Box Score TIFFIN, Ohio – The Otterbein men's basketball team came up short during its first outing of the 2016 calendar year Saturday afternoon, suffering a 100-89 loss in Ohio Athletic Conference (OAC) action at Heidelberg University.
The Cardinals, falling to 3-10 on the season and 1-5 within OAC play, will return to action Wednesday by hosting nationally-ranked John Carroll University. The Blue Streaks, currently No. 7 in the national poll, ran their record to a perfect 13-0 with a hard-fought 97-91 victory at upset-minded Muskingum University on Saturday.
Heidelberg (8-5, 3-3 OAC) jumped ahead from the get-go and never trailed in the game, opening the game on a 14-2 run before Otterbein cut the deficit to five, 25-20, on a pair of
Michael Howard free throws with 7:54 to play before halftime.
The Student Princes countered with eight-straight points to bump the lead back to double digits and ultimately hold a 47-33 advantage by intermission. Heidelberg finished the first half with a 26-6 scoring edge in the paint while forcing the Cards into committing 14 turnovers.
Heidelberg pushed the margin to 18 early in the second half and maintained a double-digit edge for the next 11 minutes. A scrappy Otterbein squad eventually trimmed the lead to just nine, 74-65, on a three-pointer from senior
Marc McCuen with 8:28 to play in the game.
Unfortunately, Heidelberg quickly extended its lead back to double figures and Otterbein never got back within single digits until under 1:00 remaining, when time would soon expire.
McCuen led Otterbein with 18 points on 6-of-12 shooting, with all of his made field goals coming from behind the arc. Junior point guard
Jake Phillis added 17 to the cause, running his career scoring total to 904 points as he begins to close in on 1,000.
Three other Otterbein players reached double figures in the high-scoring affair;
Bryan Mackenzie (14),
Matt Hughes (13) and
Grant Fenner (10). Mackenzie also grabbed 11 rebounds for a double-double while freshman
Ryan Karapas turned in a season-best nine points.
Both teams shot almost the same percentage from the field, Otterbein buried six more three pointers, went an impressive 23 of 25 from the line and won the rebounding battle 44-40. However, the Cards committed 23 turnovers while Heidelberg gave the ball away just seven times throughout.
Heidelberg outscored Otterbein 46-14 in the paint and 19-9 in second-chance points. Chris Moxley led the way with a game-high 19 while Kiere Bennie had 17.
