Ada, Ohio - The Otterbein men's basketball team dropped a hard-fought Ohio Athletic Conference (OAC) matchup against Ohio Northern, 75-70, Wednesday night, as Ryan Bruns of Ohio Northern notched his fifth double-double of the season. 

The Polar Bears improve to 5-17 on the year and 1-14 in the league, while the Cardinals fall to 6-16 overall and 3-12 in the conference. 

The first half was extremely tight as ONU held the largest lead at four points. Justin Carter would make a layup on the following possession to make it a one-score game for the remainder of the half. 

Carter led the Cardinals with 11 points on 71 percent shooting from the floor, as a team Otterbein shot 14 of 25 good for 56 percent. 

Otterbein started to gain momentum early in the second period, as Kobe Long-Weber and Jay Joseph connected on back-to-back three pointers off of assists from Hunter Dennison. Ohio Northern stormed back immediately after and rattled off nine-straight points to lead 49-47. 

The Cardinals went on an 8-0 run over the course of three minutes and held a 60-51 edge with just over nine minutes remaining, as Long-Weber scored six points during the stretch. 

Ohio Northern fought back and erased the Cardinal lead with a 14-1 run. Otterbein went cold from the floor by shooting 2 of 8 for the final five minutes and were unable to regain the lead. 

The senior All-American Bruns tallied a game-high 33 points and 12 rebounds, as Carter led the Cardinals with a season-high 22 points and seven rebounds. 

The Cardinals will be on the road in a pivotal OAC game against Muskingum on Saturday at 2 p.m. Both Otterbein and Muskingum hold a 3-12 mark in the conference and are fighting for the eighth spot in the OAC Tournament in less than two weeks. 

Muskingum beat Otterbein back on Dec. 15 by a score of 77-55, as Carter did not play in the game due to an injury.