(ALLIANCE, Ohio)-Capital University's men's basketball team clinched at least a share of the Ohio Athletic Conference regular season championship with a 80-68 win Wednesday at Mount Union College in Alliance, Ohio.
The win moves the No. 11-ranked Crusaders to 19-3 overall, 14-1 in the OAC and gives them the 10th OAC regular season title in school history. Mount Union falls to 9-13 overall and 5-10 in the OAC.
Jake Fanning (Marblehead/Danbury) came off the bench to score a career-high 16 points and seven rebounds, while Ryan Wood (Pickerington/Pickerington Central) and Steve Kyser (Sylvania/Southview) each had 10 points to lead Capital.
Mount Union got a game-high 20 points from Chris Crawford, Chris Switzer had 19 and Sam King had 11 in the loss.
Five lead changes and three ties left the game tied at 14 with 11:24 left in the half. Capital then went on a 24-10 run, capped by a Quintin Mitchell (Toledo/Libbey) three-point play to make it 38-24 with 3:20 remaining in the half. The Crusaders also hit 12-of-13 free throws during that run as they hit 16-of-19 from the line for the half to lead 39-30 at the break.
Mount Union rallied early in the second half and a layup from King with 9:58 to go closed the Capital lead to a single point, 53-52. The Crusaders responded with a decisive 10-0 run over the next three minutes that was finished off by a Ben Gunn (Wauseon/Wauseon) three-pointer. The Raiders got no closer than eight points the rest of the way.
Capital returns home to host Ohio Northern University at 2 p.m. Saturday in The Capital Center.