The Polar Bears dropped to 11-2 overall and 4-2 in the Ohio Athletic Conference, while the Crusaders improved to 8-4 overall and 5-1 in the OAC.
ONU junior Kyle Gehle tied a career-high with 24 points in the loss. He shot 6-of-10 from behind the arc and also grabbed a team-high five rebounds.
Capital took control of the game with a 20-2 run midway through the first half.
After Gehle made his third 3-pointer of the game to give ONU a 13-10 lead with 13:45 remaining in the half, Capital’s Ryan Wood hit two free throws at the 13:23 mark to ignite the run.
Nate Stahl capped the run with a 3-pointer to give the Crusaders a commanding 30-15 lead with 6:12 left before halftime.
ONU ended the half with a 9-2 run to shorten Capital’s lead to 32-24 with 33 seconds left in the half, but Wood hit a 3-pointer with 2 seconds left on the clock to give the Crusaders a 35-24 advantage at the intermission.
Jake Fanning hit two free throws to push Capital’s lead to 49-34 at the 12:14 mark in the second half.
ONU fought back though.
Gehle hit a 3-pointer off a pass from senior Greg Badenhop at the 10:25 mark to make the score 49-42.
With 5:53 to go, Gehle hit another 3-pointer to cut Capital’s lead to 58-53.
On ONU’s next possesion, sophomore Kurtis Brown drove to the hole and found classmate Jake Cannan for an easy layup. With 4:57 remaining in the game, Capital led ONU 58-55.
That was as close as the Polar Bears would get. After a Capital timeout, Stahl hit a 3-pointer from the corner to extend the Crusader’s lead to 61-55.
With a little under four minutes remaining in the game Capital’s Pat Stolly stole an ONU inbounds pass and made the put back on his own miss to give the Crusaders a 65-55 lead with 3:41 left in the game.
Steve Kyser led Capital with 14 points, while Stahl and Stolly each scored 13 points. In addition, Ben Gunn had five blocks for the Crusaders.
Gehle was the only Polar Bear in double figures for ONU, who shot better than Capital for the game.
ONU shot 42-percent from the field, making 21-of-50 shots, while Capital shot 40.4 percent, making 21-of-52 shots.
The Crusaders held a 35-30 edge in rebounding and made 20-of-27 free throws. ONU was 7-of-11 at the line and committed 18 turnovers.
“We just didn’t have it today,” ONU head coach Jeff Coleman said. “Capital is good and they played harder than we did.”
Ohio Northern returns to action this Wednesday when it travels to Wilmington for a 7:30 p.m. OAC match at Raizk Arena.