By Caleb Scott
Junior Amy Bullimore (Morrow/Little Miami) and sophomore Jenna Dirksen (Dayton/Carroll) powered the No. 10-ranked Ohio Northern women's basketball team past Muskingum 96-73 Saturday afternoon at the ONU Sports Center.
The Polar Bears remain perfect and move to 15-0 overall and 8-0 in the Ohio Athletic Conference, while the Muskies fall to 8-7, 4-4.
Bullimore poured in a season-high 21 points and grabbed a game-best eight rebounds, while Dirksen added 20 points and four rebounds to lead Northern offensively.
Junior Lindsey Black (Urbana/Graham) and senior Britt Lauck (Lima/Shawnee) chipped in 16 and 15 points, respectively.
Muskingum would hold a 1-point lead with 1:22 remaining in the first half before Black hit back-to-back jumpers to give Northern a 45-42 lead heading into the intermission.
Bullimore would add to the Polar Bear lead in the second half as she made back-to-back layups to open the half and extend the lead to 49-42 with 8:02 remaining in the third quarter.
Northern would grab a 12-point advantage heading into the final period after Bullimore pulled down an offensive rebound and sunk two free throws with under a second left in the third quarter to give ONU a 70-58 lead.
The Polar Bears opened their biggest lead of the evening at the 1:59 mark of the fourth quarter as Black hit a jumper and pushed the lead to 94-69. Northern would go on to win the contest 96-73. ONU shot 37-of-72 (51.4 percent) from the field, including 7-of-20 (35.0 percent) from the 3-point line. Northern won the rebound battle by a 50-29 margin.
The Polar Bears return to action Wednesday as they welcome Heidelberg to the ONU Sports Center and take on the Student Princes at 7:30 pm.
