ADA — Junior Scott Schnelle had a double-double with a career-high 26 points and 12 rebounds as the Ohio Northern men's basketball team opened its 2010-11 season with a thrilling 93-90 double overtime victory over Defiance Tuesday night at the ONU Sports Center.

The Polar Bears improve to 1-0 on the season, while the Yellow Jackets fall to 2-2.

Freshman Jared Horstman scored 17 points, freshman Joe Staley added 12 points and nine rebounds, sophomore Tony Meyer had 11 points and sophomore Taylor Kuhlman scored 10 points for ONU.

Defiance's Logan Wolfrum led all scorers with an impressive 42 points on the night.

Schnelle's offensive rebound and basket with 9 seconds left in the second overtime broke a 90-90 tie and gave ONU the lead for good at 92-90.

After a rare Wolfrum miss, Schnelle grabbed the rebound and put the game away with a free throw with 2.4 seconds to play.

"My hat is off to Defiance - we played a very good basketball team tonight," ONU head coach John Rhodes said. "This win was all about 'team' for us. We had players accepting roles and young players stepping up for us in key spots. Schnelle took a big step tonight in a leadership role. He was calling for the ball down the stretch and made some big plays. Our crowd was great, too. We fed off their energy."

Each team had an opportunity to win the game at the end of a period at the foul line.

At the end of regulation, Defiance's Leroy Lewis missed a pair of free throws with 0.3 seconds left in the game with the score tied at 71, sending the contest into overtime.

In the first extra period, freshman Branden Rushton, who finished with a solid eight points, missed two free throws with 3.0 seconds to play and the score knotted at 79.

In the second OT, a Wolfrum three-pointer gave DC an 82-79 lead just 15 seconds into the period.

Defiance led 90-88 when Ryan Hicks hit a jumper with 1:35 left in the period.

But Horstman hit a driving layup with 1:03 left to tie the game at 90-90 and grabbed the rebound off a miss by DC's Kyle Tietje with 48 seconds left.

Northern ran a play for Rushton to get the final shot, but his fall away 15-footer rimmed out. Schnelle came swooping in from the top of the key, grabbed the rebound in the lane and finished at the rim with the go-ahead basket.

The Polar Bears raced to a quick 18-10 lead, but DC battled back to lead 34-31 at intermission as Wolfrum scored 23 of his points in the opening 20 minutes.

He finished the night with 42 points on 12 of 17 shooting and was a perfect 16 of 16 from the foul line.

Northern made 31 of 74 field goals attempts for 41.9 percent, while Defiance hit 28 of 58 shots for 48.3 percent.

ONU was 10 of 22 from 3-point range for 45.5 percent, while DC hit 5 of 13 threes for 38.5 percent.

The two teams committed only 15 turnovers between them in 50 minutes of action.

ONU won the rebounding battle by a 44-39 margin.

The Polar Bears will take to the road this weekend at the Carnegie Mellon Tournament in Pittsburgh, Pa.

On Saturday, Northern will face No. 6-ranked Wooster at 1 pm and will face either Carnegie Mellon (Pa.) or Susquehanna (Pa.) Sunday at either 1 or 3 pm.