GARY, Ind. – The Olivet Nazarene University men's basketball team missed its first seven shots from the floor and never fully recovered in an 86-72 defeat to Indiana Northwest Wednesday evening in the Savannah Center.

It took nearly four minutes for the Tigers to get on the scoreboard, with Caleb Corro eventually breaking the seal on the lid with a layup at the 16:23 mark. The redshirt junior added another layup and Mason Wood converted on a jumper to account for all of ONU's six points as the team faced a 20-6 deficit in the early going.

Despite the early struggles, the Tigers got themselves back into the game behind an 11-2 run late in the first half. Back-to-back threes from Caleb Swearingen and Tyler Curl ignited the run, followed up by a pair of free throws from the latter. And when Luke Braman capped the spurt with an old-fashioned 3-point play, ONU only trailed by six.

Another Curl 3-pointer got ONU as close as five at 31-26 with four minutes remaining in the opening period, but Indiana Northwest closed out the period outscoring the Tigers 11-5 to take a 10-point lead into the halftime locker room.

The Tigers were able to cut the IUN lead to single digits thanks to a Daniel Murphy layup and a Swearingen 3-pointer, cutting the deficit to 51-43 at the 15-minute mark. But the RedHawks responded with a 12-4 to go back up by double-figures. The Tigers were unable to close the gap from there.

Corro filled in 19 points to lead the Tigers in scoring. Swearingen knocked down three tirples to score 17. Curl finished with 12 to give ONU three players in double figures.

Braman led the bench unit with nine points and five rebounds. Wood netted six. Murphy led the team on the glass with nine boards.

ONU will close out their three-game road stint at Governors State Saturday.

--ONU—

*Contact: Evan Wild, Sports Information Director, ewwild@olivet.edu