Men's Basketball: Mount Union (6-1 Overall, 2-0 OAC) at Ohio Northern (4-2 Overall, 2-0 OAC)
Saturday, December 9, 2017, 2 pm - ONU Sports Center, Ada, Ohio
Saturday's Game: Ohio Northern will host the Purple Raiders on Saturday in the third game of its 18-game, double-round robin OAC schedule ... Northern will play four OAC games in December, then will conclude its non-conference schedule with a game at Denison on Dec. 20 and games against Lynchburg (Va.) and Keene State (N.H.) at the Music City Classic in Nashville Dec. 29-30 ... The Polar Bears are coming off a 92-83 victory over Wilmington on Wednesday evening at the ONU Sports Center ... Senior Nate Burger scored 27 points and junior Ryan Bruns had his third double-double of the season and 11th in his career with 24 points and 14 rebounds for ONU ... Senior Joey DiOrio added 18 points and freshman Brandon Waugh added 16 points for the Polar Bears ... Through 6 games this season, Burger leads the team and the OAC in scoring averaging 25.5 ppg and is fourth in the OAC with 40 assists ... Bruns leads the league with 21 blocked shots, is third in the league in scoring at 20.5 ppg and is third in the OAC in rebounding at 8.7 rpg ... Senior Joey DiOrio is third on the team in scoring at 13.8 ppg ... Burger and DiOrio are in a 3-way tie for the top spot in the OAC with 20 3FGs each ... Freshman Brandon Waugh is fourth on the team in scoring at 10.5 ppg and is fifth in the OAC with a .545 3-point shooting percentage (6-of-11) ... DiOrio is 105-of-224 in his career from beyond the 3-point arc, good for 46.9 percent ... Bruns currently ranks 3rd all-time in ONU history with 145 career blocked shots ... Mount Union is coming off an 87-83 victory over John Carroll on Wednesday to stay in a tie with ONU atop the OAC standings ... ONU and MtU are both 2-0 and Baldwin Wallace and Heidelberg are 1-0 ... The Purple Raiders had four scorers in double figures against John Carroll as sophomores Nathan Bower-Malone and D'vontay Friga had 17 and 16 points, respectively, while senior JJ Kukura posted 13 ... Kukura leads the team in scoring this season at 17.3 ppg, while Bower-Malone is second at 12.9 ppg and junior Andrew Francesconi is third at 11.1 ppg ... Kukura also leads the team in rebounds at 5.4 rpg.
Ohio Northern Probable Starters:
G - #12 Nate Burger, Sr., (25.5 ppg, 20 3FG, 40 Ast)
G - #5 Austin Allemeier, So., (4.7 ppg, 13 Ast, 5 Stls)
F - #22 Joey DiOrio, Sr., (13.8 ppg, .488 3FG, 6.0 rpg)
F - #1 Brandon Waugh, Fr. (10.5 ppg, 10 Stls, 10 Ast)
C - #21 Ryan Bruns, Sr. (20.5 ppg, 8.7 rpg, 21 Blocks)
ONU Returning Statistical Leaders:
Scoring | Rebounding | 3FGs | Assists | Blocked Shots |
||||||||||||||
1. | Burger | 25.5 | 1. | Bruns | 8.7 | 1. | Burger | 20 | 1. | Burger | 40 | 1. | Bruns | 21 | ||||
2. | Burns | 20.5 | 2. | DiOrio | 6.0 | DiOrio | 20 | 2. | Allemeier | 13 | 2. | DiOrio | 4 | |||||
3. | DiOrio | 13.8 | 3. | Burger | 5.2 | 3. | Waugh | 6 | 3. | Donner | 12 | 3. | Allemeier | 1 | ||||
4. | Waugh | 10.5 | Donner | 1 |
All-Time Series: Ohio Northern leads the all-time series between the two schools by a 59-39 margin ... ONU snapped a 6-game losing streak in the series with an 86-75 win in Ada last season ... ONU is 34-15 in games played in Ada and is 33-12 at the ONU Sports Center.
ONU head coach Rich Bensman: Bensman is in his second season at ONU with a 20-12 record, a winning percentage of .625.