By Cort Reynolds
COLDWATER - Top seed St. Henry pulled away from upset-minded Ada with big first and fourth quarters to post a hard-fought 64-47 win in boys Div. IV sectional championship action Friday night at Coldwater.
With the loss, the 11th-seeded Bulldogs finished their season 6-18. MAC champion St. Henry (20-3) advanced to the district semifinals at Wapakoneta with the win.
SH outscored Ada by a combined total of 41-20 in the first and fourth periods. But the Bulldogs won the middle quarters, 27-23.
Zach Niekamp, a 6-1 senior, scored 23 of his game-high 27 points in the second half to lead the Redskins to victory.
Ohio Northern senior Jenna Dirksen (Beavercreek/Carroll) has been awarded All-Ohio Athletic Conference First-Team accolades in women's basketball for the 2018-19 season, the league office announced Wednesday morning.
This season, Dirksen led the Polar Bears and ranked fifth in the OAC with 14.2 points per game. She also paced the Orange and Black with 132 made field goals, 85 made free throws, 66 assists, and 35 steals in a team-high 857 minutes during the campaign.
Ohio Northern senior All-American Ryan Bruns (Chickasaw/Marion Local) was named First Team All-Ohio Athletic Conference in Men's Basketball for the 2018-19 season in voting conducted by the league's 10 head coaches.
Bruns is now a three-time All-OAC honoree, earning First Team honors in 2018 and Second Team honors as a sophomore in 2017.
The 2018 OAC Player of the Year, Bruns concludes his outstanding collegiate career with 1,686 career points, which ranks fourth all-time in program history.
By Cort Reynolds
COLDWATER - Ada broke away from a halftime tie with a big third quarter and went on to defeat New Knoxville 55-46 in boys Div. IV sectional semifinal play Tuesday night at Coldwater.
The Bulldogs improved to 6-17 with the victory and advanced to the sectional finals against top seed St. Henry Friday.
Meanwhile, the 10th-seeded Rangers end up 3-20 after suffering their eighth consecutive defeat. They lost 13 of their final 14 games after nipping Ads at NK 47-44 Jan. 5.
"It was not the start we were looking for, but we showed up in the second half and did what we needed to do," said Ada third-year head coach Dre White.
Senior Tia Harris (Newton Falls) reset her own indoor shot put school record and won the individual event title, leading the Ohio Northern women's track and field team to a fifth-place finish on Saturday at the 2019 Ohio Athletic Conference Indoor Track and Field Championships held inside the ONU Sports Center Fieldhouse.
ONU was fifth with 86 team points. Otterbein won the meet with 164.5 points; Mount Union finished second with 149.5 points; and John Carroll rounded out the top-three with 143 points.
The seventh-seeded Ohio Northern women's basketball team nearly completed an improbable run to the NCAA Division III Tournament Saturday, but fell to top-seeded John Carroll 61-58 in the Ohio Athletic Conference Tournament Finals inside the Tony DeCarlo Varsity Center.
Northern ends the season at 15-13 overall after appearing in its third consecutive OAC Tournament Finals, having knocked off second-seeded Baldwin Wallace and third-seeded Marietta to reach the championship game. The Polar Bears became the lowest seed to reach the finals since JCU in 2011, also as a seven seed.
