ALLIANCE — Four Cardinals scored in double figures as the Otterbein men's basketball team battled Mount Union down to the wire in an eventual 69-66 road defeat in Ohio Athletic Conference play on Saturday.

The Basics

• Records: Otterbein (11-10 overall, 6-8 OAC), Mount Union (14-7 overall, 11-3 OAC)
• Venue: Timken Gymnasium - Alliance, Ohio

Otterbein Stat Leaders

• Redshirt junior Jarius Jones posted team-highs of 14 points and seven rebounds to go with two assists. He was 6-for-7 from the free-throw line.
• Junior Julian Heckman posted 12 points, six rebounds and a team-high five assists to go with two steals.
• Sophomore Chase Garito tallied 10 points, six rebounds and three assists.
• Junior Troy Scowden finished with 10 points and two rebounds.
• Senior Alex Hannah added a trio of 3-pointers, finishing with nine points and three rebounds.
• Graduate student Cam Evans posted seven points, three rebounds, three assists and a team-high three steals.

Game Highlights

• First Half: Otterbein shot out to a 12-6 lead in a run that included a pair of 3-pointers from Garito to go with four points from Scowden and two from Heckman. The Purple Raiders scored the next four points before layups from senior Jared Kreager and Jones made it a 16-10 Otterbein lead with 13:45 remaining. Hannah put the Cardinals up by nine, 21-12, draining a 3-pointer with 12:25 left. A layup from Kreager made it a 10-point lead with 9:56 remaining before the Purple Raiders made back-to-back triples got back within four, 24-20, with 8:35 left. Mount Union tied the score at 27 on a 3-pointer with 5:39 left, but Hannah answered with a triple to give the Cardinals the lead back. Another Purple Raider 3-pointer tied the score at 30 with 3:39 remaining, and an and-1 put them up by three with 2:21 left. Mount Union capped the half with a 3-pointer with 29 seconds left and went into halftime up 38-32. Jones led the Cardinals in scoring in the first half with seven points to go with six each from Scowden, Garito and Hannah.
• Second Half: The Purple Raiders extended their lead to 11, 43-32, to open the second half, but Otterbein responded with an 8-0 run via four points from Scowden and two each from Garito and Evans to get within three with 15:51 left. Trailing 48-42, the Cardinals got 3-pointers from Hannah and Heckman to tie the score at 48 with 12:47 remaining. After the Purple Raiders retook the lead, a Heckman triple got Otterbein within two, 53-51, with 10:19 left, but Mount Union answered with a 5-0 run for a seven-point edge. Evans followed a pair of free throws from Jones with a jumper to get the Cardinals back within three, 58-55, with 7:10 remaining. After Evans cut the deficit to one with a pair of free throws, the Purple Raiders responded with a 3-pointer to regain some momentum. An and-1 from Jones got the Cardinals back within one, 61-60, with 4:09 remaining, but Mount Union continued to lead. A layup from Garito once again had Otterbein within one, 63-62, with 2:35 left, but the Purple Raiders drained a 3-pointer out of a timeout to extend their lead. Jones made a pair of free throws with 1:10 remaining, cutting the deficit to two, 66-64, with 1:10 remaining, but the Purple Raiders converted an offensive rebound into a layup at the other end to go back up by four with 31 seconds left. A pair of free throws from Heckman pulled the Cardinals within two, 68-66, with 26 seconds left going into an Otterbein timeout. Mount Union had trouble breaking the Otterbein press but was able to get past the half-court line and subsequently called a timeout with 17 seconds remaining. The Cardinals committed a foul with seven seconds left, and the Purple Raiders proceeded to split the two free throws, keeping it a one-possession game. Out of timeouts, the Cardinals hustled the ball to their offensive end, but the Mount Union defense was able to force a turnover as the buzzer sounded to preserve the 69-66 victory.
• Key Team Stats: Otterbein shot 46.2% from the field and was 7-of-16 (43.8%) from 3-point range. Mount Union shot 44.6% from the field and was 13-of-24 (54.2%) from 3-point range. The Cardinals were 11-of-13 (84.6%) from the foul line, while the Purple Raiders were 6-of-9 (66.7%). Otterbein out-rebounded Mount Union by a 31-25 margin.

Notables

• Evans ranks eighth all-time at Otterbein in career scoring with 1,601 points. Kevin Weakley ('95-'99) ranks seventh with 1,666 points.
• Evans has scored in double figures in 17 games this season and is averaging a team-high 17.8 points per game. He entered Saturday ranked second in the OAC in scoring average (18.4 points per game), tied for second in free throws made (91) and fifth in free-throw percentage (82%).
• Heckman has scored in double figures in 14 games this season and is averaging 11.2 points per game. He entered Saturday ranked sixth in the OAC in free-throw percentage (81.4%) and 10th in free throws made (57).
• Saturday marked the second straight game that Jones has led Otterbein in scoring and his fourth double-digit scoring game of the season.
• Garito has scored in double figures in 11 games this season and is averaging 9.1 points per game.
• Scowden has scored in double figures in six games this season and is averaging 7.1 points per game.
• Head coach Andy Winters is in his sixth year at Otterbein and has an all-time record of 69-64 at the helm of the Cardinals.
• Otterbein entered Saturday in fifth place in the OAC standings, three games behind a third-place tie between Heidelberg and Muskingum and one game ahead of a sixth-place tie between Ohio Northern and Baldwin Wallace. Mount Union entered the day in a tie atop the league with John Carroll. The top six teams qualify for the OAC Tournament.
• Mount Union holds a 31-5 edge in the series against Otterbein dating back to 2008 and has won 18 straight meetings. The Cardinals' last win over the Purple Raiders was an 8-6-84 overtime victory in Alliance on Jan. 7, 2017. In the teams' meeting earlier this season, on Jan. 4, Mount Union came away with a 71-63 win in Westerville.