BOURBONNAIS, Ill. – The Olivet Nazarene University women's basketball team rode a 72-point first half in a 109-40 win over the Trojans of Trinity International on Saturday afternoon. Olivia Dirskse scored a game-high 20 points for a career-high. The 69-point win was the largest margin of victory for the Tigers this season.

Coming off a top 25 upset over Saint Francis earlier this week, the Tigers showed out their best quarter of basketball this year with season-best 39 points scored and holding TIU to only eight points. Khendel Rolison and Dirkse combined for 16 points in the quarter with each making a pair of threes. Maggie Cora's three at the 7:57 mark sparked a 21-0 run to build the early lead.

ONU did not slow down in the second quarter pouring in 33 more points and limiting the Trojans to just four points, the best defensive 10-minute stretch for Tigerball this year. ONU shooters stayed hot hitting four of their five attempts from beyond the arc. Dirkse hit her two threes within the span of 23 seconds to close out the half on another 21-0 run. Olivet went into the locker room up 72-12.

The Tigers cooled off in the third quarter with only four field goals made. The ONU bench took credit for all 13 points scored with Rolison leading the way with four. Despite the offensive struggles, Tigerball remained locked in defensively holding the visitors to six points off of 3-19 shooting from the floor and not allowing a three-point basket.  The Purple and Yellow Gold saw out the rest of the game with contributions from the entire ONU bench. 14 of the 16 Tigers scored two or more points on the day.

QUICK HITS

• Tigerball shot above 41% from three in back-to-back games.
• Rolison tied a season-high with 17 points off of 3-5 from three and 6-11 from the floor.
• 40 points is the lowest number of points allowed by the ONU defense this year.
• Olivet has now won 5 of their last 6 contests.

WHAT'S NEXT

Tigerball will hit the road for a visit at St. Ambrose next week. The Wednesday night affair versus the Fighting Bees is slated for a 5:30 p.m. CT tip-off. Visit ONUTigers.com for all the updated links to follow the action.

--ONU—

*Contact: Patrick Kaindl, Sports Information Graduate Assistant, pkaindl@olivet.edu