Late Three Lifts Ohio Northern Over The Berg

The Heidelberg College men’s basketball team fell tonight in Ohio Athletic Conference action to host Ohio Northern University by a score of 83-80. The win improves Ohio Northern to 14-4, 7-4 in the OAC. While the Berg falls to 11-7 and 7-4 in the OAC.

Heidelberg held a six point advantage with 2:53 left in the game, but Ohio Northern would go on a 6-0 run to tie the game at 78-78 with 1:17 left to play. Two good free-throws by Shawn Shriver (Bellevue, Ohio / Western Reserve) put the Berg up by two at 80-78 with 44 seconds left in the game. With the game knotted at 80, Ohio Northern’s Ryan Lee hit a three-pointer as time expired to lift the Polar Bears over the Berg.

In the first half, with the score tied at 22-22, Heidelberg went on to outscore the Polar Bears 16-6 with 6:51 left in the opening stanza to give the Berg a 38-28 advantage at the half.

Ron Higgins (Vermilion, Ohio/ Firelands) and Shriver led the way in scoring for the Berg with 16 points each. Chad Szalay (Lorain, Ohio/ Clearview) rounded out three in double figures with 14, all of which came in the second half. Higgins also led the way on the glass with nine boards, followed by Andrew Lemmon (Port Clinton, Ohio/ Port Clinton) with eight.

Leading the way for Ohio Northern was Kyle Gehle with 20 points, followed by Greg Badenhop with 19. Bart Hostetler led the way for Polar Bears with nine rebounds.

Heidelberg returns to action at home against Mount Union Jan. 27. Tip-off is scheduled for 3:00 p.m.