BOURBONNAIS, Ill. – The Olivet Nazarene University men’s basketball team set the tone early with a big first half to cruise to a convincing 91-75 win over Judson inside McHie Arena Saturday afternoon.
The Tigers shot better than 58 percent from the floor and hit four 3-pointers en route to a season-high 51 points in the first half on the way to the big home win, the team’s first in conference play.
Caleb Swearingen led the Purple & Yellow Gold attack in the dominant opening period, filling in all 17 of his points in the first half alone on 7-of-8 shooting and knocking down all three of his 3-point attempts. In less than seven minutes, the senior guard scored 11 points to get the Tigers out to a double-figure advantage early on.
And the Tigers kept pouring it on. After a Judson (1-5, 1-2 CCAC) jumper cut the ONU lead to eight at 28-20, ONU responded with 14 unanswered points. Five different Tigers scored in the stretch, and when Eli Edwards capped the spurt with back-to-back layups, ONU led by 22 points.
The Tiger shooting cooled in the second half but the Eagles never mounted a serious threat as ONU maintained a double-digit lead for the remainder of the game.
ONU shot better than 49 percent from the floor for the game while knocking down six shots from beyond the arc. They also made their trips to the line count, converting on 21-of-24 free-throw attempts.
Caleb Corro led the way, going 6-of-13 from the floor for a game-high 21 points. He also hit all nine of his free throws. Swearingen scored all 17 of his points in the first half. Daniel Murphy matched his career-high with 16 points and Edwards chipped in 12 points to go with his team-leading eight rebounds.
Luke Braman and Tyler Curl both finished with nine points apiece, with the latter leading the stout ONU defensive effort with five steals. Andrew Bennett lined up a pair of triples to finish with six points. Brayden Long found the scoresheet with one point.
The Tigers will look to build a winning streak when they host Moody Bible Tuesday.
–ONU—
*Contact: Evan Wild, Sports Information Director, ewwild@olivet.edu
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