Women’s Basketball: #10 Ohio Northern (19-2 Overall, 13-1 OAC) at #19 Baldwin Wallace (18-3 Overall, 11-3 OAC)
Wednesday, February 8, 2023, 7 p.m. - Ursprung Gymnasium, Berea, Ohio
Wednesday's Preview: The Polar Bears continue Ohio Athletic Conference play on Wednesday at Baldwin Wallace … Northern closes out its regular-season schedule by playing three of its final four games on the road … With four games remaining, Northern leads the OAC standings by two games over Baldwin Wallace and has clinched a spot in the six-team OAC Tournament for the 28th straight season … A victory over BWU on Wednesday would clinch the Polar Bears' first regular-season championship since the 2017-18 season, as they would hold a three-game lead plus the regular-season sweep tiebreaker … The 2023 OAC Tournament is scheduled for Feb. 21-25 … In the teams' first meeting this season, on Jan. 11, ONU came away with a 53-51 home win over BWU courtesy of a buzzer-beating layup from sophomore Abi Akamine … Senior Brynn Serbin and junior Kristen Luersman led ONU with 21 and 15 points, respectively … Northern is ranked No. 10 in the D3hoops.com Top 25 Poll and No. 11 in the WBCA Top 25 Poll this week … ONU is coming off Saturday's 69-65 win at Capital in which it overcame a 14-point, third-quarter deficit … A late 17-4 run highlighted by a four-point play from Serbin and a 3-pointer from Luersman helped ONU secure the victory … Serbin led ONU with 21 points, and sophomores Brooke Allen and Abby Dickson added 10 points each … Serbin is the reigning OAC Player of the Week after averaging 20 points, 4.0 rebounds, 5.0 assists and 3.5 steals per game last week … Through 21 games, Serbin (14.3 points per game), Allen (11.4) and Luersman (10.6) lead ONU in scoring … Serbin ranks second in the OAC in scoring average, and Allen is tied for seventh … Luersman ranks second in the OAC in rebounding average with 8.0 per game and is tied for ninth in the conference with 16 blocks … Serbin has an OAC-high 98 assists and 58 steals … Serbin's 98 assists rank third-best all-time at ONU for a single season … Serbin has made a team-best 41 3-pointers, which ranks second in the OAC, and is shooting 34.7% from beyond the arc, which ranks eighth in the OAC … Serbin ranks second all-time at ONU with 200 career steals and is nine shy of tying the program record set by Katie Mengos ('10-'13) … Serbin has 259 career assists, which ranks fourth all-time at ONU … Serbin ranks sixth all-time at ONU in 3-pointers made (114) … Northern leads the OAC in points per game (65.3), field goal percentage (42.3%) and field goal percentage defense (33%) and is second in points per game allowed (52.4) … Baldwin Wallace enters the week ranked No. 19 in the D3hoops.com poll and No. 14 in the WBCA poll … The Yellow Jackets are coming off Saturday's 58-55 loss at Otterbein … Sophomores Bella Vaillant and Emily Irwin led BWU with 14 and 11 points, respectively … In BWU's loss at ONU earlier this season, Irwin made four 3-pointers and led the Yellow Jackets with 19 points… Through 21 games, Irwin and Vaillant are each averaging a team-best 10.8 points per game … Vaillant and sophomore Caely Ressler are tied for seventh in the OAC with 6.4 rebounds per game … Junior Carolyn Wochele is tied for seventh in the OAC with 46 assists … Irwin has a team-high 30 steals … Ressler is tied for ninth in the OAC with 16 blocks … Graduate student Megan Hensel has made a team-high 32 3-pointers, which ranks eighth in the OAC, and is shooting 39.5% from beyond the arc, which ranks third in the conference … Irwin has made 31 triples, showing 36.5% in the OAC, which rank tied for ninth and fifth, respectively, in the OAC … BWU leads the OAC in points per game allowed (52.0) and ranks second in the conference in points per game (64.4).
ONU Statistical Leaders:
Scoring | Rebounding | 3FGs | Assists | Steals | ||||||||||||||
1. | Serbin | 14.3 | 1. | Luersman | 8.0 | 1. | Serbin | 41 | 1. | Serbin | 98 | 1. | Serbin | 58 | ||||
2. | Allen | 11.4 | 2. | Serbin | 5.7 | 2. | Knippen | 23 | 2. | Luersman | 32 | 2. | Luersman | 31 | ||||
3. | Luersman | 10.6 | 3. | Allen | 5.0 | 3. | Suprano | 23 | 3. | Knippen | 26 | 3. | Knippen | 17 |
All-Time Series: Baldwin Wallace leads the all-time series with Ohio Northern by a 45-40 margin, including a 27-15 mark in Berea … BWU has won five of the past seven meetings… ONU's last win at BWU was in the OAC Tournament quarterfinals in 2019 … In the teams' meeting earlier this season, ONU came away with a 53-51 win in Ada on Jan. 11.
Head Coach Mark Huelsman: Huelsman is in his third season at ONU and has an overall record of 43-18, a winning percentage of .705.