Women's Basketball falls 48-45 at Capital

By Andrew Loewe

BEXLEY — The Ohio Northern women's basketball team fell at Capital 48-45 Friday night at the Capital Center.

With the loss, ONU drops to 4-5 overall and 4-5 in the Ohio Athletic Conference, while CU improves to 3-4, 3-4.

Senior Sydney Ward (Columbus/Upper Arlington) led the Polar Bears in scoring with eight points and eight rebounds.

Freshman Kristen Luersman (Fort Jennings) led the team with 10 rebounds and addded six points off the bench.

Capital's Caroline Taphorn led all scorers with 11 points.

Trailing 48-40, Ohio Northern held the hosts scoreless over the final 2:57 of the contest.

Northern closed with a 5-0 run and got within 48-45 on a 3-pointer by junior Lexi Jacobs (Wapakoneta) with 47 seconds left.

The ONU defense held and got the ball back with 17 seconds to go.

Senior Emily Brock's (Akron/Revere) 3-pointer at the horn bounced off the rim and CU held on for the win.

Capital led most of the game and took its largest lead at 35-22 with 2:36 to go in the third quarter.

Northern out-scored CU 16-9 in the fourth period, but could not quite get over the hump.

The Polar Bears shot 31.5 percent (17-of-54) from the field, while the Crusaders shot 39.6 percent (19-of-48) from the field.

Ohio Northern had 31 rebounds and Capital had 22.

ONU returns home for the second game of the OAC home-and-home schedule against Capital Saturday night at 6 pm at the ONU Sports Center.