Women's Basketball: Ohio Northern (10-7 Overall, 4-6 OAC) at Wilmington (9-8 Overall, 4-6 OAC)

Wednesday, January 23, 2019, 7 p.m. - Raizk Arena, Wilmington, Ohio

Wednesday's Game Notes: The Ohio Northern women's basketball program concludes a brief two-game road spell this Wednesday evening when the Polar Bears travel southward for an Ohio Athletic Conference showdown with league foe Wilmington ... Tipoff is set for 7 p.m. inside Raizk Arena in Wilmington ... ONU enters the midweek contest sporting a 10-7 overall record and a 4-6 mark against the conference loop ... With four weeks remaining in the 2018-19 regular season, the Polar Bears sit in a three-way tie for seventh in the league standings with Wilmington and Heidelberg ... Ohio Northern fell 68-65 at Capital on Friday evening in the team's most recent outing ... Senior guard Jenna Dirksen notched her first career double-double with 24 points and 10 rebounds, both being career-high marks ... Meanwhile, juniors Abby Weeks and Emily Mescher each registered double-figure scoring efforts, tallying 12 and 10 points, respectively ... Through 17 games this season, Dirksen tops the team and resides fifth on the OAC leaderboards with 14.6 points per contest ... Additionally, she ranks fourth in the league with an 83.3% free throw percentage ... Weeks sits second on the team with 8.7 points per outing and tops the program with 20 steals this season ... Meanwhile, Mescher and Wyss lead the Polar Bears averaging 6.5 and 6.3 rebounds per game, respectively ... The former currently ranks second all-time at ONU with a 54.4% career field goal percentage ... Sophomore guard Emily Brock also ranks among the league's best shooters, sitting fourth in three-point field goal percentage with a 44.0% conversion rate ... The Quakers enter the contest owning a 9-8 overall record and a similar 4-6 mark in the OAC ... Wilmington recently toppled second-place Mount Union 67-59 on Friday night ... WC has four players avergaing double-figure scoring this season, led by sophomore forward McKayla Binkley with 13.6 points per contest ... Sophomore center Faith Teaford leads the Quakers with 7.5 boards per game, which ranks fifth-best in the Ohio Athletic Conference.

Ohio Northern Probable Starters:

G - #11 Alyssa Manley, Sr. (4.9 ppg, 43 assists, 18 steals)
G - #15 Abby Weeks, Jr. (8.7 ppg, 3.8 rpg, 20 steals)
G - #31 Jenna Dirksen, Sr. (14.6 ppg, 43 assists, 31 3FGs)
F - #33 Tori Wyss, Sr. (5.2 ppg, 6.3 rpg)
F - #44 Sydney Ward, So. (2.6 ppg, 3.4 rpg)

ONU Statistical Leaders:

All-Time Series: Ohio Northern currently leads Wilmington in the all-time series with a 29-22 margin ... The Polar Bears have won the past 11 matchups with their last loss against the Quakers coming back in 2014 ... ONU won the first meeting this season with a 75-67, come-from-behind victory on December 5, 2018.

ONU Head Coach Michele Durand: Durand is now in her 18th season at the helm of the Ohio Northern women's basketball program and sports a 308-170 record, a winning percentage of .644 ... She currently stands as the all-time winningest coach in program history.