By Jared Brown
Junior Cenzie Yoder and senior Joanna Snyder each posted double-doubles as the No. 5 Ohio Northern women's basketball team posted a 70-58 win over Heidelberg on Wednesday at the ONU Sports Center.
With the win, the Polar Bears now stand at 21-1 on the season and 15-0 in OAC play, while the Student Princes fall to 5-17, 1-14.
The win clinches a share of the OAC regular season championship, the first for ONU since the 1987-88 season.
"It has been our number one goal all season to win the OAC championship," said head coach Michele Durand. "We will now look to capture the title outright."
Ohio Northern can clinch the OAC regular season championship with a win in any one of its final three games.
ONU also extends its winning streak to a school record 20 games.
Yoder scored a season high 25 points on 8-of-12 shooting and also grabbed 12 rebounds, for her third double-double of the season and seventh of her career.
Snyder scored 11 points and pulled down 11 rebounds for her second career double-double.
Kathleen Phillips led Heidelberg with a game high 26 points.
ONU started off the game strong, building an early 13-5 lead.
The Polar Bears then used a 15-0 run, capped off by a jumper from junior Sara Kocian, to open up a 32-15 lead with just over three minutes left to play in the first half.
Northern pushed its lead to 39-19 at the break.
The Polar Bears came out of the half and used an 8-0 run to build a 47-19 lead, their largest of the game.
The Student Princes would chip away at the lead and cut their deficit to 55-39, but ONU came right back with an 8-0 run to push its lead back to 63-39, capped off by two free throws from Yoder.
Heidelberg would continue to battle and cut the Northern lead to 67-58 with a minute left.
But ONU was 3-of-4 in free throws in the final minute to seal the victory.
"Give Heidelberg credit, they came out battling," Durand added. "Every win is important, and while we did not play our best tonight, we were still able to get the job done."
The Polar Bears were 25-of-61 (41 percent) from the field and 4-of-18 (22.2 percent) in three pointers.
The Student Princes were 20-of-60 (33.3 percent) shooting the ball and 8-of-19 (42.1 percent) from beyond the arc.
Northern won the rebounding battle by a 49-35 margin.
The Polar Bears held a 19-7 advantage in second chance points.
Ohio Northern will look to clinch the OAC regular season title outright on Saturday, when it travels to No. 22 Mount Union for a 3 p.m. game.
