Dec. 5, 2007

By Zach Stipe

ADA — Senior Leah Zimmerman recorded season-highs in points and rebounds to lead the Ohio Northern women’s basketball team past Heidelberg, 66-39, on Wednesday night at the ONU Sports Center.

Northern improved to 5-1 overall and 2-0 in the Ohio Athletic Conference with the victory. Heidelberg falls to 2-3 overall and 0-2 in the OAC.

Zimmerman scored 12 points and grabbed a team-best seven rebounds for the Polar Bears.

Senior Erin Brand had a game-high 16 points on 8-of-10 shooting from the field, while junior Emily Culbertson dished out a game-high five assists. Junior Tricia Fuller added a career-high nine points on 4-of-4 shooting.

The ONU defense forced Heidelberg to shoot only 7.1 percent (1-for-14) on 3-pointers and 31.4 percent overall.

Leading 6-5 three minutes into the game, the Polar Bears went on a 15-0 run over the next seven minutes to take a commanding 21-5 lead with 10 minutes left in the first half. Zimmerman sparked the run with a jumper, while Brand made a pair of buckets during the spurt.

Later in the first half, Northern increased their lead to 38-15 four minutes before halftime after junior Alisha Rinehart and Leah Zimmerman each made 3-pointers in the span of a minute.

Brand made her fifth basket with 39 seconds left in the first half and the Polar Bears took a 40-19 lead into halftime.

ONU kept pouring points on the board early in the second half as the Polar Bears made quick cuts for easy baskets and forced turnovers by playing the passing lanes.

Brand hit a pair of jumpers in the first two minutes after halftime and senior Jenny Markle intercepted a pass for an easy layup three minutes later.

Leah Zimmerman gave ONU its biggest lead of the night, when she buried a 3-pointer with 10:24 left to play to put ONU up 56-25.

The Polar Bears scored 22 points off the 18 turnovers they forced and held a 19-8 edge in assists.

Northern was able to gain a big win despite being outrebounded 34-25 due, not only to its stingy defense on Heidelberg’s shooters, but also because of its own hot shooting. ONU made 50-percent of its 3-pointers and 58.3-percent of its shots overall.

“I think it was a really good team win,” ONU head coach Michelle Durand said. “Everybody really contributed. We played really hard and we played really good defense.”

Ohio Northern returns to action this Saturday when it travels to Berea for a 3 p.m. game against Baldwin-Wallace.