TIFFIN, Ohio – The Yellow Jackets erased an early second-half deficit and then withstood a tense finish to earn a 70-68 G-MAC victory over Tiffin at the Gillmor Center.
Ethan Sellars went 3-for-3 from deep and led five players in double figures with 15 points for Cedarville, 8-5 overall and 3-2 G-MAC.
Mikail Harmison,
Sam Johnson, and
Jonathan Whiteside scored 11 points apiece while
Anthony Ruffolo chipped in 10.
The Jackets faced a 39-31 deficit early in the second half but then seized control with a 28-5 explosion for a 59-44 margin at the ten-minute mark.
It was still a 70-60 spread with 2:47 left, but the visitors went scoreless the rest of the way. The Dragons scored eight consecutive points and misfired a contested three-pointer at the buzzer.
Quotable: Head Coach Rob Jones
"I'm thankful for how our guys responded to adversity tonight. We were down five at halftime, and to flip the script the way we did - building a lead in the first ten minutes of the second half - was impressive. I thought that was a real growth moment for us. We made a commitment at halftime to have a stronger help presence, and that really showed in the second half as we limited them to just eight points in the paint.
"The final few minutes weren't as clean as we'd like, and that will give us something valuable to learn from moving forward. It's always hard to win a conference road game, so I'm grateful for our composure and the grit to come up with that final stop."
Five Facts:
- Cedarville controlled the boards, 40-29, with Johnson hauling in a game-high nine rebounds.
- Will Gibson led the team with five assists to go along with nine points and six rebounds.
- The Jackets shot .500 from the field in the second half while holding the Dragons to a .320 accuracy.
- It was the 84th meeting between the two schools with CU leading, 46-38, in a series which began in the 1973-74 season
- The rematch at the Callan Athletic Center comes on February 28 in the regular season finale.
