Women's Basketball wins Ohio Wesleyan Invitational with 62-44 victory at host Ohio Wesleyan
By Tim Glon
DELAWARE — The Ohio Northern women's basketball team won the Ohio Wesleyan Invitational with a 62-44 victory at tournament host Ohio Wesleyan on Monday afternoon at the at Branch Rickey Arena.
The Polar Bears (8-2 overall) were led by senior Emily Mescher (Maria Stein/Marion Local) with 14 points and 8 rebounds and sophomore Lexi Jacobs (Wapakoneta) with 14 points.
Both Mescher and Jacobs were named to the All-Tournament Team for their efforts with Mescher grabbing Tournament MVP honors.
The Battling Bishops (7-5 overall) got 13 points and 11 rebounds by Claire Sterling.
Northern finished the tournament with a 2-0 record after an 76-47 victory over Manchester (Ind.) on Sunday afternoon.
Ohio Wesleyan led 18-10 early in the second quarter, but it would all Polar Bears the rest of the way.
A 14-0 run, keyed by 6 points each by Mescher and Jaclyn Yankle (Youngstown/Cardinal Mooney), put ONU up 24-18, which eventually led to a 25-22 halftime lead.
After OWU scored the opening basket of the third period, Ohio Northern would go on a 15-3 run to grab a 40-27 advantage with 3:27 left in the quarter.
A basket by Jacobs gave Northern a 51-31 lead with 5:58 left in the game and a basket by sophomore Alissa Stahler (Lima/Shawnee) gave ONU its largest lead at 62-40 with 1:03 left to play.
Ohio Northern made 23-of-48 field goal attempts for 47.9 percent and was 9-of-22 from 3-point range for 40.9 percent.
ONU's defense limited Ohio Wesleyan to just 14-of-51 field goal shooting for 27.5 percent and just 4-of-28 shooting from beyond the arc for only 14.3 percent.
The Polar Bears will return to Ohio Athletic Conference play on Saturday with a 3 pm contest against John Carroll at the ONU Sports Center.