Brooke Allen leads Women's Basketball past Wilmington 74-66

By Brandt Marshall

WILMINGTON — The No. 18 Ohio Northern women's basketball team got back into the win column with a 74-66 win over Wilmington on Wednesday night at Raizk Arena.

The Polar Bears improve to 16-2 overall and 10-1 in the Ohio Athletic Conference while dropping the Quakers to 10-8, 4-7 OAC.

Sophomores Brooke Allen (Woodville/Woodmore) led ONU with 16 points to go with seven rebounds and a block.

Senior Brynn Serbin had 13 points, four rebounds and two steals and sophomore Layla Dials (Willard) added 13 points and three assists.

Zahrya Bailey led Wilmington with 15 points off the bench.

Northern trailed 15-8 early in the first before closing the quarter on a 15-5 run to take a 23-20 lead into the second quarter. Northern got baskets from seven different players and Dials scored 6 of her 13 points in the quarter.

ONU led 43-41 at halftime.

The Polar Bears got 6 points from Allen and 5 from Kristen Luersman (Fort Jennings) and a triple from Serbin to push their lead to 61-53 at the end of the thrid quarter.

The visitors quickly extended their lead to 68-53 with Serbin's third triple of the night, the Quakers would not go away quietly as they responded with an 11-2 run to close the gap to six with under 2 minutes to play.

A Luersman free throw and a trey from Dials sealed the victory for the Polar Bears.

Ohio Northern made 31-of-56 field goals for 55.4% and was 6-of-16 from 3-point range for 37.5%, while WC made 25-of-57 field goals for 43.9% and was 6-of-20 from beyond the arc for 30.0%.

ONU was 6-of-8 from the free-throw line for 75%, and the Quakers were 10-of-14 for 71.4%.

Northern out-rebounded Wilmington by a 30-27 margin and finished with 15 assists.

The Polar Bears return to action on Saturday in the second half of a men's-women's doubleheader at the ONU Sports Center when they host OAC foe Mount Union at 4 p.m.