Women's Basketball: Marietta (9-5 Overall, 4-3 OAC) at Ohio Northern (9-5 Overall, 3-4 OAC)
Saturday, January 12, 2019, 3 p.m. - ONU Sports Center, Ada, Ohio
Saturday's Game Notes: The Ohio Northern women's basketball program returns to the court Saturday afternoon as the Polar Bears welcome in the Marietta Pioneers in an Ohio Athletic Conference affair ... Winners in their last two contests, ONU enters the weekend sporting a 9-5 overall record and a 3-4 mark in OAC play ... On Wednesday evening, Northern earned an important 53-46 victory over Baldwin Wallace inside the ONU Sports Center ... Sophomore guard Emily Brock poured in a career-high 16 points off the bench on five-for-nine shooting to lead the team in scoring ... Senior guard Jenna Dirksen joined Brock in double-digits, tossing in 10 points to go along with four assists, three rebounds, a block, and a steal ... Junior center Emily Mescher pitched in eight points and six rebounds while senior Tori Wyss added 10 boards and four assists to the winning effort ... Through 14 games this season, Dirksen leads Ohio Northern with 13.6 points per game, ranking her eighth in the conference ... Mescher and Wyss currently pace Ohio Northern in rebounding, averaging 6.5 boards per game each ... Mescher also ranks ninth in the conference with a 51.8% field goal percentage, giving her a 55.5% career clip to top the school record books ... Meanwhile, Brock stands fourth in the Ohio Athletic Conference with a 44.9% three-point field goal shooting percentage ... The Pioneers enter Saturday's game owning a similar 9-5 overall record and a 4-3 record against the conference loop ... Marietta dropped its most recent contest 82-69 against Capital on Wednesday evening ... Senior forward Corrie Burkhardt currently leads the Pioneers with 14.5 points per game and 7.3 rebounds per contest ... Senior guard Shay Lett and junior forward Alexis Enochs are also averaging double-figure scoring, contributing 13.6 and 13.1 points per outing, respectively.
Ohio Northern Probable Starters:
G - #11 Alyssa Manley, Sr. (4.6 ppg, 37 assists, 14 steals)
G - #15 Abby Weeks, Jr. (8.5 ppg, 4.3 rpg, 15 steals)
G - #31 Jenna Dirksen, Sr. (13.6 ppg, 34 assists, 24 3FGs)
F - #33 Tori Wyss, Sr. (4.6 ppg, 6.2 rpg)
F - #44 Sydney Ward, So. (3.0 ppg, 3.6 rpg)
ONU Statistical Leaders:
| Scoring | Rebounding | 3FGs | Assists | Steals | ||||||||||||||
| 1. | Dirksen | 13.6 | 1. | Mescher | 6.5 | 1. | Brock | 31 | 1. | Manley | 37 | 1. | Weeks | 15 | ||||
| 2. | Mescher | 9.1 | Wyss | 6.5 | 2. | Dirksen | 24 | 2. | Dirksen | 34 | 2. | Manley | 14 | |||||
| 3. | Weeks | 8.5 | 3. | Weeks | 4.3 | 3. | Yankle | 9 | 3. | Weeks | 21 | 3. | Wyss | 13 | ||||
| Manley | 9 |
All-Time Series: The Polar Bears currently lead the all-time series 55-17 over the Pioneers, which includes a 32-5 record at home ... Last season, ONU swept Marietta in the regular season series, winning 72-57 at home and 93-85 on the road ... The two teams would meet again in the OAC Tournament Finals with the Pioneers taking the title via an 85-68 win.
ONU Head Coach Michele Durand: Durand is now in her 18th season at the helm of the Ohio Northern women's basketball program and currently sports a 307-168 record, a winning percentage of .646 ... She currently stands as the all-time winningest coach in program history.
