ADA – Ohio Northern’s Ryan Bruns and Nate Burger.
Baldwin-Wallace saw plenty of them in the second half and overtime.
And both came up big down the stretch.
Bruns had 29 points, Burger scored 23 and went over 1,000 points to help ONU to an 85-74 overtime men’s basketball victory over Baldwin-Wallace Wednesday at the King Horn Center.
Bruns (Marion Local) delivered 22 points after halftime, while Burger (Kettering Alter) had 21 in the second half and overtime. Bruns had six rebounds.
Joey DiOrio added 15 points and hit 6 of 6 at the line.
Freshman Brandon Waugh had five points, a team-high 10 rebounds and guarded BW guard Cam Kuhn down the stretch.
Kuhn led B-W with 29 points, but hit 9 of 21 from the field and 3 of 11 on 3-pointers.
ONU outscored B-W 14-6 to start the overtime to make it 79-71 with 1:25 to go.
Burger’s 3-pointer made it 79-71 and also gave him 1,001 career points.
“I didn’t know how many I had, but I knew I was close,” Burger said. “It was a great script. It couldn’t have been better.’’
Ohio Northern is 14-6, 9-4 in the Ohio Athletic Conference. Baldwin-Wallace is 14-6, 8-5 in the OAC.
DiOrio finished the overtime off with six straight foul shots.
ONU outscored B-W 20-9 in overtime.
Burger and Bruns both scored seven points in overtime.
“It was a matter of stopping on the block and being more physical,” Bruns said. “And the guards did a better job making those entry passes, a lot of credit to them.’’
B-W led 37-22 at the half.
“We had to do all the little things, blocking out, being in the right position, talking to each other,” ONU coach Rich Bensman said. “When you have another talented team you’re playing against, you have to do those things. I don’t think in the first half we were.”
ONU went right to the 6-8 Bruns on the block in the second half. Burger began driving and weaving his way to the basket.
“We tried to get a little deeper touches (to Bruns) because they were being very physical with us and pushing us off the block,” Bensman said. “I think we did a better job of getting him deeper touches and also penetrating when they were pushing him off the paint.’’
ONU clicked off a 15-2 second-half run to cut the lead to 53-50 after a Burger 3-pointer.
Kuhn’s NBA-like 3-pointer tied the game at 65 with 47 seconds to go and sent the game to overtime.
The game was a rematch from Jan. 10 at B-W, in which the Polar Bears posted an 80-73 win.
ONU came in riding the 1-2 punch of Bruns (Marion Local) and Burger.
Bruns is ranked eighth in the nation in scoring (25.2) and second in the nation in blocks (59). He’s also averaging 8.8 rebounds and has 1,069 career points.
“I’ve always been a 6-8, skinnier kid, so this summer I focused on the weight room every day,” Bruns said.
Burger is ranked 10th in the nation in scoring (24.6). He has 1,001 career points.
ONU went out to a quick 7-2 lead.
Then it seemed like ONU couldn’t hit anything, as the B-W man defense tightened up.
The Yellow Jackets ripped off a 13-0 run to pull out to a 15-7 lead.
BW’s lead grew to 22-9 with 6:23 left in the first half. At that point, ONU was 4 of 19 from the field (22 percent).
ONU wasn’t getting many second shots either. BW won the boards at the half 24-16, including 8-2 on the offensive end.
Kuhn was hitting from inside and outside and had 11 points at the half.
ONU ended up hitting 49 percent from the field and was 6 of 19 on 3-pointers.
B-W shot 34 percent and was 12 of 44 on 3-pointers.
ONU ended up winning the boards, 42-37.
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