Luersman’s first career double-double leads Women’s Basketball over Wilmington
By Wes Mayberry
ADA — Sophomore Kristen Luersman (Fort Jennings) tallied her first career double-double Wednesday night to lead the Ohio Northern women's basketball team to a 59-41 win over Wilmington at the ONU Sports Center.
The Polar Bears improve to 12-4 overall and 6-3 in the Ohio Athletic Conference while the Fightin' Quakers fall to 5-12 overall and 1-8 in the OAC.
Luersman finished with game-highs of 16 points and 15 rebounds, both of which were career-high marks.
Senior Alissa Stahler (Lima/Shawnee) posted 13 points and seven rebounds and was 9-of-10 from the foul line.
Junior Brynn Serbin (Pittsburgh, Pa./North Allegheny) finished two points shy of a double-double, tallying 8 points and 10 rebounds.
Senior Annie Weckesser (Dayton/Chaminade-Julienne) added 10 points off the bench.
Emma Wright and Kennedy Lewis paced the Quakers with eight and seven points, respectively.
The Polar Bears scored the first eight points of the game, six of which came from Luersman, and took a 10-4 lead into the second quarter.
Northern led 22-19 at halftime, but Wilmington took a 29-27 edge on a layup from Wright with 3:38 left in the third quarter.
ONU proceeded to end the quarter on a 13-3 run that included 3-pointers from Weckesser and Serbin to go into the fourth leading 40-32.
The Polar Bears closed out the game by outscoring the Quakers 19-9 over the final 10 minutes, as Weckesser and Luersman led the way with seven and five points, respectively, in the period. Serbin added a 3-pointer to go with four free throws from Stahler.
Ohio Northern made 20-of-54 field goals for 37.0% and was 6-of-20 from 3-point range for 30.0%, while the Quakers made 15-of-50 field goals for 30.0% and were 4-of-19 from beyond the arc for 21.1%.
The Polar Bears were 13-of-15 from the foul line for 86.7% while WC was 7-of-9 for 77.8%.
ONU out-rebounded WC by a 47-22 margin and held a 14-6 edge in second-chance points.
Northern returns to the court on Saturday at 2 p.m. at Ohio Athletic Conference foe Mount Union as part of a women's-men's doubleheader.
