By Jared Brown
Senior Joanna Snyder and junior Cenzie Yoder both scored 20 points and grabbed nine rebounds apiece to lead the No. 8 Ohio Northern women's basketball team to a 76-60 victory on Wednesday night at the ONU Sports Center.
The Polar Bears have now won 14 in a row, and stand at 15-1 on the season and a perfect 9-0 halfway through OAC play. The Quakers fall to 9-7, 5-4.
Snyder was 9-of-17 from the field and Yoder shot 10-of-20.
Sophomore Jordan Kimes came off the bench to score 12 points and pull down eight rebounds.
Bethany Ahrens led Wilmington with 10 points.
The first half was even throughout, with the lead changing hands seven times and neither team holding a lead larger than five points.
A layup by Snyder with 41 second tied the game at 33-33 heading into the half.
ONU used a 7-0 run to open up a 53-44 lead with 11:40 left to play.
The Quakers would battle back and trim the Polar Bear lead to 58-53 with 6:33 remaining.
But Northern responded with a 10-2 run to push their lead back to 68-55 with just over three minutes remaining.
Snyder and Yoder each scored four points during the run, while Kimes added two.
The Quakers would be unable to get the deficit back to single digits in the closing minutes.
"Wilmington is an outstanding team," said head coach Michele Durand. "I thought we rebounded the ball very well. We also did a nice job of bettering our defense in the second half and it wore them down."
ONU was 31-of-74 (41.9 percent) from the field, while the Quakers were 21-of-55 (38.2 percent).
Northern won the rebounding battle 45-38.
The Polar Bears also committed just seven turnovers, compared to 17 for Wilmington.
ONU also scored 17 points off of WC turnovers, while the Quakers could only muster five.
Ohio Northern will return to action on Saturday when they host John Carroll at 3 p.m.
