Women's Basketball: #14 Ohio Northern (22-4 Overall) v Denison (23-4 Overall)
Friday, March 4, 5:30 pm, DeVos FieldHouse, Holland, Mich.
| NCAA Bracket | NCAA III Hope Tournament Page |
Friday's Game: #14-ranked Ohio Northern is making its third NCAA III Tournament appearance in the past four seasons in 2016 ... The Polar Bears will face Denison in the First Round at 5:30 pm on Friday ... #5 Hope (Mich.) and #25 Carnegie Mellon (Pa.) will meet in the other First Round game later Friday night ... The winners will play in the Second Round at 7 pm at DeVos FieldHouse ... Both Ohio Northern and Denison received at-large bids to the NCAA Tournament after being upset in the semifinals of their respective conference tournaments last week ... ONU is 5-9 all-time in seven previous NCAA Tournament appearances ... The Polar Bears are led this season by First Team All-OAC honorees Amy Bullimore and Britt Lauck ... Bullimore leads the team in scoring (12.7 ppg), rebounding (7.7 rpg) and blocked shots (42) ... Lauck is second on the team in scoring at 10.3 ppg and leads the team with 89 assists ... Honorable Mention All-OAC Carly Thomas is third in scoring at 9.6 ppg ... Denison was ranked #23 in last week's D3hoops.com poll and received the 26th-most votes in this week's poll ... The Big Red are led this season by Jordan Holmes, who is averaging 16.0 points and 17.9 rebounds per game ... Her 17.9 rpg average is second-best in the nation this year ... DU saw its 16-game winning streak snapped with a 67-66 overtime loss to Allegheny (Pa.) in the semifinals of the North Coast Athletic Conference Tournament.
Ohio Northern Probable Starters (2015-16 stats):
G - #22 Carly Thomas, Sr. (9.6 ppg, 49 assists)
G - #25 Brooke Espenschied, Sr. (6.8 ppg, 70 assists)
G - #10 Britt Lauck, Jr. (10.3 ppg, 89 assists)
F - #24 Karissa Steffas, Sr. (8.3 ppg, 7.4 rpg)
F - #44 Amy Bullimore, So. (12.7 ppg, 7.7 rpg)
ONU Statistical Leaders
| Scoring |
Rebounding |
3FGs |
Assists | Steals | ||||||||||||||
| 1. | Bullimore | 12.7 | 1. | Bullimore | 7.7 | 1. | Lauck | 31 | 1. | Lauck | 89 | 1. |
Espenschied | 33 | ||||
| 2. | Lauck | 10.3 | 2. |
Steffas | 7.4 | 2. |
Thomas |
26 | 2. | Espenschied | 70 | 2. | Thomas | 28 | ||||
| 3. |
Thomas | 9.6 | 3. |
Espenschied | 4.4 | 3. |
Cramer | 24 | 3. |
Thomas |
49 | 3. | Steffas |
26 |
All-Time Series: Ohio Northern leads the all-time series between the two teams by a 5-1 margin ... The two schools last met in 2012-13, with ONU posting a 66-62 win in Granville.
ONU head coach Michele Durand: Durand is in her 15th season at ONU with a 244-156 record, a winning percentage of .610.
