Men's Basketball: Ohio Northern (2-0 Overall, 2-0 OAC) v Otterbein (0-0 Overall, 0-0 OAC)
Friday, January 29, 2021, 7 p.m. - ONU Sports Center, Ada, Ohio
Saturday, January 30, 2021, 6 p.m. - Rike Center, Westerville, Ohio
This Weekend's Preview: The Polar Bears will continue their abbreviated 2021 season with a home-and-home series with Otterbein this weekend ... The teams will play on Friday night at 7 pm at Ohio Northern and will wrap up the series with a 6 pm contest at Otterbein on Saturday ... No fans will be allowed to attend the games due to the OAC's COVID-19 policy ... ONU swept a home-and-home series with Wilmington to open the season last weekend ... On Friday, sophomore C.J. Napier had his second career double-double with 24 points and 10 rebounds to lead Ohio Northern to a 95-86 road win ... Junior Brandon Waugh scored 23 points, grabbed seven rebounds and tied a career-high with six assists, sophomore Michael Berner had a career-high 17 points, sophomore Landen Long had 17 points and sophomore Adam Scott had a career-high 10 points ... On Saturday, Napier scored with 39 seconds left to put ONU up 62-61 and held on when WC missed a layup at the buzzer ... Napier scored a team-high 16 points and Waugh added 12 points for ONU ... Napier leads the team and is fourth in the league in scoring at 20.0 ppg and leads the team and is second in the OAC in rebounding at 9.0 rpg ... Waugh is second in the OAC with a team-best 10 assists ... As a team, Ohio Northern leads the league by committing only and average of 5.5 turnovers per game ... The Polar Bears will return to action next weekend with a home-and-home against Heidelberg ... The Cardinals were scheduled to open their 2021 season last weekend with a home-and-home series against Marietta, but the games were canceled due to COVID-19 protocol issues at Otterbein ... OU returns its top six scorers from last year's team that went 8-18 and tied for eighth in the OAC with a 5-13 record ... Sophomore Dallas Patrick (16.7 ppg), senior Mo Beavers (11.1 ppg) and All-OAC senior Justin Carter (10-0. ppg) lead the list of returners ... Patrick also led the team in rebounding (6.2 rpg).
ONU Statistical Leaders:
| Scoring | Rebounding | 3FGs | Assists | Steals | ||||||||||||||
| 1. | Napier | 20.0 | 1. | Napier | 9.0 | 1. | Waugh | 4 | 1. | Waugh | 10 | 1. | Waugh | 4 | ||||
| 2. | Waugh | 17.5 | 2. | Waugh | 6.5 | Long | 4 | 2. | Napier | 3 | 2. | Long | 2 | |||||
| 3. | Berner | 13.0 | 3. | Scott | 6.0 | 3. | Unruh | 1 | 3. | Scott | 3 | Scott | 2 | |||||
| 4. | Long | 11.5 |
All-Time Series: Ohio Northern leads the all-time series between the two schools by a 74-57 margin ... ONU is 43-23 at home and is 30-14 at the ONU Sports Center ... OU has won the past 2 meetings, sweeping ONU 83-66 and 81-79 last season.
Head Coach Rich Bensman: Bensman is in his fifth season at ONU with a 53-53 record, a winning percentage of .500.