ADA – The Wilmington College men's basketball team had a chance late, but the Ohio Northern Polar Bears hit all 10 of their free throws down the stretch to knock off the Fightin' Quakers, 103-94, Wednesday in Ohio Athletic Conference action at the ONU Sports Center.
"We showed a lot of fight tonight," said Wilmington head coach K.C. Hunt. "We were down at the half and came out of the locker room to play with high-level intensity and execution to take a four-point lead."
The game settled into a back-and-fourth affair for a stretch with four ties and one lead change, but the Polar Bears eventually clicked offensively to push their lead to 13 points.
However, Wilmington wasn't going away.
Senior Zach McCorkle (Cincinnati, OH/Winton Woods) and sophomore Christian Jones (Hamilton, OH/Hamilton) scored 11 of Wilmington's 13 points as the Fightin' Quakers went on a 13-3 run to trail by three with 1:37 remaining.
But, Ohio Northern iced the game with the aforementioned proficiency at the charity stripe.
"All in all, we were good offensively with 22 assists," said Hunt. "But we have to shore up out defensive and rebounding.
McCorkle led the team with 22 points and seven rebounds in just 19 minutes of action, while freshman Andrew Russell (Columbus, OH/Central Crossing) added 17 points.
Jones added 14 points, a career-high six assists and five boards, while sophomore Nathan Scott (Sardinia, OH/Eastern) reached double figures for the second time in his career with 10 points off the bench.
Wilmington (3-15 overall, 2-11 OAC) hosts No. 8 Marietta 3 p.m. Saturday in Ohio Athletic Conference action.