Women's Basketball ends season in OAC Tournament with 53-40 loss at top-seeded Capital

Emily Culbertson

By Jeff Blezien

| Box Score |

BEXLEY - Senior Emily Culbertson became the all-time steals leader with 181 and Kara Dysert had a career-high 14 rebounds, but Ohio Northern’s women’s basketball could not get past the No. 1-seeded Capital as the Crusaders won 53-40 Wednesday night at the Capital Center.

The Polar Bears end their season with a 9-17 overall record, while the Crusaders improve to 20-5 and advance to the Ohio Athletic Conference semifinals.

Ohio Northern’s last lead came with 13:21 left in the first half, when they were up 7-6.

Capital then went on a 16-3 run to put them up 22-10 with 5:03 left in the first half.

The Polar Bears went on a 7-0 run of their own to bring the score to 22-17 going into half.

The Crusaders would never let the Polar Bears get within more than five points of them in the second half.

Northern was led by Dysert who registered her seventh career double-double with 14 points and a career-high 14 rebounds.

Culbertson had five points and three steals, which put her at 181 steals on her career to pass Karla Thobe for the school's all-time lead.

Senior Alisha Rinehart was the second leading scorer on the day with seven points, while Tricia Fuller added six points of her own.

Capital was led by Kristen Richardson with 16 points.

Caitlin Elsass had 14 points, eight rebounds and three blocks, as Daniele Sanna registered nine points and three steals of her own.

Capital's defense stymied the Polar Bear offense, as ONU shot just 25.5% from the floor.

Capital scored 20 points off of 23 turnovers from Polar Bears.