gap into single digits, 70-61, on another bucket from Clark midway through the second half. He had seven points during the 17-6 spurt.

Otterbein kept the momentum on its side as the game entered the backstretch, closing the game to 80-76 on a pair of free throws from Mackenzie with 4:29 to play. Unfortunately, ONU ran its lead back to nine on the next two possessions and would find a way to hold off the surge.

Hughes turned in the best offensive outing of his career, scoring a game and career-high 26 points on 11 of 16 shooting from the field. Classmate Jake Phillis added 18 while Mackenzie and Marc McCuen each added 14. Clark finished with nine off the bench.

Aron Three dropped 26 for Ohio Northern, which shot just over 50 percent from the floor compared to Otterbein's close 46.4 percentage. Both teams took care of the ball in combining for just 17 turnovers and ONU enjoyed a 36-14 advantage in bench points.

The Cardinals will finish out the week at home, hosting Muskingum University at 3 p.m. come Saturday afternoon in the Rike Center. Otterbein escaped New Concord with a 93-89 double-overtime victory over the Muskies earlier this season.