One hundred fifty seconds.
That is all it took for the Wilmington College men's basketball team to dig themselves into an insurmountable deficit as the Fightin' Quakers fell to Ohio Northern 83-69 Wednesday in Ohio Athletic Conference action in Fred Raizk Arena at Hermann Court.
The Polar Bears went on a 10-0 run over the final 2:30 of the first half to expand its seven point lead to 17 points. Ohio Northern controlled the first 20 minutes, shooting 64 percent (16-of-25) from the field and holding a plus-10 edge on the glass.
"It was a huge stretch," said Wilmington head coach K.C. Hunt. "We obviously dug ourselves into a hole that we weren't able to get out of. That stretch was indicative to how we were playing. We weren't playing tough enough mentally or physically to win this game tonight."
A different Wilmington team emerged from the locker room as the Fightin' Quakers turned up the defensive pressure. WC forced 16 second-half turnovers, and trimmed a 20-point deficit down to eight points with nine minutes remaining. However, they couldn't get any closer.
"Winning against good teams in the OAC is about giving consistent effort, mentally and physically, for 40 minutes," said Hunt. "We did not demonstrate that tonight. Perfect example, we cut it to eight with about nine minutes to go and we strung together six or seven stops in a row. The problem was turned the ball over five times during that stretch. We had an opportunity to get ourselves squarely back into the game, and we couldn't do it."
Junior Nathan Scott (Sardinia, OH/Eastern) dropped in a career-high 18 points on 7-of-14 shooting.
Junior Christian Jones (Hamilton, OH/Hamilton) added 17 points, three assists and a boards, while sophomore Kevin Lewis (Cincinnati, OH/Clark Montessori) recorded 10 points and six rebounds with two steals and an assist.
Freshman Noah Chatman (Goodlottsville, TN/Beech) pulled down a team-high seven rebounds with eight points on 4-of-5 shooting with two assists, two blocks and two steals.
Wilmington (3-4 overall, 0-2) travels to Tiffin to face Heidelberg in Ohio Athletic Conference action.
