The University of Findlay men's basketball team, ranked first in the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) poll, defeated Northwood University 78-71 on Saturday, January 10 in Midland, Michigan. The victory gives the Oilers a 12-0 record on the year with an 8-0 mark in the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC).

The Oilers held a 30-25 lead at the break and only led 32-30 at the 18:53 mark of the second half after Northwood's Chris Johnson drilled a three. Findlay, needing to get some separation, went on a 17-0 run to claim a 49-30 advantage with 13:53 left.

The Timberwolves would not go away easy however as they cut the lead to six at 63-57 on a couple of free throws by Johnson with 5:23 remaining in the game. After a bucket by the Oilers, Johnson would then hit two more from the charity stripe to make the score 65-61 with 4:24 showing on the clock.

After a few baskets by both teams, Findlay was clinging to a 68-66 lead after Marcus Moore made an old fashioned three point play with just over two minutes on the clock.

Clinging to a two point lead, sophomore forward Tyler Sparks drilled two free throws to make the score 70-66 with 58 seconds left before junior guard Marcus Parker came up with a steal two free throws of his own to give the Oilers a 72-66 advantage with only 28 ticks remaining in the game.

The Timberwolves would not go quietly though as Moore drilled a long triple to cut the lead to three at 72-69 with 21 seconds showing on the clock.

Sophomore guard Nathan Hyde then took over as he 6-of-6 free throw attempts down the stretch to give Findlay a seven point victory.

Hyde led the team with a career-high 21 points on 6-of-11 shooting. He drilled all six of his free throw attempts in the final 20 seconds of the game and also hit 3-of-6 three point shots in the game.

Senior forward Josh Bostic added 12 points and five rebounds before fouling out for the first time this year while Parker finished with ten points and a pair of steals.

Senior forward Morgan Lewis added seven points while red-shirt freshman forward Antoine Wilhite came off the bench to score seven points and grab four rebounds.

As a team, Findlay shot 41.5 percent (22-of-53) from the floor and drilled 7-of-17 (41.2%) of their three point tries.

The Oilers did a lot of their damage from the free throw line as they hit a season-high 27-of-34 attempts from the charity stripe.

Northwood was led by Moore's 15 points and 11 rebounds.

As a team, the Timberwolves shot 57.8 percent (26-of-45) from the floor and connected on 9-of-15 (60%) shots from behind the three point line.

Findlay did force Northwood into 22 turnovers and only allowed them to 15 trips to the free throw line in which they made ten.

The Oilers will be back in action again on Thursday, January 15 when they host Northern Michigan University. The GLIAC game is scheduled to begin at 7:30 p.m. in Croy Gymnasium.

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