No. 11 Women's Basketball rallies from 20-point third quarter deficit, ultimately falls 89-83 in double overtime thriller at Muskingum

By Tim Glon

NEW CONCORD — The No. 11-ranked Ohio Northern women's basketball team rallied from a 20-point third quarter deficit, but ultimately fell in double overtime 89-83 at Muskingum in the regular season finals on Saturday afternoon at the Steele Center.

The Polar Bears, who had clinched the Ohio Athletic Conference Regular Season title on Wednesday, fell to 21-4 overall and won the league crown with a 15-3 record.

The Muskies end their season 10-15, 7-11.

Senior Brynn Serbin (Pittsburgh, Pa./North Allegheny) scored 21 points and junior Kristen Luersman (Fort Jennings) had her eighth double-double of the season with 15 points and 13 rebounds as all five of ONU starters scored in double figures.

Sophomore Layla Dials (Willard) scored a career-high 16 points, sophomore Brooke Allen (Woodville/Woodmore) added 12 points and sophomore Abi Akamine (Lahaina, Hawaii/Lahainaluna) chipped in 11 points for the Polar Bears.

Caitlyn DeMassimo was the story of the day for the Muskies as she poured in a career-high 37 points, including 17 in the two overtime periods, to help the hosts hang on.

The Muskies went on a 13-0 run to take a 23-12 lead one minute into the second quarter and finished the half on another 16-3 run to lead 48-32 at intermission.

The run finished at 21-4 as the lead grew to as large as 53-33 with 1:02 gone in the third quarter before the Polar Bears began clawing their way back into the game.

Northern scored the final four points of the third period to get within 59-44 entering the fourth quarter.

ONU would score the first 13 points of the final period, extending the run to 17-0 and holding MU scoreless for more than 12 minutes to pull within 59-57 with 4:07 to go.

Ohio Northern had three possessions with the ball with a chance to tie or take the lead before MU got a basket from DeMassimo with 2:01 to play to make it a 61-57 game.

The Muskie lead was 64-59 after a pair of free throws by DeMassimo with 16 seconds to play.

But Serbin buried a three-pointer with 13 seconds left to get ONU within 64-62.

Dials stole the ball and knocked down one of two free throws and it was 64-63 with 10 seconds remaining.

She missed the second free throw, but Luersman grabbed the rebound and was fouled with nine ticks left.

She made the first freebie but missed the second and the game was headed into OT at 64-all.

In the first overtime, Luersman scored with eight seconds left off an offensive rebound to tie the game at 73-all.

Serbin hit another three with 2:00 left in the second overtime to tie the game at 80-80.

But it was all DeMassimo from there as the Muskie senior made 9-of-10 free throws the rest of the way to ice the game.

Ohio Northern made 30-of-74 field goal attempts for 40.5 percent and was 12-of-35 from 3-point range for 34.3 percent, while Muskingum made 26-of-63 field goals for 41.3 percent and was 14-of-35 from beyond the arc for 40.0 percent.

ONU was 11-of-20 from the free-throw line for 55.0 percent, and MU was 23-of-25 for 92.0 percent.

Northern out-rebounded Muskingum by a 50-35 margin.

The Polar Bears will be the No. 1 seed and have home court advantage throughout the OAC Tournament next week.

Ohio Northern receives a bye into the semifinals and will host either Otterbein or Wilmington on Thursday.