Men's Basketball: Marietta (19-5 Overall, 13-4 OAC) at Ohio Northern (17-7 Overall, 12-5 OAC)
Saturday, February 17, 2018, 3 pm - ONU Sports Center, Ada, Ohio
Saturday's Game: Much like the women's basketball Ohio Athletic Conference race, Saturday will play a vital role in the men's basketball conference race ... Ohio Northern sits in third place in the OAC standings entering the final contest of the regular season ... The game with Marietta will be the penultimate tilt of ONU's 18-game round-robin schedule ... Ohio Northern has clinched a top-3 finish in the OAC and will host a quarterfinal game in the OAC Tournament on Tuesday, Feb. 20 as part of a women's/men's double header that night ... With a victory over Marietta on Saturday afternoon, Northern will finish tied for second in the conference standings and will own the No. 2 seed in next weeks OAC Tournament due to tiebreaker rules ... Northern will celebrate Senior Day as well on Saturday afternoon as they honor their seven seniors in Nate Burger, Joey DiOrio, Travis Feitshans, Max Harnett, Brandon Hawkins, Grant Pepper, and Alex Sibila ... ONU is coming off of a thrilling victory on the road at Otterbein that saw Burger pour in a career-high 41 points ... DiOrio posted his second career double-double with 11 points and a career-high 12 rebounds and Feitshans added 10 for ONU ... Through 24 games this season, junior Ryan Bruns leads the league and is tied for 6th nationally with 65 blocked shots, is third in the league (and 8th nationally) in scoring at 24.7 ppg and is second in the OAC in rebounding at 9.0 rpg ... Burger is leads the team and is second in the OAC (7th nationally) in scoring at 24.8 ppg, leads the OAC (21st nationally) with 130 assists and is third in the OAC with 70 3FGs ... DiOrio is third on the team in scoring at 12.8 ppg and is fourth in the OAC with 69 3FGs ... DiOrio is 3rd all-time in ONU history at 46.0 percent (154-of-335) from beyond the arc ... Bruns is ONU's all-time career blocked shots leader with 189 in 72 career games, breaking Stan Mories' school record of 171 from 1979-82 ... He is also 26th all-time at ONU with 1,130 points ... In 88 career games, Burger ranks 29th all-time in ONU history with 1,106 career points and is 19th with 245 assists ... Freshman Brandon Waugh currently leads the team and ranks third in the OAC with 40 steals ... Earlier this season Ohio Northern fell at Marietta 90-86 ... Marietta is coming off of a 107-100 overtime victory at Muskingum ... With a victory Saturday, Marietta locks up the No. 2 seed in the OAC Tournament ... The Pioneers currently have five athletes averaging double figures led by senior Dillon Young's 13.5 ppg, while junior Anthony Wallace ranks second on the team with 13.3 ppg ... Junior Avery Williams leads the team and ranks fourth in the OAC with 7.8 rpg ... Young currently leads the team and ranks fifth in the OAC with 96 steals.
Ohio Northern Probable Starters:
G - #12 Nate Burger, Sr., (24.8 ppg, 70 3FG, 6.1 rpg, 130 Ast, 34 Stls)
G - #5 Austin Allemeier, So., (4.7 ppg, 3.3 rpg, 48 Ast)
F - #22 Joey DiOrio, Sr., (12.8 ppg, .454 3FG, 69 3FGs, 6.0 rpg)
F - #33 Travis Feitshans, Sr., (4.5 ppg, 3.6 rpg, 49 Ast)
C - #13 Daniel Donner, Jr., (6.3 ppg, 4.4 rpg)
ONU Statistical Leaders:
Scoring | Rebounding | 3FGs | Assists | Blocked Shots | ||||||||||||||
1. | Burger | 24.8 | 1. | Bruns | 9.0 | 1. | Burger | 70 | 1. | Burger | 130 | 1. | Bruns | 65 | ||||
2. | Bruns | 24.7 | 2. | Burger | 6.1 | 2. | DiOrio | 69 | 2. | Waugh | 59 | 2. | DiOrio | 22 | ||||
3. | DiOrio | 12.8 | 3. | DiOrio | 6.0 | 3. | Waugh | 18 | 3. | Feitshans | 49 | 3. | Waugh | 10 |
All-Time Series: Ohio Northern leads the all-time series between the two schools by a 58-33 margin ... Marietta won the first matchup of the season in Marietta, 90-86 ... MC has won seven of the last eight matchups.
ONU head coach Rich Bensman: Bensman is in his second season at ONU with a 33-17 record, a winning percentage of .660.