Box Score
Photo Gallery 

WESTERVILLE, Ohio – The Otterbein women's basketball squad dropped a SCORE decision to No. 14-ranked Ohio Northern on Wednesday night in its first Ohio Athletic Conference (OAC) matchup of the 2018 portion of the schedule.

The Cardinals (6-6 overall) fall to 2-3 in conference play and will travel to Mount Union this coming Saturday for a 3 p.m. tip-off inside The McPherson Athletic Complex in Alliance, Ohio.

Rebounding proved to be one of the main key's to victory for the Polar Bears as they totaled 57 boards on the night with 22 of them coming on the offensive end, resulting in 16 second-chance points. The Cards managed to post 34 rebounds of their own, but only manufactured seven second-chance points.

Ohio Northern (11-1, 5-0 OAC) senior Amy Bullimore was a force in the post throughout the entire contest, notching four points, five rebounds and two blocks in the first quarter alone. Otterbein countered right back though with seven-straight points after missing its first two shots, four of which came from the team's leading scorer in senior Kiersten Taylor.

Junior Dani Kissel also scored well to open the game connecting on a pair of three-pointers in the opening frame, as the Cards trailed 12-10 after one period.

The Polar Bears blew the game wide open to start the second quarter with a 15-2 scoring run over the first five minutes, before five-consecutive points from Taylor cut the Cards' deficit to 11 points.

ONU's lead grew as large as 15 prior to halftime, but Otterbein accounted for the final four points to trim the lead to 35-23 at the break.

The Polar Bears managed to up their advantage to 18 points fairly quickly into the second half, before pushing the margin to as many as 24 points on the second-to-last possession of the contest.

Taylor concluded the night with a team-best 16 points and eight boards to go with three assists, while Kissel finished with 12 points, three rebounds and a trio of assists.

Bullimore paced the game with 18 points and 15 rebounds, as the Polar Bears converted 12-of-29 shots from beyond the arc.