Review (with video): Women's Basketball made 2011-12 season a memorable one in program's history
By: Monique Bowman
To say that the 2011-12 season was successful for the Polar Bear women's basketball team could be seen as an understatement.
The year was full of historic moments, as the program would earn 20+ wins since the 1987-88 season and its first appearance in the conference championship game for the first time since the 1988-89 season.
Under the direction of 11th-year head coach Michele Durand, Northern finished the year 21-6 overall and second in the OAC with a 14-4 record.
The team also finished 16th in the country in field goal percentage (43.7 percent) and 17th in free throw percentage (74.7 percent).
Senior Kara Dysert finished out an illustrious collegiate career as the ninth ONU women?s basketball player to reach 1,000 points, an honor she earned at Muskingum (Jan. 21).
She finished seventh in career scoring (1,098) and second in both career rebounding (782) and career blocks (70). Her 12.0 ppg, 8.6 rpg and conference-leading 43 stuffs earned her a spot as First Team All-OAC.
Leading the team in this year in scoring was Second Team All-Conference selection Morgan Dumbaugh. In addition to her 12.4 ppg, the junior guard also recorded 4.3 boards per contest.
Cenzie Yoder also posted a solid sophomore season, recording 12.0 ppg and 6.1 rpg. She was also second on the team in blocks (25) and assists (77), and earned a Second Team All-OAC nod.
Another All-Conference player in Joanna Snyder returned to finish fourth on the team in scoring (9.7 ppg) and in rebounding (4.2 rpg). She led the team in free throw percentage, making 82.4 percent of her chances from the charity stripe.
Junior Katie Mengos had her share of success. Besides finishing with 5.4 ppg and 4.1 rpg, she led the team in assists (86) and steals (57). She also finished 12th in the country in assist-turnover ratio (2.1).
She moved up to seventh in career steals (134) and leads the program with 224 career assists.
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After a 2-1 start to the season, the Polar Bears rode a seven-game winning streak, starting with a nail biter at Kenyon (a 60-55 victory) on to an 80-36 trouncing against Marietta. That streak was broken by OAC foe Capital, as the Polar Bears fell 83-64.
ONU would end up splitting the season series against the Crusaders, as the Polar Bears took a 75-63 win later in the season in the midst of an eight-game winning streak.
Northern would stumble a bit in the last portion of the season, going 1-2 before the conference tournament.
As the No. 2 seed, the Polar Bears received a bye to the semifinals against Otterbein. Northern had won both season matchups versus the Cardinals and the third and final meeting would have a familiar result.
With the 65-52 win at home against the Cardinals, the team traveled to Alliance to face top seeded and nationally ranked Mount Union.
ONU took its only lead of the game very early in the first half before succumbing to the Purple Raiders, 77-60. With as strong of a season as others around the country, Northern would not earn an at-large bit to the NCAA Tournament.
In addition to its four All-OAC awards, the Polar Bears also had three OAC Players of the Week (Dumbaugh, Yoder and Dysert), and two Academic All-OAC selections (Mengos and Snyder).
Despite losing senior leadership in Dysert, Megan Porter and Steph Hicks, ONU plans to return four of its five starters and will look to its other bench players for significant minutes in 2012-13.