Ashland, Ohio – The University of Findlay men's basketball team suffered an 80-78 defeat on Saturday, March 2 in the regular season finale at Ashland University. That loss ends the Oilers season with a record of 12-16 and 9-11 in the Great Midwest Athletic Conference (G-MAC) while Ashland continues on into the G-MAC Tournament with a record of 17-10 (11-9).

Needing a victory to keep hopes of a postseason berth alive, the Oilers came out of the gates firing, canning back-to-back triples to jump out to a 13-4 lead less than five minutes into the contest. Ashland made a run to take the lead at 20-19, but Findlay would counter, fighting back to take a ten-point advantage with 4:31 to play in the half.

The Oilers would ultimately head into the break leading 49-38 as sophomore Max Roth drilled a three at the buzzer.

In the last 20 minutes, the game did a 180 and turned in favor of the Eagles. Findlay's lead was as much as 14 after a triple by senior Nathan Bruns opened up the final frame, but ten minutes later the Eagles had shaved the deficit to just one point at 64-63.

The two teams went back-and-forth but Ashland was able to maintain its' slim advantage, ending Findlay's season.

Findlay made 27-of-66 (41%) from the floor while hitting 13-of-31 (42%) from three-point range while Ashland made 30-of-58 (52%) which included 8-of-24 (33%) from deep.

Both squads were nearly identical in turnovers and rebounds, but the Eagles advantage came within the painted area where AU outscored Findlay 34-to-22.

Playing in the final game of his five-year career at UF, senior Nathan Bruns poured in 22 points, grabbed five rebounds, had four assists, and three steals. The Chickasaw, Ohio native ends his time in the Orange and Black as one of the all-time great scorers, collecting 1,887 points for Findlay, fourth-most in program history behind only Randy Kortokrax (1984-87 | 2,575), Jim Carder (1965-68 | 2,079), and Jerry Carder (1965-68 | 1,953). Bruns also finishes with 796 rebounds which is good for second all-time at UF while his 733 field goals rank second and his 304 assists rank in the top ten. Bruns is the first player in the NCAA era of the program to lead the team in scoring in four consecutive seasons as he averaged 15.4 ppg this season.

Sophomore Jagger Landers tied a career-high with 18 points and grabbed six rebounds while freshman Anthony Johnson scored 16 and also had six boards.

Another five-year senior saw his career come to an end on Saturday as Joey Edmonds scored 11, had three rebounds, and four assists in his last go-round with the program. Edmonds ends his career with 1,148 points, 42^nd on the all-time scoring list. His 329 assists also rank fifth all-time.

This defeat ends the 2023-24 basketball season for Findlay which dropped a program record 16 games this season. A losing campaign is something that the Orange and Black are unfamiliar with as it has not happened for the program since the 1981-82 season, the 27^th of the 30-year career of former coach James Houdeshell. That streak of 40 consecutive winnings seasons was the longest streak among all active NCAA Division II institutions. Only Jefferson University in Philadelphia, PA had a streak that extended beyond the year 2000 as they have put together 27 consecutive winning campaigns.