Men's Basketball: Ohio Northern (5-6 Overall) at #6 Marietta (11-1 Overall) - OAC Tournament Finals
Saturday, March 6, 2021, 7 p.m. - Ban Johnson Fieldhouse, Marietta, Ohio
Saturday's Preview: The Polar Bears will end their season on Saturday night when they compete for the championship of the Ohio Athletic Conference Tournament at No. 6-ranked Marietta ... Limited fans will be allowed to attend the games and tickets will not be available to the general public due to the OAC's COVID-19 policy ... ONU is the No. 5 seed in this week's OAC Tournament and reached the Finals with a 80-79 win at fifth-seeded John Carroll in the Quarterfinals on Tuesday and an 81-75 home win over sixth-seeded Muskingum at the ONU Sports Center in the Semifinals on Thursday ... Sophomore Grant Heileman scored a career-high 21 points in the semifinals ... Junior Brandon Waugh had his third career double-double with a team-high 23 points and 10 rebounds and sophomores Landen Long, Adam Scott and Daniel Unruh added 11 points each for ONU ... Scott also added a career-best 10 rebounds for his first career double-double ... Sophomore C.J. Napier leads the team and is third in the league in scoring at 18.7 ppg and leads the team and is second in the OAC in rebounding at 9.4 rpg ... Junior Brandon Waugh is second on the team in scoring at 14.0 ppg ... He also averages 5.9 rpg and is fourth in the OAC with 48 assists and second with 24 steals ... Long is third on the team at 11.2 ppg ... Heileman averages 10.5 ppg and is seventh in the OAC with a .542 field goal shooting percentage ... ONU has made 192 FTs this season, while its opponents have attempted only 172 ... The seeds for the OAC Tournament were determined by a weighted system that factors in a team's winning percentage (2/3) and its opponents' winning percentage (1/3) ... This marks the second time in the last four seasons that the Polar Bears have reached the Finals of the OAC Tournament ... ONU is looking for its sixth OAC Tournament title ... Northern won the title in 2001, 2000, 1999, 1995 and 1980 ... The Pioneers are the top seed seed in the OAC Tournament ... They advanced to the Finals with a 102-68 win over No. 7 seed Wilmington on Thursday ... MC opened the tournament with an 88-71 win over eighth-seeded Otterbein in the Quarterfinals on Tuesday ... Mason Lydic leads four Marietta players in double figures in scoring at 15.7 ppg ... Jason Ellis is second at 14.7 ppg, Lukas Isaly is third at 12.2 ppg and Tim Kreeger is fourth at 10.7 ppg ... Brett Martin is averaging 7.9 ppg and leads the team in rebounding at 5.0 rpg ... Isaly is third in the OAC with 49 assists ... Marietta has won three OAC Tournament titles, winning in 2017, '13 and '11.
ONU Statistical Leaders:
| Scoring | Rebounding | 3FGs | Assists | Steals | ||||||||||||||
| 1. | Napier | 18.7 | 1. | Napier | 9.4 | 1. | Waugh | 22 | 1. | Waugh | 48 | 1. | Waugh | 24 | ||||
| 2. | Waugh | 14.0 | 2. | Waugh | 5.9 | 2. | Long | 16 | 2. | Napier | 18 | 2. | Long | 9 | ||||
| 3. | Long | 11.2 | 3. | Scott | 5.3 | 3. | Unruh | 10 | Unruh | 18 | 3. | Napier | 5 |
All-Time Series: Ohio Northern leads the all-time series between the two schools by a 59-40 margin ... ONU is 32-16 at home, is 29-15 at the ONU Sports Center and is 27-23 at Marietta ... MC has won six straight in the series, including 90-77 and 105-72 decisions earlier this year.
Head Coach Rich Bensman: Bensman is in his fifth season at ONU with a 56-59 record, a winning percentage of .487.