COLUMBUS - The Ohio Dominican Panthers men's basketball team continued the push to the end of the regular season as they hosted the Ashland Eagles on Saturday (Feb. 11) afternoon at Alumni Hall. 

The Eagles may have won the game 83-64 but Zach Szul (Waterville, Ohio) had his career moment as he became the 27th player in Panther history to score 1,000 career points. He is the seventh player in the D2 era to reach that mark and the first player to do it since Sam Hickey and Hasan Varence both scored their 1,000th point in the same game against Trevecca Nazarene (Jan. 19, 2019). The last three players to reach 1,000 points have done it as juniors. 

BOX SCORE NOTES

• Four Panthers tallied double figures in the game for the second straight contest. 
• Szul entered the game needing 14 points to reach the career milestone of 1,000 points and he scored exactly that on Saturday. After scoring six points in the first half, he added eight more points in the second half - including making all six free throws. He was four-of-13 from the floor with two rerbounds and one steal. 
• Ethan Haynes (Florence, Kentucky) used three triples to score 11 points in the game with two rebounds of his own. Haynes has scored at least ten points in five games this season. 
• Sean Marks (Delaware, Ohio) scored 11 points for his ninth double-digit game, using two threes. 
• Keshawn Heard (Newark, Ohio) shot four-of-11 from the floor with a pair of three pointers for 11 points. He grabbed five rebounds and was tied for the team lead with three assists. 
• Marcus Johnson (Columbus, Ohio) knocked down a pair of threes for his points off the bench as well. 
• Jarius Jones (Gahanna, Ohio) gave ODU seven points, six rebounds and three assists. Four of his six boards were on the offensive end. 
• Kevin James (Massillon, Ohio) played 21 minutes off the bench while leading all Panthers with seven rebounds. The freshman added five points in the scoring column. 

HOW IT HAPPENED

• Ashland scored the first four points before ODU used a trio of threes from Haynes, Marks and Heard to tie the game at nine all. After the tie, Ashland regained a 12-9 lead until Marks scored five straight points to put ODU up 14-12 with 14:42 left in the first half. 
• The teams tied once again at 16-16 before Ashland went on an 8-0 run for a 24-16 lead. Both teams bounced back and forth over the next six minutes with the lead moving between five and eight points. 
• Ohio Dominican cut the lead to 38-34 with another three pointer. Over the final four minutes, Ashland closed the half on an 11-2 run for a 49-36 lead at halftime. 
• The Eagles started the second half with 11 straight points and pushed the lead to as many as 25. The Eagles led 69-44 with 13:13 left, the largest deficit of the day. 
• ODU bounced back with six consecutive points to get the deficit under 20 points at 69-50 at the 10:51 mark. 
• With 5:57 left, Szul stepped to the charity stripe and converted both free throw attempts to hit 1,000 career points. The Panthers took a timeout to give Szul a standing ovation as they trailed 77-60.
• Ashland won the contest 83-64. 

UP NEXT

The Panthers will conclude the current home swing with a rematch with the Lake Erie College Storm on Thursday (Feb. 16) at 7:30 PM. 

Contact: Tyler Stotsky
stotskyt@ohiodominican.edu