Hot start leads No. 11-ranked Women's Basketball to 70-51 victory over Heidelberg

By Caleb Scott

TIFFIN -- The No. 11-ranked Ohio Northern women's basketball team posted a 70-51 victory over Heidelberg Wednesday evening at Seiberling Gymnasium.

The Polar Bears improve to 19-3 overall and 14-1 in the Ohio Athletic Conference, while the Student Princes fall to 9-13, 7-8.

With the victory, Ohio Northern has clinched at least a share of the regular season Ohio Athletic Conference title and a double-bye in the OAC Tournament.

Northern was led offensively by a game-high 16 points from senior Carly Thomas. 

Sophomore Amy Bullimore posted her second consecutive double-double with 14 points and a game-high 10 rebounds.

Junior Britt Lauck added 12 points and four assists on the evening. 

The Polar Bears jumped out to a quick 19-2 lead with 3:40 left in the first quarter after hitting five of their first seven 3-point attempts 

Heidelberg was able to close the quarter on a 8-2 run to narrow the gap to 21-10 at the end of the first period.

HU would storm back with a 13-4 run to open the second quarter and cut the Northern lead to 25-23 with 5:15 left until the intermission.

Lauck and Thomas would respond with back-to-back three pointers and extend the lead to 31-23 with just over four minutes remaining in the half. 

After freshman Jenna Dirksen hit two free throws to push Northern's lead to 39-31, Heidelberg ended the half with a jumper to pull within 39-33 at halftime.

A Heidelberg layup with 4:42 remaining in the third quarter would pull HU within 45-40, before junior Angela Tesny nailed a three pointer to end the Student Prince run.

From there Northern would end the quarter scoring 13 of the last 17 points to take a 61-44 lead into the final period.

Northern would go on to win the contest 70-51.

The Polar Bears shot 23-of-59 (39.0 percent) from the field, including 9-of-21 (42.9 percent) from the three point line, while the Student Princes shot 18-of-52 (34.6 percent) from the field, including 4-of-17 (23.5 percent) from the 3-point line.

Northern won the rebounding battle by a 39-35 margin.

Ohio Northern will return to the court Saturday as they host OAC-foe Muskingum at the ONU Sports Center at 3 pm.