COLUMBUS - The Ohio Dominican Panthers men's basketball team opened the 2022-23 home slate with a Sunday (Nov. 13) matinee with the Wilberforce Bulldogs at Alumni Hall. 

Ohio Dominican held off a fiesty Bulldogs team for an 81-73 win, their second straight home opener win over Wilberforce. The Panthers improved to 1-1 overall on the young season. 

BOX SCORE NOTES

• Marcus Johnson (Columbus, Ohio) tallied a career-high 24 points on eight-of-15 shooting, including four-of-six from three and the free throw line. 
  • Johnson added three rebounds and three steals in his 31 minutes. 
• Jarius Jones (Gahanna, Ohio) scored 11 points with five free throws in his second game with the Panthers. 
• Keshawn Heard (Newark, Ohio) made his Panther debut with 11 points off the bench, knocking down three treys. 
  • Heard grabbed eight rebounds, with three offensive and five defensive. 
• Caleb Laurich (Akron, Ohio) scored eight points with a team-high 11 rebounds and two blocks. 
• Sean Marks (Delaware, Ohio) gave the Panthers nine points on three field goals (one three pointer) and two free throws. The senior had nine assists and three steals. 
• Mitch Wilkinson (Grand Rapids, Michigan) came off the bench with nine points and five rebounds, making a trio of three pointers. 
• The Panthers shot 43.9% from beyond the arc with 29-of-66 shooting. 
  • Ohio Dominican made 12 threes of 37 tries for a 32.4% three-point shooting %.
• ODU grabbed 45 rebounds compared to Wilberforce's 26 as the Panthers had an 15-2 advantage on the offensive glass. 

HOW IT HAPPENED

• Over the first seven minutes, Ohio Dominican hit five three pointers to open an 15-9 lead.
  • Johnson hit three threes while Wilkinson added two more of his own.
• The Bulldogs closed to 15-13 with 12:34 left before halftime before Ohio Dominican went on a 7-0 run in the next 90 seconds. Heard scored five straight points while Zach Szul (Waterville, Ohio) scored a putback layup off of a missed three. 
• After back-to-back Wilberforce threes and a free throw, the Bulldogs clawed to within two, 22-20 with 9:17 to go. The Panthers tried to pull away but the Bulldogs didn't go far as they stayed within six points for the next five minutes. 
• An 8-0 run with five points from Jones and a three pointer from Marks gave the Panthers a 38-28 lead as halftime was 3:11 away. 
• Wilberforce ended the half with a flurry to draw within four points, 40-36 at the halftime break. 
• Coming out of halftime, Ohio Dominican went on a 12-5 run in five minutes as the lead grew to 52-41 - the largest lead of the night. 
• The Bulldogs answered with an 11-0 run in three minutes to draw the game even at 52 with 12:00 left on the clock. 
• One minute later, Wilberforce took the 57-56 lead on a three pointer but Jones quickly answered and gave the Panthers a lead they would not relinquish. 
• The Panthers battled and pushed the advantage to as many as ten points in the final five minutes as Ohio Dominican hung on for an eight-point win. 

UP NEXT

• Ohio Dominican will host former Great Midwest opponent Davis & Elkins on Wednesday (Nov. 16) at 7:30 PM. 

Contact: Tyler Stotsky
stotskyt@ohiodominican.edu