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Capital beats ONU women’s and men’s teams

Despite Dirksen’s career-high 24 for women

BEXLEY — Senior Jenna Dirksen (Beavercreek/Carroll) netted a career-high 24 points and grabbed a career-high 10 rebounds for her first career double-double in a 68-65 loss at Capital at the Capital Center on Friday evening.

Dirksen was 8-for-16 from the floor and 4-for-8 from 3-point range to lead the Polar Bears (10-7 overall, 4-6 Ohio Athletic Conference).

ONU also got 12 points from junior Abby Weeks (West Chester/Mount Notre Dame), 10 points and eight rebounds from junior Emily Mescher (Maria Stein/Marion Local) and eight points from freshman Lexi Jacobs(Wapakoneta).

The Crusaders (11-6, 6-4) received 20-point scoring efforts from Elle Folan and Emma Burns in the victory.

CU raced out to an 18-6 edge after five minutes of action before closing the first quarter up 29-21.

A step-back jumper two seconds before the halftime buzzer capped a 17-point first-half performance by Dirksen as the Polar Bears pulled within 38-33 after 20 minutes of play.

Back-and-forth action ensued throughout the third quarter with the Crusaders taking a 56-49 advantage heading into the fourth quarter.

A 3-pointer by Weeks with 6:14 remaining brought ONU to within 58-55.

Mescher converted a lay up off a Weeks assist with 1:58 to go, cutting the CU lead to 64-63.

The Crusaders responded with a basket with 26 seconds to go up 66-63.

Following a missed ONU 3-point attempt with 15 seconds to go, two free throws from Capital's Folan iced the game for the Crusaders.

The Polar Bears made 25-of-59 attempts from the floor for 42.4 percent and tied a season high with 50 percent shooting from 3-points range at 9-of-18. The Crusaders shot 22-for-48 from the floor for 45.8 percent and were 8-for-19 on 3-pointers for 42.1 percent.

ONU will return to action on Wednesday at Wilmington in a 7 p.m. game.

Men’s game

ADA — The Ohio Northern men's basketball team fell to Capital 102-49 on Friday night at the ONU Sports Center.

The Polar Bears (4-13 overall, 0-10 Ohio Athletic Conference) had 11 players score in the contest, led by sophomore Ciolton Bachman (Piqua) with eight points and senior All-American Ryan Bruns (Chickasaw/Marion Local) with seven points and five rebounds.

The Crusaders (14-3, 9-1) were led by Austin Schreck with 22 points.

CU made 9-of-14 3-pointers in the first half and led 55-29 at intermission.

A 25-0 Capital run in the second half put the game away.

"Capital is a very talented, senior-dominated team," ONU head coach Rich Bensman said. "They played very well and the game got away from us in the second half. We need to keep playing hard the last four weeks of the season."

Ohio Northern made 14-of-46 field goal attempts fpr 30.4 percent and were 5-of-20 from 3-point range for 25 percent, while Capital was 39-of-67 from the floor for 58.2 percent and made 10-of-20 three-pointers for 50 percent.

CU out-rebounded ONU 39-26 and won the turnover battle 22-9.

The game was moved up from Saturday due to the anticipated Winter Storm Harvey.

The Polar Bears will return to action on Wednesday at 7 pm when they entertain Wilmington at the ONU Sports Center.

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