TIFFIN, Ohio - Senior Karl Finley scored 31 points with seven assists as the Tiffin University men's basketball team (6-8, 1-6 GLIAC) rallied in the second half to defeat Ohio Dominican (3-9, 0-7 GLIAC) 86-78, Thursday evening at the Gillmor Center.
Ohio Dominican controlled the tempo of the game for nearly the first nine minutes. Brandon Carr hit a bucket in traffic at the 11:25 mark. That made it 18-5, Panthers.
Tiffin then put on a strong rally. The Dragons outscored ODU 14-4 over the next six minutes. Finley drove the lane and scored to close the gap to three, 22-19.
Ohio Dominican pushed the lead back to 11, 34-23 with 4:40 to go. TU got buckets from freshman Andrew Bendolph, Finley and Graessle over the next two minutes. That cut it to 34-30 at the 2:25 mark. The Panthers would lead by seven at the half.
In the second half, Tiffin made their move down 52-45 with 12:47 to go. Over the next two minutes, the Dragons forced six turnovers, had four steals and scored 11 straight points. Finley hit one from the downtown bus to make it 58-52 with 10:51 to go.
ODU fought its way back into the contest. Zak Kapron hit a pair of free throws to make it 59-58, Panthers at the 8:31 mark. The game was still in doubt with TU up, 76-71 with 1:27 to go. Tiffin shot 8-of-10 from the line to close out the win.
For Tiffin, Finley was 12-of-19 from the floor and 4-of-6 from behind the arc, senior Travis Spahr had 18 points and nine rebounds while Graessle had 17 points, eight rebounds and five assists. Senior Brandon Harris blocked five shots while Bendolph had nine points and two steals off the bench.
For Ohio Dominican, Darrien Douglas scored 18 points, Morgan Jones had 15 points and six assists and Kapron had 14 points and 11 rebounds.
Tiffin is back in action, Saturday, January 7, when they travel to play Hillsdale. The game is scheduled to start at 3:00 p.m. Live Stats will be available at http://livestats.prestosports.com/hillsdale/
-TIFFIN UNIVERSITY-