In their first game of the postseason, the hot-shooting Olivet Nazarene University men’s basketball team eclipsed the century mark in taking down St. Ambrose 104-77 in the CCAC Tournament quarterfinals Wednesday evening in McHie Arena.
The Tigers shot a scorching 68.3-percent (41-of-60) from the floor to score over 100 points for the seventh time this season. They also scoped in from deep, knocking down 8-of-12 shots from behind the three-point line, while also shooting a near perfect 14-of-15 from the charity stripe.
Similar to the 87-73 win over Holy Cross two weeks ago, the senior trio of Griffin Andricks, Sam Emich, and Tyler Schmidt combined to do the majority of the damage for the Purple & Yellow Gold. Andricks led all scorers with a career-high 25 points on 10-of-13 shooting, Emich chipped in 22 and brought down a game-high eight rebounds, and Schmidt notched his fifth double-double of the season with 21 points and 11 assists.
All three seniors reached double figures in the first 20 minutes of play. Schmidt got the team rolling early, quickly filling in 10 points before the midway point of the first half. When his tenth point came at the 12:06 mark of the opening period, the Tigers had doubled up the Fighting Bees on the scoreboard at 26-13.
From there it was all Andricks, who filled in 23 of his career-high 25 points in the first half. As a team, ONU shot 21-of-30 from the floor in the opening period, good for 70 percent, in building a 56-39 lead at the halftime break.
The Fighting Bees (14-15) came out firing in the second half, knocking down three-straight three pointers to cut the ONU lead to 11 just three minutes into the period. But the Tigers methodically built the lead back up over 20. And when Gabe Renchen scored a breakaway layup to put ONU up by 27, Head Coach Nick Birkey cleared the bench and the reserves closed out the big win, the team’s sixth in a row.
A total of 11 Tigers found the scoresheet in the win, led by the senior trio. Landon Pflederer knocked down a pair of threes in scoring eight. Eli Edwards came off the bench to net seven. Caleb Swearingen recorded six. Jack Holohan and Daniel Murphy each scored four. Dawson Schmidt hit a 3-pointer to finish with three. Renchen and Austin Eifert each scored a pair of points.
The win improves the Tigers to 22-7 overall and advances them to the CCAC Tournament semifinals where they will face No. 2-seeded Indiana Northwest in the Savannah Center.
Originally published by ONU Athletics on onutigers.com
