Box Score
A career-high 21 points from junior Alex D'Amico helped John Carroll shake off a slow start to exact a bit of revenge with a 76-72 victory over Heidelberg on the road Wednesday night in Tiffin, Ohio.
JCU had lost to Heidelberg, 66-49, in University Heights on January 9 for its only setback in the entire month of January.
When Heidelberg jumped out to a 16-4 lead early in the contest, it looked like de ja vu.
The first of five D'Amico three-point field goals would start sending momentum in John Carroll direction. Her three ball at the 14:41 mark started a 16-7 run that would end when Lee Jennings hit a jumper to make the score 23-20 with 7:46 left in the opening period.
The Berg would kick the margin back up to seven points at 27-20, but JCU would score seven of the next eight points, capped by a second D'Amico three-pointer, to tie the score at 28-28 with 2:56 to play before halftime.
After Brittany Skolnicki gave Heidelberg a 31-28 lead, the Blue Streaks would close the half on a 7-0 run. Caitlin Sureck made a lay-up, and then shortly after made two free throws with 1:22 left to give John Carroll its first lead, 33-31, since the opening minute of the game.
Then, D'Amico hit her third three-point field goal of the half with just over one minute to play to stake John Carroll a 35-31 advantage at the break.
John Carroll continued to push the issue by scoring the first six points of the second half to open up a 41-31 lead. Jennings' lay-up with 17:33 showing on the second half clock completed a 13-0 run spanning two halves.
The Blue Streaks would hold a double-digit lead for several minutes in the second half. However, just after a Jennings free throw at the 7:26 mark gave JCU its largest lead of the game at 66-53, Heidelberg would put together its last run.
The Berg scored eight points in a matter of 90 seconds to pull to within five points at 66-61. Then, after Erin Zahariev scored a lay-up to push the margin back to seven, Heidelberg scored six of the next eight pointsto pull to within three at 70-67 with 3:02 to play.
D'Amico continued her career night in the final two minutes, scoring four points and grabbing one rebound. No play was bigger than her rebound following a missed Heidelberg three-pointer with 28 seconds left and her team leading 73-69. She was fouled after grabbing the rebound, and calmly sank two free throws at the other end to make the score 75-69.
After Morgan Harrigan made a three-pointer with 14 seconds left to cut the Blue Streaks lead to three at 75-72, Rachael Price made the first of her two free throws to ice the game at 76-72 with 12 seconds left
In addition to the career-high 21 points from D'Amico, John Carroll (14-8, 9-6 OAC) also got 15 points from Jennings, 14 from Price and 10 from Sureck. D'Amico was 6-9 from the field, 5-7 from three-point range, and 4-4 from the free throw line. As a team, JCU was 27-51 (.529) from the field, 9-15 (.600) from three-point range, and 13-17 (.765) from the charity stripe.
The victory was the sixth consecutive road win for the Blue Streaks dating back to December 28, 2007.
Heidelberg (9-13, 4-11 OAC), which lost its sixth consecutive game, was paced by a team-high 19 points from Amanda Campbell. The Berg also made nine three-point field goals in the contest.
