Women’s Basketball opens season with 62-40 win over La Roche (Pa.)

By Wes Mayberry

WASHINGTON, Pa. — The Ohio Northern women's basketball team kicked off its 2022-23 season Friday night with a 62-40 win over La Roche (Pa.) in the Washington & Jefferson Tip-Off Tournament at Salvitti Family Gymnasium.

The Polar Bears improve to 1-0 on the season while dropping the Redhawks to 0-1.

Sophomore Brooke Allen (Woodville/Woodmore) led ONU in scoring with a career-high 12 points.

Senior Brynn Serbin (Pittsburgh, Pa./North Allegheny) added nine points, five assists, four rebounds and four steals.

Junior Kristen Luersman (Fort Jennings) also had nine points for Northern to go with a game-high 10 rebounds.

Senior Kasey Knippen (Ottoville) and freshman Mackenzie Suprano (Cutler/Waterford) chipped in seven points each.

Makayla Abram and Machia Hairston led La Roche with 14 and 12 points, respectively.

Northern got six first-quarter points from Allen, the last of which came on a layup that followed a 3-pointer from Suprano that put the Polar Bears up 16-6 with 2:04 left in the opening period.

ONU led 16-9 going into the second quarter, and La Roche's Dalaya Johnson cut the deficit to four with a triple early in the period. But the Polar Bears responded, extending the lead back out to 10, 28-18, with a 12-6 run that included six points from Luersman and five from Serbin. ONU later closed the quarter with layups from Luersman and freshman Abi Akamine (Lahaina, Hawaii/Lahainaluna) over the final 18 seconds to take a 32-20 halftime lead.

A 3-pointer from Knippen gave Northern a 37-24 edge nearly four minutes into the third quarter, and Serbin added a triple of her own to make it 44-32 with 3:17 remaining.

The Polar Bears increased their lead to 49-32 when sophomore Layla Dials (Willard) tipped in a missed free throw with 2:06 left, and they took a 53-34 edge into the final quarter en route to the victory.

Ohio Northern made 25-of-55 field goals for 45.5% and was 3-of-11 from 3-point range for 27.3%, while the Redhawks made 13-of-50 field goals for 26% and were 2-of-18 from beyond the arc for 11.1%.

The Polar Bears out-rebounded the Redhawks 42-29.

ONU was 9-of-15 from the free-throw line for 60%, and La Roche was 12-of-16 for 75%.

Northern returns to action on Saturday for its second of two games in the Washington & Jefferson Tournament as it faces the host Presidents at 2 p.m.