Men's Basketball

With its win, the Polar Bears are now 15-4 overall and 8-4 in the OAC and moved back into a first place tie by virtue of an 89-82 Capital University win versus John Carroll University today in Columbus. Defending OAC champion B-W fell to 12-7 overall and 7-5 in the OAC and is just one game back of first place.

In addition to Cannan for the Polar Bears, junior guard Kyle Gehle had 21 points, sophomore guard Kurtis Brown had 14 and senior forward Bart Hostetler came off the bench to tally to markers. B-W was led by a game-high 34 points by senior All-American forward Tori Davis (Elyria/Open Door) and junior guard Brendan Schuler (Fairview/Fairview Park) had 12.. 

In the first half, after ONU jumped out to a quick 5-0 lead, B-W went on a 6-0 run to take its only lead at 6-5 with 15:52 left when sophomore forward Andrew Bene (Hinkley/ Medina Highland) scored on a layup. Following ties at 8-8 and 11-11 ONU took control and outscored the Yellow Jackets 31-19 to lead by 12 points at 42-30 with 1:41 left when sophomore center Jake Cannan made two foul shots. ONU also led at halftime, 45-34.

In the second half, the Yellow Jackets outscored the Polar Bears 15-8 to trail by just eight points at 53-50 with 12:33 left when freshman guard Tom Jesko (Salem/ Salem Senior) made a three-pointer. It was the first of three times that B-W cut ONU's lead to three points with the last one being at 6:14 when Davis scored on a layup. B-W then outscored ONU 7-2 to take a two-point lead at 65-63 with 4:07 left when Davis scored, was fouled and made his free throw. The game was then tied at 67-67 and 72-72 at the 1:24 mark before ONU outscored B-W 11-2 down the stretch. ONU also made all eight of its foul shots in the final 42.27 seconds to seal its victory.

With his 34 points, Davis now has 2,041 career points and needs 22 more points to surpass the all-time leading scorer Dean Martin (1969-73) who had 2,062 career points. In addition, Davis now also has 866 career rebounds to rank fifth all-time and has a school career-record 222 blocked shots.

The Yellow Jacket next play on Wednesday, January 31 when they host Heidelberg College in the Rudolph Ursprung Gymnasium in Berea at 7:30 p.m.

FOR MORE INFORMATION, please contact B-W Sports Information Director Kevin Ruple by telephone at 440-826-2327, by FAX machine at 440-826-2329 or via e-mail at kruple@bw.edu.  To contact Head Coach Steve Bankson, please call him in the office at 440-826-2039 or you can reach him via e-mail at sbankson@bw.edu.