No. 10 Women's Basketball falls 68-65 in season opener at Wittenberg

SPRINGFIELD — The 10th-ranked Ohio Northern women's basketball team opened its 2023-24 season Friday night with a narrow 68-65 loss at Wittenberg in a game that was tight throughout.

The Basics

• Records: #10 Ohio Northern (0-1 overall), Wittenberg (1-0 overall)
• Venue: Pam Evans Smith Arena — Springfield, Ohio

The Game

• Senior Brynn Serbin (Pittsburgh, Pa./North Allegheny) led Ohio Northern with 18 points, six rebounds, six assists and three steals.
• Junior Brooke Allen (Woodville/Woodmore) added 14 points and four rebounds.
• Junior Abby Dickson (Germantown/Valley View) had eight points, and junior Abi Akamine (Lahaina, Hawaii/Lahainaluna) tallied seven points.
• Freshman Chloee Glenn (Glandorf/Ottawa-Glandorf) made a team-high five free throws and scored seven points in her collegiate debut.
• Wittenberg finished with three double-figure scorers led by Jazmyn Gaines-Burns with 15 points.
• ONU led 16-15 at the end of the first quarter but trailed 35-31 at halftime. The Tigers were 6-of-10 from 3-point range in the first half.
• The Polar Bears put together a strong third quarter, starting the period with a 10-0 run to take a 41-35 lead with 3:54 left in the period. They led by as many as eight points in the quarter.
• Northern held Wittenberg scoreless for the first 7:18 of the third quarter before the Tigers made a free throw with 2:42 left. WU didn't make its first field goal of the period until there was 2:12 left on the clock.
• ONU led 48-45 at the end of the third quarter, and Wittenberg opened the fourth with a 3-pointer to tie the score.
• WU led by 10, 65-55, with 3:06 remaining, but the Polar Bears answered with an 8-0 run, cutting the deficit to two on a layup from Allen with 41 seconds left.
• The Tigers were 3-of-4 from the foul line and generated a steal defensively over the final 14 seconds to secure the victory.
• Ohio Northern made 24-of-59 field goals for 40.7% and was 1-of-14 from beyond the arc for 7.1%, while Wittenberg was 25-of-59 from the floor for 42.4% and made 8-of-21 3-pointers for 38.1%.
• ONU hade 16-of-27 free throws for 59.3%, and WU was 10-of-17 from the line for 58.8%.
• The Tigers out-rebounded the Polar Bears 34-30.

Notables

• Serbin is ONU's all-time leader in career steals with 226 and ranks third in program history with 301 career assists.
• Serbin moved into the top 20 on ONU's all-time career scoring list, ranking 20th with 931 points. She ranks fifth all-time with 132 made 3-pointers in her career.
• Serbin is 15 rebounds, 45 made field goals and one made free throw away from breaking into the top 20 of the program's all-time lists in those categories.
• The Polar Bears are ranked 10th nationally in both the WBCA and D3hoops.com polls.
• Fourth-year head coach Mark Huelsman is now 49-22 at Ohio Northern.

Up Next

• The Polar Bears return to action on Wednesday for their home opener against Anderson (Ind.) at 7 p.m.