No. 25-ranked Women's Basketball opens Bluffton Holiday Classic with 60-50 victory over Denison
By Tim Glon
BLUFFTON — The No. 25-ranked Ohio Northern women's basketball team opened play at the Bluffton McDonald's Holiday Tournament with a 60-50 victory over Denison on Thursday afternoon at the Sommer Center.
The Polar Bears extend their winning streak to six games and improve to 9-1 overall, while the Big Red fall to 4-6.
Sophomore Brooke Allen (Woodville/Woodmore) scored 17 points, senior Brynn Serbin (Pittsburgh, Pa./North Allegheny) had her second career double-double with 13 points and a career record-tying 10 rebounds and junior Kristen Luersman (Fort Jennings) scored 11 points for ONU.
Mikaila Carpenter led Denison with 15 points and 10 rebounds.
Ohio Northern scored the first eight points of the game and did not look back, leading 14-5 after the first quarter and 33-13 at halftime.
The lead grew to as many as 25 points when a layup by Luersman gave ONU a 46-21 lead with 4:07 left in the third quarter.
DU was not done however, and responded with a 26-10 run to pull within 56-47 with 2:20 left in the game.
But Northern would make 4-of-6 free throws in the final two minutes to put the game away.
"We made it interesting at the end," ONU head coach Mark Huelsman said. "But we held our composure, got a few stops and made our free throws to get the win. We had not played in nine days and it showed. We were sluggish at times and looked pretty good at other times."
Ohio Northern made 23-of-59 field goals for 39.0 percent and was 4-of-18 from 3-point range for 22.2 percent, while DU made 18-of-55 field goals for 32.7 percent and was 4-of-18 from beyond the arc for 22.2 percent.
ONU was 10-of-17 from the free-throw line for 58.8 percent, and Denison was 10-of-15 for 66.7 percent.
Northern out-rebounded Denison by a 40-39 margin.
The Polar Bears return to action on Friday against Bethany (W.Va.) at Noon to finish up the Bluffton Holiday Tournament.
