Box Score

The weakest link in the John Carroll armor proved to ultimately be its downfall, as Wilmington cashed in all game long on second chance opportunities to end John Carroll's season with an 86-66 defeat in an Ohio Athletic Conference Tournament quarterfinal round game Wednesday night at Fred Raizk Arena in Wilmington, Ohio.

The loss ended a promising season for the Blue Streaks at 15 wins and 11 losses. The 15 wins are the most by a JCU team since the 1993-1994 edition won 20.

The Quakers may have done more to reinforce the importance of rebounding than any coach could have demonstrated. Wilmington outrebounded the Blue Streaks by a whopping 62-30 advantage, and cleared 22 of those rebounds off the offensive glass.

In one of the most telling statistics of the game, Wilmington scored 21 points off second chance opportunities to a mere four for the Blue Streaks.

Wilmington would lead wire-to-wire, scoring the first five points of the game, and 23 of the first 32. The Quakers would continue to strecth their advantage until it reached 21 points when Ki Godfrey drilled a three-point field goal to make the score 39-18 with 6:49 left innthe first half.

John Carroll would attempt to throw a scare into the Quakers when a Lee Jennings free throw cut the Wilmington lead down to ten points at 43-33 with 48 seconds remaining in the opening period. But Wilmington would score the final four points to take a 47-33 advantage into halftime.

The Blue Streaks were simply unable to whittle the lead down to single digits over the final 20 minutes. When Rachael Price made a three-pointer with 13:32 on the second half, the margin was 12 points at 56-44. But a 10-2 run over the next two minutes erased any doubts about the outcome of the contest.

Wilmington (20-6) was paced by 19 points from Gina Hyle, who dropped 36 on the Blue Streaks just five days prior in the regular season finale. Hyle also completed a double-double with a game-high 11 rebounds.

Joining Hyle in double figures were Katie Streck (15), Marianne McGoron (12) and Shawnae Adams (10)

The Quakers to the OAC Tournament semifinal round on Thursday, where it will host seventh seeded Mount Union, a surprise 59-46 victor over second-seeded Ohio Northern Wednesday evening.

John Carroll (15-11) had 44 of its 66 points scored by the backcourt duo of Jennings with 24 and Price with 20. Jennings and Price shot 16-33 (.485) from the field while the rest of the etam was 7-33 (.213)