Bruns' All-American college career ends

ADA - The All-American collegiate career of Ohio Northern's Ryan Bruns came to an end on Saturday.

A Spanish basketball career may follow for the Marion Local graduate.

Bruns - the Ohio Athletic Conference's leading scorer and reigning Player of the Year - had 33 points, 14 rebounds, seven assists and five blocks as the Polar Bears ended the season with a 79-63 rout of Muskingum on Senior Day at the King Horn Sports Center.

Ohio Northern (7-18, 3-15 OAC) capped the year by winning three of four games.

"We got on a little bit of a streak at the end, and I'm just glad that we ended it with a win because you don't want that bad taste in your mouth to end your career," Bruns said. "So I'm just glad we ended it with a win, and the group of seniors that I'm graduating with are all stellar guys and I wouldn't trade them for the world. I'm glad we ended it on a good note."

Bruns received good news after the game from his coach Rich Bensman, who said Spanish professional clubs are interested in signing him.

"There's still a chance that I could possibly go play overseas," Bruns said. "Coach didn't tell me before the game, but he just told me after that there are some teams over in Spain that are committed to signing me. I'm not really sure which ones they are or what level it is or anything like that, but he just said there are some teams over there that are committing. So there's a good possibility that I could still go and play overseas."

An estimated 564 people were in attendance on Saturday - a good portion of them were donning Marion Local Blue and Gold.

This wasn't the first time a large Marion crowd showed up, either.

"He's very popular," said Bensman, a Minster graduate. "That's not just the first time - they've come down in droves before to see him play. It's really nice. It's a great area. People support people. Just great people."

And Bruns put on a show for them.

He made a turnaround shot in the face of a defender on ONU's first possession. Within the first six minutes, Bruns scored twice more from the block while also finding an open man for a bucket after drawing a double team and getting a piece of a 3-point attempt on the defensive end.

Bruns played all 20 minutes of the first half, scoring 21 points on 10 of 16 shooting - including a two-handed dunk off an assist by Austin Allemeier.

After halftime, Bruns continued to dominate with a couple and-1s and a highlight-reel block before leaving the floor for the first time to a standing ovation with 1:43 remaining. Bruns was 15 of 25 shooting and six of his 14 boards were on the offensive end.

Bruns leaves ONU as the career blocks leader with 250 and fourth in scoring with 1,586 points. He also ranks among the program's top 10 in field goal percentage, made free throws and rebounds.

"I never really envisioned that," Bruns said. "I thought I'd come here - it's a good academic school and I get to play basketball, something I love, and I also get a great education. I never really envisioned I'd be that successful in my career, but through hard work, coach pushing me and God blessing me with some talents, I've been very fortunate here to have the career that I have had."

The success of Bruns didn't surprise Bensman, who saw something special when he recruited him.

"I recruited him pretty hard out of high school," Bensman said. "When they were somewhere, I was somewhere. I remember their basketball team went to Purdue for a team camp, and I was sitting there thinking 'Purdue's a long way.' It was a Saturday morning, but I made that commitment and saw him play. Where they were I was, because I thought he was pretty special. … He wasn't this in high school. He really worked hard to develop his entire game."

Should he decide against pursuing a professional basketball career, Bruns will work for Choice One Engineering.

But the end-of-season basketball accolades will soon follow for Bruns, a likely two-time Division III All-American selection. And after Saturday, there's no doubt he has plenty of good basketball left in the tank.

"He's so humble," Bensman said. "Choice 1 Engineering, that's a standing job offer. They offered him a job and they're like 'You don't seem too excited.' And he was like 'Well, I might have this opportunity to go play overseas.' And they told him to go do it. This job is always going to be here for you, but we just ask one thing: that there's a good live feed so we can watch you play. But that shows you his character - they're willing to wait."

"I still get a lot of enjoyment out of playing," Bruns added. "Some of the teams over there, I think you can only have two Americans per team. The chances aren't great for an American to get an offer. I was definitely surprised and very blessed to receive that."