Women's Basketball: OAC Tournament Quarterfinals - Ohio Northern (13-12 Overall, 7-11 OAC) at Baldwin Wallace (19-6 Overall, 13-5 OAC)
Tuesday, February 19, 2019, 7 p.m. - Ursprung Gymnasium, Berea, Ohio
Tuesday's Game Notes: The seventh-seeded Ohio Northern women's basketball program begins its pursuit of the 2019 Ohio Athletic Conference Tournament title Tuesday afternoon with a road contest at second-seeded Baldwin Wallace ... Tipoff is set for 7 p.m. inside Ursprung Gymnasium in Berea ... The Polar Bears enter the postseason owning a 13-12 overall record and a 7-11 mark against OAC opposition ... Northern has appeared in the semifinal round the past nine seasons and won four OAC Tournament crowns in the program's history ... The Polar Bears secured their spot in the conference tournament Saturday with a 75-62 victory at Muskingum ... Head coach Michele Durand earned her 311th coaching victory in the contest, giving her the most wins all-time for a men's or women's basketball coach at Ohio Northern ... Juniors Emily Mescher and Abby Weeks guided the ONU offense with 15 and 14 points, respectively ... Meanwhile, senior guard Jenna Dirksen recorded a team-high four assists, three rebounds, and rounded out the double-figure scorers with 13 points ... Dirksen now owns 1,049 career points, which ranks 13th on the all-time scoring list ... After 25 regular season games, Dirksen leads the program and ranks sixth in the OAC with 14.0 points per game ... She also tops the team with 56 assists and 32 steals ... Meanwhile, her 83.1% free throw rate sits third-best in the league ... Mescher and Weeks sit second and third in scoring with 8.0 and 7.6 points per game, respectively ... Mescher is also the team's top rebounder with 6.3 boards per contest ... Sophomore guard Emily Brock also ranks among the conference's best, sitting third with a 41.4% shooting clip ... Baldwin Wallace enters the OAC Tournament with the second seed after posting a 19-6 overall mark and a 13-5 conference record ... The Yellow Jackets ended the season with a 72-65 victory over Otterbein at home on Saturday ... Freshman forward Lilly Edwards tops the team with 13.2 points per contest and 6.9 rebounds per outing, which ranks seventh in the conference ... Senior guard Hannah Fecht also averages double-figure scoring, adding 11.8 points per game.
Ohio Northern Probable Starters:
G - #11 Alyssa Manley, Sr. (5.4 ppg, 54 assists)
G - #15 Abby Weeks, Jr. (7.6 ppg, 37 assists, 22 steals)
G - #31 Jenna Dirksen, Sr. (14.0 ppg, 56 assists, 32 steals)
F - #33 Tori Wyss, Sr. (5.2 ppg, 6.1 rpg)
F - #34 Emily Mescher, Jr. (8.0 ppg, 6.3 rpg)
ONU Statistical Leaders:
| Scoring | Rebounding | 3FGs | Assists | Steals | ||||||||||||||
| 1. | Dirksen | 14.0 | 1. | Mescher | 6.3 | 1. | Brock | 46 | 1. | Dirksen | 56 | 1. | Dirksen | 32 | ||||
| 2. | Mescher | 8.0 | 2. | Wyss | 6.1 | 2. | Dirksen | 44 | 2. | Manley | 54 | 2. | Weeks | 22 | ||||
| 3. | Weeks | 7.6 | 3. | Dirksen | 3.8 | 3. | Manley | 22 | 3. | Weeks | 37 | 3. | Wyss | 21 | ||||
| Ward | 3.8 |
All-Time Series: Baldwin Wallace currently leads the all-time series 40-35 over the Polar Bears ... Ohio Northern is 0-3 against the Yellow Jackets in the OAC Tournament ... The two programs split the regular season series with ONU claiming the first contest 53-46 at home before falling 70-45 in Berea.
ONU Head Coach Michele Durand: Durand is currently in her 18th season at the helm of the Ohio Northern women's basketball program ... She is the all-time winningest coach in school history with a 311-175 record, a winning percentage of .640.
