Men's Basketball: Ohio Northern (3-7 Overall) at D3hoops.com Classic - v Linfield (Ore.) (7-2 Overall); v North Central (Ill.) (10-1 Overall)
Thursday-Friday, December 27-28, 2018, 8 pm - South Point Arena, Las Vegas, Nev.
Tournament Notes: Ohio Northern will travel west of the Mississippi River for the first time since 2013 when they compete in the D3hoops.com Classic ... The Polar Bears will face Linfield (Ore.) at 8 pm (11 pm EST) on Thursday and North Central (Ill.) at 8 pm (11 pm EST) on Friday ... ONU's last trip out west consisted of road victories at Cal Tech (102-69) and Chapman (Calif.) (86-82) in December of 2013 ... ONU also went 1-1 at the Surf 'N Slam in San Diego in 2008 and posted a 3-0 record at the 2003 Cactus Jam in Phoenix ... Both of ONU's meetings with Linfield were in those two tournaments, winning 67-57 at the Surf 'N Slam and 79-53 at the Cactus Jam ... ONU has also played in tournaments at Phoenix in 2009; Fairbanks, Alaska, in 1993; Dallas in 1992; Sitka, Alaska, in 1990 and Stockton, Calif., in 1981 ... Ohio Northern is 11-4 in those tournaments, which includes wins over NCAA Division I foes Portland (48-46) and Northern Arizona (58-56) to win the U. of Pacific Classic in 1981 ... The Polar Bears are looking to snap a 5-game losing streak and are coming off a 73-66 loss to Heidelberg on Dec. 19 ... Junior Austin Allemeier netted a career-high 20 points and senior All-American Ryan Bruns added 20 points to lead ONU ... Through 10 games this season, Bruns leads the Polar Bears and is third in the OAC, averaging 20.6 points per contest ... He also tops the team and the OAC with 25 blocks per contest and is third in the OAC with a team-best 8.2 rpg average ... Bruns is ONU's all-time leader in blocked shots with 214 ... He ranks fourth all-time in ONU history in career field goal percentage at 56.2%, is 14th in made field goals with 517, is 12th in made free throws with 310, and is 13th with 1,368 career points ... Allemeier stands second in scoring this season averaging 12.4 points per outing ... Senior Daniel Donner and junior Caleb Bryan are 1-2 in the OAC in field goal shooting percentage at .647 and .646, respectively ... The Linfield Wildcats are coming off a 93-68 victory over California-Santa Cruz on Dec. 21 ... Will Burghardt pumped in 19 points while adding six assists, and Riley Bruil and Max Lommen both contributed 14 points for Linfield, which raised its season record to 7-2. Liam O'Reilly netted 12 points and Grant Gibb had 11 to help the 'Cats steadily pull away in the second half from the Banana Slugs ... Dempsey Roggenbuck, Will Burghardt and Grant Gibb lead Linfield ion scoring at 20.6, 15.1 and 15.0 ppg, respectively ... Linfield ranks 9th nationally with an average of 95.1 pointer per game and 12.3 3-pointers per game ... Northern Central is riding a 4-game winning streak and is coming off a 67-63 win over Illinois College on Dec. 22 ... Connor Rairdon led the Cardinals with a game-high 24 points ... Raridon leads NCC in scoring at 18.3 ppg and in rebounding at 7.9 rpg ... Matt Cappelletti ias second in scoring at 15.0 ppg and in rebounding iat 7.7 rpg.
Ohio Northern Probable Starters:
G - #25 Ty Staten, Fr., (5.1 ppg, 3.0 rpg, 27 Ast)
G - #14 Daniel Unruh, Fr., (8.8 ppg, 3.7 rpg, 23 Ast, 13 Steals)
F - #5 Austin Allemeier, Jr., (12.4 ppg, 4.7 rpg, 27 Ast)
F - #13 Daniel Donner, Sr., (7.7 ppg, 6.5 rpg, .647 FG%)
C - #21 Ryan Bruns, Sr., (20.6 ppg, 8.2 rpg, 25 Blocks)
ONU Statistical Leaders:
| Scoring | Rebounding | 3FGs | Assists | Blocked Shots | ||||||||||||||
| 1. | Bruns | 20.6 | 1. | Bruns | 8.2 | 1. | Bachman | 18 | 1. | Allemeier | 24 | 1. | Bruns | 25 | ||||
| 2. | Allemeier | 12.4 | 2. | Donner | 6.5 | 2. | Allemeier | 14 | Staten | 24 | 2. | Donner | 7 | |||||
| 3. | Unruh | 8.8 | 3. | Bryan | 6.1 | 3. | Unruh | 8 | 3. | Unruh | 20 | 3. | Staten | 3 |
All-Time Series: Ohio Northern leads the all-time series against Linfield (Ore.) by a 2-0 margin and over North Central (Ill.) 1-0 ... ONU topped Linfield 67-57 at the 2008 Surf 'N Slam Tournament in San Diego and 79-53 at the 2003 Cactus Jam in Phoenix ... ONU defeated North Central 85-66 in 1977-78.
ONU head coach Rich Bensman: Bensman is in his third season at ONU with a 38-26 record, a winning percentage of .594.
