Friday, January 22, 2021, 7 p.m. - Raizk Arena, Wilmington, Ohio
Saturday, January 23, 2021, 6 p.m. - ONU Sports Center, Ada, Ohio
| Game Program (.pdf) |
This Weekend's Preview: The Polar Bears will open their 2021 season with a home-and-home series with Wilmington this weekend ... The teams will open their seasons on Friday night at 7 pm at Wilmington and will wrap up the series with a 6 pm contest at Ohio Northern on Saturday ... Fifth-year head coach Rich Bensman welcomes back three starters and nine lettermen back from last year's squad that went 9-16 overall and was 5-13 in the Ohio Athletic Conference ... Sophomore C.J. Napier leads the list of returners after leading the Polar Bears in scoring (16.3 ppg) and rebounding (7.0 rpg) and earning Honorable Mention All-OAC honors as a freshman last year ... Junior Brandon Waugh returns to his starting point guard position in 2021 as the team's only upperclassman ... He started all 25 games a year ago and averaged 10.6 ppg while leading the team with 66 assists and 42 steals ... Sophomore Landen Long was second on the team in scoring as a freshman last year, averaging 11.0 ppg and returns as the starting shooting guard. ... Sophomore Daniel Unruh returns after sitting out the 2019-20 season ... He started 24 games as a freshman in 2018-19 and averaged 7.0 ppg and dished out 58 assists as a rookie ... Sophomore Michael Berner started seven games at center as a freshman last year, averaging 2.5 points and 2.1 rebounds in 11.7 minutes per game ... The Polar Bears will return to action next weekend with a home-and-home against Otterbein ... Wilmington is coming off a 10-16 overall record and was 8-10 in the OAC in 2019-20 ... The Quakers are led by junior 1st Team All-Conference honoree Jeffery Mansfield ... Mansfield led the team and was second in the OAC in scoring last season, averaging 19.6 ppg ... Mansfield is the only returning starter for the new-look Wilmington squad, led by 14-year head coach K.C. Hunt ... Seniors Jalen Horton, Jackson Todd and Brandon Cox also return for the Quakers.
ONU Returning Statistical Leaders (2019-20 Stats):
|
Scoring |
|
|
|
Rebounding |
|
|
|
3FGs |
|
|
|
Assists |
|
|
|
Steals |
|
1. |
Napier |
16.3 |
|
1. |
Napier |
7.0 |
|
1. |
Waugh |
46 |
|
1. |
Waugh |
66 |
|
1. |
Waugh |
42 |
2. |
Long |
11.0 |
|
2. |
Waugh |
3.8 |
|
2. |
Long |
37 |
|
2. |
Long |
32 |
|
2. |
Long |
18 |
3. |
Waugh |
10.6 |
|
3. |
Long |
2.6 |
|
3. |
Napier |
14 |
|
3. |
Napier |
26 |
|
3. |
Napier |
15 |
All-Time Series: Ohio Northern leads the all-time series between the two schools by a 38-32 margin ... ONU is 21-13 at home and is 16-8 at the ONU Sports Center, while WC is 18-16 at Wilmington ... WC has won 5 straight in the series..
Head Coach Rich Bensman: Bensman is in his fifth season at ONU with a 51-53 record, a winning percentage of .490.