The nationally ranked #5 Ohio Northern women's basketball team claimed the Ohio Athletic Conference Tournament title and earned an automatic bid to the NCAA III Tournament with a 70-55 victory over Wilmington on Saturday afternoon at the ONU Sports Center.
The Polar Bears will await the NCAA Selection Show to find out there fate in the NCAA III Tournament.
The Polar Bears remain perfect on the season and improve to 27-0 with the victory.
With the victory, the 2016-17 Polar Bears now own the longest winning streak in school history at 27 games.
Junior Courtney Cramer (Arcadia) was named Tournament MVP after she scored a game-high and career-high 18 points and added six rebounds to lead the Polar Bears.
"This win is a really great feeling for our team," said head coach Michele Durand. "Wilmington came ready to play and we expected that. They were able to shut down our offense, but Courtney really stepped up for us. She deserves the Tournament."
Junior Amy Bullimore (Morrow/Little Miami) was also named to the All-Tournament team for her efforts as she scored seven points and pulled down a game-high seven rebounds.
Junior Lindsey Black (Urbana/Graham) chipped in 13 points for the Polar Bears.
Northern opened the contest with five quick points after sophomore Jenna Dirksen (Beavercreak/Carroll) hit a jumper and Cramer followed with a 3-pointer.
Wilmington would hit a three pointer before the Polar Bears used an 8-4 run to take a 13-7 lead into the second quarter.
Cramer would pick up where she left off in the second quarter as she opened the period with an and-1 and sunk the ensuing free throw to give ONU a 16-9 lead with 9:36 remaining in the half.
The Polar Bears would see their lead grow to as many as 17 points in the second quarter as junior Cheyenne Raker (Columbus/Westerville South) sunk a pair of free throws to push the lead to 30-13 with 1:41 remaining in the first half.
Wilmington was able to climb within eight points in the third quarter before Northern extended the lead to 47-33 heading into the final period.
The Quakers would begin chipping away at the ONU lead in the fourth quarter as they used a 16-3 run to pull within 55-51 with 2:55 remaining in the contest.
From there, Northern would ice the game as they hit 11-of-12 free throws down the stretch, including a 6-for-6 effort from Black to ice the game and help ONU claim the OAC Tournament title.
The Polar Bears were 20-of-57 (35.1 percent) from the field, and hit 27-of-31 (87.1 percent) free throws.
Northern won the rebounding battle by a 43-33 margin.
