Quakers upset No. 22 ONU, 65-59

Stirling, Broermann score 19 each

|Box Score|

January 4, 2006

Nick Berter

ADA — Eric Stirling and Zach Broermann scored 19 points each as Wilmington College upset No. 22 Ohio Northern University, 65-59, Wednesday. The win is the seventh straight for WC and raises the Quakers' record to 11-1 overall, 4-1 in the Ohio Athletic Conference. Ohio Northern falls to 8-3, 3-2 in the conference.

"The way we're playing, I feel like everybody's going to start to prepare a little bit stronger for us," WC head coach Scott Reule said. "We're going to start getting the best shot from a lot of people. What we have to do to combat that is prepare equally as well and be prepared to play every night, whether we're at home or on the road."

The Quakers were clearly prepared for the Polar Bears, leading the game virtually from the opening tip to the closing buzzer. Broermann (Brookville, Ind./Franklin County) hit a layup, then Stirling (Brooklyn, N.Y./LaSalle Academy) scored twice as WC bolted to a 6-0 advantage. After ONU's Mike Hunter scored six straight points to tie the game, the Quakers went on a 22-7 run to take a 28-13 lead at 5:56. The Polar Bears, who missed all nine of their first-half three-point shots, switched to an inside game to cut the deficit to 36-27 at the half.

"Offensively, we did a lot of good things at the beginning of the game," Reule said. "We were very patient and got some easy baskets. They were overplaying us, out in the passing lanes, and we made some nice back door cuts to get easy baskets."

The Quakers, who shot 57 percent from the field in the first half, expanded the lead to 47-35 on a pair of Broermann free throws at 12:59, but the Polar Bears got treys from Kyle Gehle and Nate Lieb and climbed back into the game, forcing a 54-54 tie at 3:57. On the Quakers' next possession, Broermann canned a three to put the Quakers in the lead for keeps.

"That was a huge shot for Zach," Reule said. "We were actually trying to run a play to get a post touch for Eric. We got that, but they ended up doubling down on him and left Zach wide open. He got a good look from the corner and hit a big shot."

For the balance of the game, Wilmington scored on every possession as Nick Berter (Cincinnati/Reading), Stirling, Brett Carpenter (Marshalville/Smithville), Broermann and Josh Rohrbacher (Columbus/Beechcroft) connected, either from the field or foul line, to finish the win.

"We didn't have a great night from the free throw line (12-of-19), but we did a nice job of taking care of the basketball and getting to the line," Reule said. "We shot them well enough to get a tough win on the road in this league."

Rohrbacher finished with seven points, Berter scored five and Carpenter added four. Bart Hostetler and Gehle led ONU with 14 and 12 points, respectively. Ohio Northern out-rebounded Wilmington, 38-25. Stirling led the Quakers with five rebounds.

Wilmington will look for some more road magic Saturday when it travels to OAC-leading Baldwin-Wallace for a 3 p.m. tip-off. The Yellow Jackets raised their record to 11-1, 5-0 in the OAC, with a 77-64 win over Mount Union Wednesday.