Big third quarter leads #14 Women's Basketball to 69-53 victory at Wilmington

By Tim Glon

WILMINGTON — A 27-point third quarter helped the No. 14 Ohio Northern women's basketball team pull away for a 69-53 victory at Wilmington on Wednesday night at Raizk Arena.

The Polar Bears improve to 17-3 overall and stay on top of the Ohio Athletic Conference with an 12-1 league mark, while the Quakers fall to 7-12, 4-9.

Seniors Brooke Espenschied and Carly Thomas and junior Britt Lauck led a balanced ONU offensive attack with 12 points each.

Junior Angela Tesny added 11 points and five different Polar Bears had four rebounds each.

WC was led in scoring by Ellie Kivell with a game-high 16 points.

Ohio Northern led 22-19 at halftime before exploding for a 27-point third quarter, taking a 49-31 lead into the final stanza.

A 10-0 run, capped by a basket by Tesny, gave ONU a 34-24 lead with 4:46 left in the quarter.

An 8-1 run at the end of the third quarter and the beginning of the fourth period pushed the lead to 51-31 with 9:35 left in the game and Ohio Northern cruised from there.

The Polar Bears made 21-of-54 field goal attempts for 38.9 percent and were a blazing 23-of-26 from the foul line for 88.5 percent, while the Quakers made 17-of-52 field goals for 32.7 percent.

ONU out rebounded WC 41-30 despite not having any players with more than four rebounds.

The Polar Bears will return to action Saturday when they host Mount Union at 3 pm at the ONU Sports Center.