Thomas, Espenschied post career nights to lead No. 8 Women's Basketball past Kenyon 79-55

By: Andrew Korba

GAMBIER -- Sophomore Carly Thomas scored a career-high 19 points and sophomore Brooke Espenschied added a career best 16 points, to lead the No. 8 Ohio Northern women's basketball team to a 79-55 victory over Kenyon on Tuesday evening at Tomsich Arena.

The Polar Bears are now 3-0 on the season, while the Ladies fall to 1-2.

Thomas was 8-of-11 from the field and a perfect 3-for-3 in three pointers.

Espenschied also grabbed a career-high nine rebounds.

Senior Cenzie Yoder scored 11 points and junior Jordan Kimes added 11 points and eight rebounds off the bench.

The Polar Bears never trailed in the game and opened up a 36-21 lead with 5:26 left in the first half.

Kenyon answered back with the final 11 points of the half, cutting the Northern lead to 36-32 at the break.

Northern dominated the second half, outscoring Kenyon 43-23.

The Ladies trimmed the ONU lead to 39-36, but the Polar Bears scored the next six points, capped off by a Thomas layup to open up a 45-36 lead with 16:37 left to play.

An 11-2 run by the Polar Bears expanded their lead to 62-46 with just over seven minutes to play.

Northern used a late 13-2 run, capped off on a free throw by freshman Britt Lauck, to open its largest lead of the night at 79-54.

ONU shot 28-of-55 (50.9 percent) from the field and was 7-of-18 (38.9 percent) in three pointers, while the Ladies were 21-of-66 from the field (31.8 percent) and 4-of-24 (16.7 percent) in three pointers.

The Polar Bears bench outscored Kenyon 29-13.

Ohio Northern will return to action on Saturday, when it plays its first home game against Adrian (Mich.) at 3 pm.