Dominant second half leads No. 6 Women's Basketball to 65-42 win over Otterbein

By: Jared Brown

ADA -- The No. 6 Ohio Northern women's basketball team outscored Otterbein 36-18 in the second half to get its school record 18th straight win by a 65-42 score on Wednesday evening at the ONU Sports Center.

With the win the Polar Bears go to 19-1 overall and 13-0 in the OAC, while the Cardinals fall to 16-4 and 10-3 in the OAC play.

Northern held the Cardinals to just 5-of-24 (20.8 percent) shooting in the second half and forced 10 turnovers.

Senior Morgan Dumbaugh led the way for ONU with 17 points.

Junior Cenzie Yoder added 10 points for Northern.

Madi Miller scored nine points to lead Otterbein and Tabatha Piper scored eight points and grabbed a game high 11 rebounds.

The Polar Bears led 29-24 at the break and opened up the second half on an 8-0 run to push their lead to 37-24.

Northern used a 7-0 later in the half, capped off by two free throws by senior Marissa Clark, to open up a 52-32 advantage with 9:25 left.

The Cardinals would come right back with a 9-0 run and cut the ONU lead to 52-41 with just over seven minutes left.

But ONU put the game away, closing the contest out on a 13-1 run.

Otterbein built an early 11-6 lead, but ONU battled back to tie the game at 15-15 on a three from junior Taylor Hermiller.

ONU used a 9-3 run to push their lead to 29-22, before the Cardinals scored in the closing moments of the first half to cut the ONU lead to 29-24.

The Polar Bears shot 18-of-60 (30 percent) from the field, and a season best 9-of-19 (47.4 percent) from three point land for the game.

Otterbein was 16-of-48 (33.3 percent) from the field, but was 1-of-7 (14.3 percent) in three pointers.

Ohio Northern out rebounded the Cardinals 43 to 36 in the game.

The Polar Bears will return to action when they travel to face off against Muskingum on Saturday at 3 pm.