Balanced attack leads No. 24 Women's Basketball to 66-46 victory over Marietta

By: Andrew Korba

ADA -- Three players scored in double figures to lead the No. 24-ranked Ohio Northern women's basketball team to a 66-46 win over Marietta on Saturday afternoon at the ONU Sports Center.

The Polar Bears improve to 15-4 on the season and 8-4 in the OAC, while the Pioneers fall to 9-10, 3-9.

Junior Jordan Kimes and sophomore Karissa Steffas each finished with 12 points. Kimes also pulled down eight rebounds.

Sophomore Brooke Espenschied added 10 points and tied her career-high with nine rebounds, while senior Cenzie Yoder finished with six points and tied her season-high with 11 rebounds.

Jessica Brogan scored a game-high 17 points off the bench to lead Marietta.

The Polar Bears jumped out to an early 10-2 lead, before MC countered with the next five points to make the score 10-7.

But ONU came right back with an 8-0 run, with Espenschied hitting two 3-pointers, to push its lead back to 18-7 with 11:21 left in the first half.

Marietta would chip away and cut the Northern lead to 23-22, but the Polar Bears scored the next seven points to push their lead back to 30-22.

A free throw by Yoder with three seconds left in the first half gave ONU a 33-26 lead at the break.

Northern used a 11-2 run to open the second half and a 7-0 midway through the half, to put the game away.

The Polar Bears finished the game 24-of-65 (36.9 percent) from the field and 9-of-20 (45.0 percent) in 3-pointers, while Marietta was 16-of-54 (29.6 percent) in shooting and just 1-of-10 (10.0 percent) from beyond the arc.

ONU won the rebounding battle 48-36, including a 18-10 edge on the offensive glass.

Northern also scored 25 points off of 15 Pioneer turnovers.

Ohio Northern will hit the road for its next three games, beginning with a visit to Otterbein on Wednesday at 7:30 pm.