Posting Up - Scoreboard - Top 25 - Features - Notables - Team of the Week - Live Audio

Salem

About the 2001 Division III
men's basketball tournament

Ohio Northern 82, Wittenberg 66
ADA, Ohio — Ohio Northern used a 16-6 start and a 10-0 run midway through the first half to open up a big lead and went on to an 82-66 victory against Wittenberg in the Great Lakes Sectional semifinals Friday night at the ONU Sports Center.

The Polar Bears (26-2) advance to the finals Saturday night to face Carthage at 7:30 p.m. at the ONU Sports Center with a trip to the Final Four at Salem, Va., on the line. Wittenberg ends its season with a 24-4 record.

The standing room-only crowd of 2,919 was easily the largest in ONU Sports Center history, surpassing the 2,285 fans in attendance last Saturday as ONU defeated defending national champion Calvin 79-68.

Carthage (24-4) advanced with an impressive 90-41 victory over Mass-Dartmouth (25-3) in Friday evening's first contest.

Ohio Northern placed five players in double figures in scoring, led by Kris Oberdick with 16 points. Chad Bostelman added 15 points, Jim Conrad scored 14, Mike Heitkamp added 13 points and a game-high 14 rebounds and Aaron Fries chipped in 12 points for the Polar Bears.

Ryan Taylor led the Tigers with 12 points and Chris Fillmore added 10. Ohio Northern, winners of 17 consecutive games, jumped to a 16-6 lead in the first 5:21 of the contest keyed by two three-pointers from Fries.

Wittenberg battled back to within 22-17 with 10:46 to go in the first half, but a 10-0 run put the Polar Bears in command 32-17 with 5:36 left before intermission.

The Tigers would not get within 10 points the rest of the way. Northern led by as many as 23 points on several occasions in the second half.

A 12-1 Wittenberg run trimmed ONU's 61-38 advantage to 62-50 with 9:58 remaining, but baskets by Oberdick and Kyle Lowry pushed the lead back to 66-50.

"I was very pleased at how well we played from the get-go," ONU head coach Joe Campoli said. "Our players fed off our home crowd and played very well. We kept the tempo to our liking and did a great job on the boards. It was a great win over a quality program."

Wittenberg entered the game as the nation's top-ranked rebounding team, averaging 14.6 more rebounds than its opponents. Led by Heitkamp's 14 boards, ONU edged the Tigers on the boards, 33-32.

Contact Us
About us
Feedback
Privacy Policy
Send Game Scores
Send Press Releases
Team of Week Nominations
User Survey