BOURBONNAIS, IL. – The No. 13 Olivet Nazarene University men’s basketball team had a historic night Thursday, exploding for a 125-43 win over Moody Bible in McHie Arena to notch the most points scored by the Tigers in over 18 years. The ONU men also scored 125 points in a win over East-West on Nov. 11, 2005.
The 82-point positive score differential is also the largest margin of victory for the ONU men in 30 years since the Tigers defeated Robert Morris by 86 points in a 133-47 win in the 1993-94 season.
Leading 6-5 early, all five ONU starters would contribute to a 12-0 run that put the Tigers up by double figures just five minutes into the contest. Moody Bible (2-9) responded with a pair of layups to cut the lead to 18-9, but a pair of Eli Edwards free throws put the Tigers back up by double-digits.
The lead would only grow from there, led by Sam Emich who scored 11 of his 15 points in the first half. Eight other Tigers scored in the first period as ONU held a commanding 54-23 lead heading into halftime.
The Tigers broke things wide open in the second half. After Moody Bible scored a layup to make it a 69-33 ballgame, ONU would lock down on defense, keeping the Archers off the scoreboard for the next seven minutes of play.
All the while the Tigers were pouring it on, scoring 26 unanswered points in the stretch. And when Jack Holohan finished at the rim on a dime from Tyler Schmidt, the Tigers led 95-33. The reserves would close out the historic win from there.
In total, 11 Tigers found the scoresheet in the dominant win, including seven in double figures. Schmidt led the way with 18 points while dishing out seven assists and grabbing five rebounds. Eli Edwards came off the bench to score a career-high 17 points. Emich and Holohan scored 15 apiece. Daniel Murphy, in his first career start, dropped in 13 while Griffin Andricks and Luke Braman each recorded 10 points.
Holohan and Austin Eifert each snagged 11 boards to lead the Tigers’ dominant night on the glass, with ONU outrebounding the Archers 73-21.
The Tigers will return to conference play when they host Roosevelt this Saturday in McHie Arena at 3 p.m.
For more information about the athletics program, contact Evan Wild, Sports Information Director, ewwild@olivet.edu.
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— Republished 12/12/2023 —
