Women's Basketball: OAC Tournament Finals - Marietta (23-4 Overall) at #24 Ohio Northern (23-4 Overall)

Saturday, Feb. 24, 2018 - 3 pm - ONU Sports Center, Ada, Ohio

| OAC Tournament Site | Gameday Program (.pdf) |

Saturday's Contest: Saturday's Ohio Athletic Conference Tournament Championship contest features the top-2 seeds in the tournament in No. 2-seed Marietta and No. 1-seed Ohio Northern ... The Polar Bears enter the contest after defeating Otterbein 80-72 in the OAC Tournament Semifinals on Thursday evening at the ONU Sports Center ... In the victory, senior Amy Bullimore led the way with a team-high 23 points and nine rebounds ... Senior Courtney Cramer scored 13 points for ONU and Lindsey Black tallied 11 for the Polar Bears ... Sophomore Emily Mescher added 11 second-half points, including nine crucial points down the stretch in the fourth quarter and pulled down seven boards for Northern ... The Polar Bears are making their league-best 32nd appearance in the OAC Tournament ... The Polar Bears have won the OAC Tournament title four times, most recently in 2016-17 ... ONU is 26-27 all-time in the tournament ... Bullimore currently paces the Polar Bears and the OAC with a conference-best 17.3 ppg and 49 blocks ... Bullimore also leads the team and ranks second in the OAC, shooting .552 from the field and averaging 9.8 rpg ... The senior needs 16 points to break the all-time single season scoring record of 483 points at Ohio Northern set by Char Smith in 1988 ... Kirkbride currently ranks second in the OAC, shooting .458 from 3-point range and leads the team with 38 three point FG's ... Junior Jenna Dirksen ranks second on the team with 8.9 points per contest and ranks first on the team and sixth in the OAC with 77 assists ... Bullimore currently leads the team with 34 steals, while Dirksen is second with 32 steals ... The ONU men's basketball team also made the OAC Tournament Championship game, making it just the second time in ONU history (and first since 1987-88) that both Ohio Northern's men's and women's teams reached the finals of the OAC Tournament in the same season ... Marietta enters the contest after victories over John Carroll and Capital in the quarterfinals and semifinals of the OAC Tournament ... The Pioneers punched their first ever ticket to the OAC Tournament championship contest after defeating Capital 81-69 on Thursday evening ... The Pioneers are making their 25th appearance in the OAC Tournament and own a 7-24 record all-time in the tournament ... Senior Brooke Borich leads the team and ranks fourth in the OAC with 14.2 ppg, while senior Amisha Herd is second on the team with 13.0 ppg ... Defensively, junior Corrie Burkhardt has a team-best (fourth in the OAC) 8.3 rpg ... Herd leads the conference in steals (91) and assists (116), while Burkhardt is second in the OAC with 69 steals ... Sophomore Alexis Enochs leads the team and ranks fourth in the conference with 27 blocks.

Ohio Northern Probable Starters:

G - #10 Lindsey Black, Sr. (8.0 ppg, 62 assists)
G - #20 Courtney Cramer, Sr. (6.4 ppg, 31 3PT FG)
G - #31 Jenna Dirksen, So. (8.9 ppg, 77 assists)
F - #33 Tori Wyss, Jr. (3.0 ppg, 5.0 rpg)
F - #44 Amy Bullimore, Sr. (17.3 ppg, 9.8 rpg)

ONU Statistical Leaders

All-Time Series: Northern leads the all-time series between the two schools by a 55-16 margin ... Northern swept the regular season series, including a 93-85 regular season double ovetime victory to clinch the 2017-18 OAC regular season title ... The two teams last met in the OAC Tournament last season, with ONU clinging to a 61-60 victory.

ONU head coach Michele Durand: Durand is in her 17th season at ONU with a 297-162 record, a winning percentage of .647 ... She became ONU's all-time winningest head coach on 11/21/17 in a victory over St. Mary's (Ind.).