COLUMBUS, Ohio -  The Ohio Dominican Panthers (3-5, 0-3 G-MAC) men's basketball team returned to the confines of Alumni Hall for their first home conference game on Saturday (Dec. 14). 

Findlay (8-1, 3-0 G-MAC), currently receiving votes in both the NABC and D2CSC Top 25 polls, came to Sunbury Road looking for a 3-0 start in the G-MAC. Ohio Dominican battled back in the second half but the Oilers held off the Black and Gold for a 70-57 win. 

BOX SCORE NOTES

• JeJuan Weatherspoon led the Panthers with 21 points and nine rebounds as he was eight-of-12 shooting with three three pointers.
• Derek Goodman tied Weatherspoon with a trio of threes as he accounted for 11 points. 
• Elijah Hinton and Jaylan Green both finished with stat lines of eight points and eight rebounds. Green added a team-high three assists. 
• The Panthers shot 34.9% overall (22-of-63) in the contest, 25.8% (8-of-31) from deep and 50.0% (5-of-10) at the free throw line. 
• Ohio Dominican finished with 37 rebounds to Findlay's 44. 

HOW IT HAPPENED

• The game was tied twice in the first two and a half minutes after Weatherspoon made two free throws for a 4-4 tie. 
• Over the next six minutes, Findlay went on a 20-5 run for a 15 point lead (24-9) at the 11 minute mark of the first half. 
• Ohio Dominican got three different threes as they trimmed the lead to seven twice (27-20 & 29-22) in the following three minutes. 
  • Goodman had six points and Weatherspoon tallied five points as part of the original 11-3 rally. Another Goodman basket got the lead down to seven with 8:25 left in the half.
• Findlay pushed the lead back to double-digits and led by 13 at the halftime break, 41-28. 
• In the first nine minutes of the second half, the Oilers got the lead to 16 points (53-37). 
• The Panthers chipped away at the Oiler lead to get a second chance and taking back the lead. Seven straight points dwindled the lead to 53-44 with 7:49 to go. After a Oilers three, Weatherspoon scored seven points, combined with a Hinton layup and the Findlay lead was down to 59-53 with 4:58 to go. 
• Once the Panthers got within two possessions, Findlay answered with an 11-0 run to win 70-57.  

UP NEXT

• Ohio Dominican heads to Crestview Hills, Kentucky for a rare Monday (Dec. 16) night contest at Thomas More. This will be the final conference game in 2024 as ODU has three non-conference games before the New Year. Tipoff at the Connor Convention Center is set for 7:00 PM.