Women's Basketball: #14 Ohio Northern (8-1 Overall, 4-0 OAC) at Kiwanis Holiday Classic
Friday, Dec. 29 - Saturday, Dec. 30, 2017 - Pam Evans Smith Arena, Springfield, Ohio
This Weekend's Tournament: The Ohio Northern women's basketball team enters the Kiwanis Holiday Classic at Wittenberg University after winning eight straight contests ... The Polar Bears are ranked No. 14 in the latest D3Hoops.com poll after jumping one spot from their previous ranking ... ONU will take on Hanover (Ind.) in the opening round of the tournament, with the winner of that contest moving on to take on the winner of Wittenberg and Susquehanna (Pa.) ... The championship game is slated to begin at 4:30 pm on Saturday ... Northern is coming off of a convincing 75-37 victory over John Carroll last week ... Junior Jenna Dirksen led all scorers as she poured in a season-high 20 points and added six rebounds and three assists, while senior Amy Bullimore tallied her fifth double-double of the season with 12 points and 11 rebounds ... Seniors Lindsey Black and Courtney Cramer chipped in 12 and 10 points, respectively ... With 1,126 career points, Bullimore moved into seventh place all-time on ONU's scoring list ... Through nine games this season, Bullimore leads the team and ranks third in the Ohio Athletic Conference in points per game (14.9), rebounds per contest (8.9) and field goal percentage (.568) ... The senior also leads the OAC and ranks in the top-20 in the OAC with 25 blocks this season ... Dirksen and Black are currently tied for second on the team with 8.4 points per contest ... Senior Alexis Kirkbride currently leads the conference, shooting an impressive .600 from 3-point range ... Dirksen leads the team and ranks fourth in the OAC with 30 assists this season ... As a team, Northern ranks ninth in the country in scoring defense, allowing only 46.7 points per contest.
Ohio Northern Probable Starters:
G - #10 Lindsey Black, Sr. (8.4 ppg, 22 assists)
G - #20 Courtney Cramer, Sr. (7.6 ppg, 10 3PT FG)
G - #31 Jenna Dirksen, So. (8.4 ppg, 30 assists)
F - #33 Tori Wyss, Jr. (3.7 ppg, 4.8 rpg)
F - #44 Amy Bullimore, Sr. (14.9 ppg, 8.9 rpg)
ONU Statistical Leaders
| Scoring | Rebounding | 3FGs | Assists | Steals | Blocks | |||||||||||||||||
| 1. | Bullimore | 14.9 | 1. | Bullimore | 8.9 | 1. | Kirkbride | 12 | 1. | Dirksen | 30 | 1. | Bullimore | 12 | 1. | Bullimore | 25 | |||||
| 2. | Black | 8.4 | 2. | Wyss | 4.8 | 2. | Cramer | 10 | 2. | Kirkbride | 23 | 2. | Weeks | 9 | 2. | Dirksen | 5 | |||||
| Dirksen | 8.4 | 3. | Dirksen | 4.2 | 3. | Manley | 6 | 3. | Black | 22 | 3. | Dirksen |
8 |
3. |
Hurd |
2 |
All-Time Series: ONU trails Hanover (Ind.) in the all-time series 1-3 ... In their last matchup in 2013, Northern was victorious 86-68 ... ONU in 19-3 all-time against Wittenberg and has not played Susquehanna (Pa.).
ONU head coach Michele Durand: Durand is in her 16th season at ONU with a 283-159 record, a winning percentage of .641 ... She became ONU's all-time winningest head coach on 11/21/17 in a victory over St. Mary's (Ind.).