Kankakee Times

FIVE TIGERS SCORE IN DOUBLE FIGURES TO TAKE DOWN TROLLS

Five Tigers finished with double-digit points to lead the Olivet Nazarene University men's basketball team past Trinity Christian 99-67 in McHie Arena Saturday afternoon.

Tyler Schmidt continued his stellar junior campaign with a game-high 25 points on 9-of-21 shooting. He also grabbed six rebounds and dished out five assists.

Schmidt had plenty of help from his teammates. Braydon Flagg filled in the game's second-highest point total with 19 off the bench on 82-percent shooting. Barik Olden was 5-of-8 from the floor in droppin in 12. Landon Pflederer knocked down three 3-points on his way to 11 points. And Caleb Swearingen was an efficient 4-of-8 from the field in netting 10.

Trinity Christian (9-16, 5-14 CCAC) cut the early ONU lead to one on a made free throw. But that was the closest the Trolls would get as a Schmidt three-pointer sparked a 19-4 run. When a layup from Swearingen capped the spurt at the midway point of the first half, the Tigers were up by 16.

ONU led by double-digits from there on out. The lead swelled to as many as 41 late in the second half when J.D. Rienow converted on a layup on a dime from Gabe Renchen. Head Coach Nick Birkey was able to clear the bench as the Tigers rolled to their fifth-straight win.

As a team, ONU shot 53.4-percent from the floor. Trinity Christian shot 41.9-percent but connected on just 32.4-percent of its shots in the first half before padding that number late. The Tigers also pulled down a 47-30 advantage on the boards.

The win improves the Tigers to 20-6 overall 15-3 in the CCAC, just a half-game back from first place in the conference standings.

Original source can be found here