It was a big day for the school's all-time blocked shots leader, and a breakout scoring effort by a player previously best known for her assists and defense.

Both performances enabled John Carroll to deliver a 59-58 win over visiting Wilmington Saturday, marking the team's first win at the DeCarlo Varsity Center this season.

Box Score

At the beginning of today's contest, Caitlin Sureck was presented with a basketball from her coach, Kristie Maravalli, to honor her accomplishment in breaking the school's career record for blocked shots. 

The senior forward must like the spotlight, because she certainly came to play -- especially down the stretch. With three seconds to go, Sureck swiped the ball clean out of Wilmington's Andrea Anderson's hands, sealing the John Carroll victory. 

The Blue Streaks started the game struggling from the field, connecting on only five of their first 15 shots. They were only able to manage three baskets in the opening 7:10 of play. 

Meanwhile, Wilmington was trying to remove all drama early with a 12-4 run to open the contest., The lead for the Lady Quakers grew as large as nine points before the Streaks fought back. 

John Carroll was able to work the score to a 21-21 tie thanks to a 15-foot jumper by Sureck and 3-pointers from Whitney Hamilton and Sadie Zander. 

After a few scoring exchanges brough the game to a 28-28 deadlock, Zander again connected from long distance to give the Streaks their first lead of the game. Thanks in part to Zander's strong shooting, the Blue Streaks held a 37-32 lead at the break.

John Carroll picked up where the first half ended early in the second.  Zander opened the half with a 3-pointer. Sureck added four points of her own to build the JCU lead to 44-34 with 18:12 remaining. 

Zander connected on her fifth 3-pointer of the afternoon with just under 15 minutes to play to give John Carroll their largest lead of the game, 49-37. 

The dormant Quakers would soon find life. With Stephanie Prechtel leading the way, the Quakers cut the John Carroll lead from 12 to two points in less than three and a half minutes. The margin would remain tight the rest of the way.

It would be nailbiting time down the stretch, especially when Prechtel converted on a 5-foot jumper to give Wilmington a 58-57 lead, its first since 3:14 to go in the first half. 

But Sureck would continue her big day, splitting two defenders in the low post and laying the ball up to regain the 1-point advantage for the Streaks with 0:50 to play. It would be the final points recorded by either team, but not for lack of effort.

After a missed free throw by Kortney Kin and a rebound by the Streaks, Maravalli used her final timeout.
It was a peculiar situation: Wilimington still had four fouls to give before the Blue Streaks would shoot free throws. This enabled them to be very aggressive on in-bounds passes from John Carroll. 

But the poise of the Streaks enabled them to hang on to the ball and Zander was eventually fouled with 12 ticks left. She went to the foul line and missed. Wilmington rebounded the ball and quickly called timeout, setting up the dramatic final play.

“A lot of times you have to rely on your defense to step up when the offense isn't working,” Sureck said.” Playing an up-tempo game is definitely our thing. We know we're one of the faster teams in the conference and we have to use that to our advantage.” 

John Carroll (3-5, 2-2 OAC) was led by Zander who finished with a career-high 21 points on 7-11 shooting from the field which included a 5-7 performance from beyond the arc. Sureck finished with 16 points and 11 rebounds, as well as five blocked shots to bring her school record career total to 149.

“This was a break-out game for her,” Maravalli said. “No. 54 (Kortney Kin) is one of the best post players in the conference. Sureck certainly rose to the challenge today.” 

Wilmington (3-4, 2-3 OAC) was led by Kin, who had 17 points. Olivia Waters added 11 points, and was one of four Quakers who tallied eight rebounds as part of a 50-38 advantage on the boards.