Lady Polar Bears and Markle remain hot, rout Earlham (Ind.) 73-59

Dec. 22, 2007

By Gary Petit

RICHMOND, Ind. — For the second time this season, senior Jenny Markle was a perfect 6-for-6 from beyond the three-point arc to lead the Ohio Northern women's basketball team to a 73-59 victory over Earlham (Ind.) Saturday afternoon.

The Polar Bears are off to their best start since the 1987-88 season at 9-2 overall (4-1 OAC). Earlham falls to 2-8 on the year.

Markle finished the game with a season-high 20 points and also dished out a career-high seven assists.

Junior Alisha Rinehart scored 19 points and was 6-of-6 from the free throw line. Center Erin Brand added 16 points on 7-of-10 from the floor and grabbed four rebounds.

Senior Megan Cevasco had a solid all-around game for Northern scoring nine points, snagging nine rebounds, dishing out four assists and adding two steals and a blocked shot.

Three Quakers scored in double figures, led by Whitney McBurrows with 18 points. Tracey Hill pulled down a game-high 12 rebounds for EC.

Markle, the nation's leading three-point shooter, made five of the Polar Bears first seven shots, all from long range to give ONU a 24-18 advantage with 5:40 left in the first half.

A three-pointer two minutes later by Rinehart gave Northern its biggest lead of the half at 29-20 and the Polar Bears took a 33-26 lead into the break.

ONU opened the second half on a 10-0 run to open up its biggest lead of the game at 43-26 just four minutes into the second half.

Earlham responded with a 13-2 run of its own to pull within six points at 45-39 with 11:38 left to play.

The Quakers were as close as seven points, 58-51, with 5:44 to go, but the Polar Bears made their last eight free throws, including six from Rinehart, to preserve the 73-59 victory.

Northern shot 52 percent (27-of-52) from the floor and 57 percent (8-of-14) from three-point land, while holding Earlham to just 31 percent (21-of-65) from the field.

The win was also the 200th career win for ONU head coach Michele Durand. She is in her seventh season at Northern after 11 seasons at Bluffton.

The Polar Bears will return to action next Saturday when they travel to DePauw (Ind.), the defending national champions, for a 3 pm tip-off.