By: Andrew Korba

MANCHESTER (Ind.) -- Junior Jordan Kimes scored a career-high 19 points to lead the No. 10 Ohio Northern women's basketball team to a 64-56 victory over No. 12 Carthage (Wis.) in its season opener at the Main View Tip-Off Tournament at Manchester (Ind.).

The Polar Bears are now 1-0 on the season, while the Lady Reds fall to 0-1.

Northern now advances to the Main View Tip-Off Tournament Championship and will face either host Manchester (Ind.) or Kalamazoo (Mich.) on Saturday at 7 pm.

Kimes went 8-of-10 from the field and also added seven rebounds on the evening.

Senior Cenzie Yoder also reached double figure scoring with 14 points.

The teams played a close first half, with the Polar Bears opening up a 15-10 on a jumper by sophomore Carly Thomas at the 11:01 mark of the first half.

Carthage would continue to battle and took the lead back at 27-26 with just over two and a half minutes to play in the first half.

But ONU responded with a 7-2 run, capped off by a Kimes basket to take a 33-29 lead into the break.

Northern used a quick 5-0 spurt on a three-pointer from sophomore Karissa Steffas and a layup by Kimes to push its lead to 46-39 early in the second half.

The Lady Reds would come right back with six straight points to cut the ONU lead to 46-45, with just over nine minutes to go.

But the Polar Bears responded with a 12-1 run to put the game away.

Northern was 26-of-55 (47.3 percent) from the field, while Carthage was 21-of-58 (36.2 percent).

Both teams grabbed 34 rebounds on the evening.