Oiler win streak reaches a dozen

Sullivan earns GLIAC Player of the Week honors

By Kevin Schrock
@KRock_6

Taren Sullivan and The University of Findlay Men’s Basketball team continued their hot play on Saturday afternoon by knocking off the Tiffin Dragons 94-75. The Oiler’s conference rival came in riding a three-game skid and that reached four after their brief stay in Croy gymnasium. The Oilers improved to 17-5 on the season and have won 12 straight.

Although Sullivan has played solid for the Oilers all year, the past week has been a career-high week for the sophomore, literally. After dropping 17 points on Monday, Feb. 1, against Wayne State he set a career high the following Thursday against Ohio Dominican by scoring 26. Finally, the Lima native ended the week with another career high, 27 points, against the Dragons. All of this was good enough for him to earn GLIAC player of the week honors.

“Early in the year we posted (Sullivan) a lot and he struggled with that,” said head coach Charlie Ernst. “Now we’re getting him on the perimeter where he can beat people off the dribble or cast a three.”

As well as Sullivan played, it wasn’t a one-man-show for the Oilers on Saturday. All five Findlay starters reached double digits, and senior John Staley tallied a double-double with 10 points and 11 rebounds.

Findlay fell behind 10-7 early but promptly rattled off seven straight points and never gave up the lead after that. The Dragons must have been baffled by the fact that they could shoot 61.5% from the field, have the same amount of rebounds as the Oilers (12), and still find themselves down 45-37 at the half.

“Them [Tiffin] coming out and playing well in the first half wasn’t a complete shock to me,” said Ernst. “I have to give them credit they made some tough shots and that’s what you have to do to come in here and beat us.”

The Dragons were within striking distance at the half, and made things even more interesting in the second half.

With less than 13 minutes left in the game the Dragons and fought to cut the Oiler lead to three points at 63-60.  After that it was Sullivan draining a three and after a Tiffin layup Tyler Stern-Tucker answered with one of his own.

“I thought Tiffin played awfully hard today,” said coach Ernst. “But like we’ve done all year, we made shots when we had to. Sometimes those shots come with under two minutes, and sometimes they come at the eight-minute mark when they cut it to three.”

After the Oilers withstood that final push they were well on their way to a victory and pulled away for the 94-75 win.

With the win, the Oilers extended a pair of win streaks to 12. Not only have they won a dozen in a row, they have also won all 12 home games they have played this year.

The Oilers will take on Ashland on the road Thursday and then go to Lake Erie on Saturday.

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