Women's Basketball: Ohio Northern (5-0 Overall, 0-0 OAC) at Mount Union (5-0 Overall, 0-0 OAC)
Saturday, December 1, 2018, 3 pm - McPherson Academic and Athletic Complex, Alliance, Ohio
Saturday's Preview: Riding a season-opening, five-game win streak, the Ohio Northern women's basketball program raises the curtain on their 2018-19 Ohio Athletic Conference slate when they travel to Alliance, Ohio to take on the Mount Union Purple Raiders Saturday afternoon ... Tipoff is set for 3 p.m. inside the McPherson Academic and Athletic Complex ... ONU received seven votes in the latest D3hoops.com national polls released earlier this week, which ranks 37th-most in the country ... The Polar Bears enter the conference season at 5-0 overall, which includes a 71-57 victory over Case Western Reserve in their most recent outing on Wednesday ... Senior guard Jenna Dirksen paced the Northern offense with 20 points and a team-high five assists in the non-conference win ... Meanwhile, junior forward Emily Mescher and senior forward Tori Wyss each recorded double-doubles in the affair ... The former would tally a career-high 18 points and haul in 10 rebounds while the latter finished with 11 points and 11 boards in the contest ... Through five games, Dirksen leads ONU with 16.0 points per game and 15 assists ... She currently ranks third in points per game and 10th in assists per game (3.0) in the OAC ... Wyss leads the Polar Bears with 8.6 rebounds per contest, which ties for fifth-best in the conference ... Mescher ranks second on the team with 10.0 points per game and 7.4 boards per contest, ranking her ninth in the OAC rebounding charts ... This season, Northern is shooting 44.4% from the floor, including 37.6% from three-point territory as a team ... ONU is allowing 53 points per contest while posting 74.2 points per game ... Mount Union enters the weekend sporting a similar 5-0 overall record ... In their last outing, the Purple Raiders defeated Carnegie Mellon (Pa.) 57-32 on Wednesday ... Senior guard Rachel Tinkey leads the offense with 14.2 points per game while junior guard Tori Rappach sits second with 11.4 ... Sophomore Sarah Hessel averages 8.0 rebounds per game, which ranks seventh in the OAC ... As a team, Mount Union has scored 70 points per game and conceded just 43.2 points per contest.
Ohio Northern Probable Starters:
G - #11 Alyssa Manley, Sr. (3.6 ppg, 12 assists, 5 steals)
G - #15 Abby Weeks, Jr. (9.0 ppg, 5.0 rpg, 13 assists)
G - #31 Jenna Dirksen, Sr. (16.0 ppg, 15 assists, 10 3FGs)
F - #33 Tori Wyss, Sr. (4.8 ppg, 8.6 rpg)
F - #34 Emily Mescher, Jr. (10.0 ppg, 7.4 rpg)
ONU Statistical Leaders:
| Scoring | Rebounding | 3FGs | Assists | Steals | ||||||||||||||
| 1. | Dirksen | 16.0 | 1. | Wyss | 8.6 | 1. | Brock | 12 | 1. | Dirksen | 15 | 1. | Manley | 5 | ||||
| 2. | Mescher | 10.0 | 2. | Mescher | 7.4 | 2. | Dirksen | 10 | 2. | Weeks | 13 | Weeks | 5 | |||||
| 3. | Weeks | 9.0 | 3. | Weeks | 5.0 | 3. | Yankle | 6 | 3. | Manley | 12 | 3. | Hale | 4 |
All-Time Series: Ohio Northern leads the all-time series 42-33 over the Purple Raiders, which includes a 16-20 mark when playing on the road ... ONU has won 13 consecutive meetings between the two programs dating back to the 2013 regular season ... The Polar Bears swept last season's matchups, winning 63-52 on the road and 59-43 inside the ONU Sports Center.
ONU Head Coach Michele Durand: Durand is now in her 18th season at the helm of the Ohio Northern women's basketball program and currently sports a 303-163 record, a winning percentage of .650 ... She currently stands as the all-time winningest coach in program history after surpassing former Hall of Fame coach Gayle Lauth last season.