Balanced attack leads Women's Basketball past Otterbein 60-41

By: Andrew Korba

ADA -- 10 different players scored as the Ohio Northern women's basketball team defeated Otterbein 60-41 on Wednesday evening at the ONU Sports Center.

The Polar Bears are now 7-2 on the season and 2-2 in OAC action, while the Cardinals fall to 4-5, 1-3.

Junior Jordan Kimes led the way for ONU, recording her third double double of the season with 12 points and a career-high 15 rebounds.

Freshman Britt Lauck tied her career best with eight points off the bench and sophomore Brooke Espenschied finished with seven points.

Otterbein jumped out to an early 6-3 lead, but Northern countered with a 7-0 run, capped off on a layup by sophomore Precious Ramsey.

The Polar Bears ended the first half on a 12-4 run to take a 27-23 lead into the break.

ONU would come out strong in the second half, and open with a 11-2 run to expand its lead to 38-27.

A 12-2 run midway through the second half put the game away and gave the Polar Bears their largest lead of the night at 52-32.

"I thought we played a really good second half after a sloppy first half," said head coach Michele Durand. "Our bench really provided the spark that we needed tonight."

The Northern bench outscored Otterbein's 27-9 in the game.

ONU also won the rebounding battle 45-30.

The Polar Bears finished the game 24-of-58 (41.4 percent) from the field, while Otterbein was 16-of-52 (30.8 percent).

Ohio Northern will return to action at the D3hoops.com Classic in Las Vegas, Nevada on Dec. 29-30.

The Polar Bears will face Baruch (N.Y.) on Dec. 29 at 5 pm EST and No. 8 Wisconsin-Whitewater on Dec. 30 at 5 pm EST.