ALLIANCE, Ohio – Mount Union's men's basketball team defeated Otterbein 69-66 in an Ohio Athletic Conference matchup on Saturday afternoon.
The Purple Raiders (14-7, 11-3 OAC) had four players score in double figures with fifth-year
Christian Parker (Canton / GlenOak), junior
Kevin Moore (Youngstown / Campbell Memorial) and sophomore
Elijah Farrington (Massillon / Massillon Washington) all scoring a team-high 12 points, with freshman
Chance Casenhiser (Uniontown / Lake) adding in 11 to round out the Raiders in double digits.
The Cardinals (11-10, 6-8 OAC) were led by Jarius Jones who scored a game-high 14 points, Julian Heckman who scored 12, with Troy Scowden and Chase Garito both scoring 10 points.
Otterbein would jump out to a quick 7-3 lead in the first two and a half minutes of action and would stretch the lead out to eight over the next four minutes, making it 18-10 with just over 13 minutes to play in the first half. Mount Union would slowly chip away at the lead over the next seven and a half minutes of game time to tie the game at 27 with 5:39 left to play in the half. The Raiders would then close the half on an 11-2 run to take a 38-32 lead into the halftime break.
Otterbein would slowly cut into the Mount Union lead over the first half of the second half, cutting it to 53-51 with 10:19 remaining in the game before back-to-back baskets from junior
Dante Collier (Columbus / Licking Heights) would push the lead back out to seven. The Cardinals would answer with a 9-3 run of their own over the next 4:21 of action to cut the lead down to one at 61-60 with 4:09 left to play, that's as close as they would get however as Mount Union would go on to outscore them 8-6 over the final four minutes to take home the 69-66 victory.
The Raiders hit the road next when they travel to New Concord for an OAC matchup with Muskingum on Wednesday, February 12 at 7 p.m.
