Jordan Kimes leads Women's Basketball with 19 points, 9 rebounds in 59-54 loss at Wilmington

By Tim Glon

WILMINGTON — Junior Jordan Kimes had game-highs of 19 points and nine rebounds to lead Ohio Northern in a 59-54 Ohio Athletic Conference women's basketball loss at Wilmington Wednesday night at Raizk Arena.

The Polar Bears fall to 12-4 overall and are now 5-4 in league play, while the Quakers improve to 9-7, 6-3.

Wilmington used a 14-0 run in a five minute span early in the second period to turn a 25-25 tie into a 39-25 advantage with 14:15 left in the game.

Trailing 42-27, Kimes scored seven consecutive points to pull the Polar Bears within 42-34 with 10:54 remaining.

The WC lead was 51-42 with 7:18 to play when ONU rattled off eight straight points, again all by Kimes, to get the visitors within 51-50 with 4:25 left.

Courtney Tucker hit a 3-pointer to extend WC's lead to 54-50 with 3:13 to go but senior Sara Kocian hit a pair of free throws at the 2:20 mark to make it a 54-52 game.

Kristen Glick scored a basket for the Quakers with 1:56 left and split a pair of free throws with 1:33 remaining to increase the lead to 57-52.

Kocian trimmed the lead to 57-54 with a basket at the 1:21 mark, but ONU would go cold from the floor in the final minute, missing their last four field goal attempts, and a pair of free throws by Haley Howard with 19 seconds to play would ice the game for the hosts.

Kimes was the only player to score in double figures for ONU, while WC was led by Tucker and Howard with 11 points each.

Northern made 20-of-64 field goal attempts for 31.2 percent, while Wilmington was 23-of-56 from the floor for 41.1 percent.

The Polar Bears were a perfect 11-of-11 from the foul line and out-rebounded the Quakers 40-38.

Wilmington was hot from beyond the 3-point arc, making 8-of-20 for 40 percent, while ONU was 3-for-16 for 18.8 percent.

The Polar Bears will return to action on Saturday when they travel to University Heights to face No. 17-ranked John Carroll at 3 pm.