MOUNT VERNON – The Mount Vernon Nazarene University men’s basketball team continued its perfect start and (2-0, 0-0 CL) defeated the University of Northwestern Ohio (1-1, 0-0 WHAC) by a score of 76-66 on Tuesday evening, Nov. 1 in Ariel Arena.
The Cougars started the game hot, scoring the first 14 points of the contest. The hosts continued to outpace the Racers and headed into halftime with a 46-29 lead. In the second half it was more of the same from MVNU as the Cougars used clock management and stout defense to force UNOH to shoot just 34.3% from the field. The Cougars held off a few late chances by the visitors to win by 10 points. MVNU shot 46.3% from the field and 34.8% from 3-pt. range on the evening.
Inside the box score, MVNU's Kyle Kegley had another monster night as the senior scored 28 points and hauled in 18 rebounds. Kegley also blocked three shots on the night. Kegley shot 8-12 from the field and 11-14 from the free throw line. Cougar Kade Ruegsegger scored 16 points and had seven rebounds, and Eric McLaughlin added 11 points and also had six rebounds, four assists, and three blocks. Coming off the bench, Hallvard Staff scored 11 points and had three rebounds, and Milton Gage picked up eight assists and three steals on the evening. Gage added four points and two boards.
MVNU basketball coach Jared Ronai was happy with the win and the effort, but looked for team impovement. "I am proud of our guys tonight. However, there are a lot of things we have to clean up. Most are areas we can control, and I’m looking forward to getting better this week. UNOH was a very talented team and I felt we made some things difficult on them on the defensive end.”
The Cougars were back in action on Friday night, Nov. 4 as they traveled to Rochester, Michigan to take on Aquinas College in the Federate Insurance Classic.
