Nearly at the midpoint of the OAC portion of the schedule, John Carroll was determined to get back on track. Thanks to five double-digit scoring efforts, the Blue Streaks did just that, as they rolled to a 99-66 win at Marietta.   

John Carroll (8-7, 3-5 in the OAC) had one of their best offensive games of the year, shooting 53.5% from the floor. Marietta (7-8, 3-5 in the OAC) only managed to shoot 37.3% in the blow out loss at home.

Box Score

John Carroll got off to a very quick start shooting the basketball, nailing a trio of three-balls in building a 9-2 lead. Just a couple minutes later, after an Emilee Ritchie (Stow, OH, Stow - Monroe Falls ) three-pointer, the Blue Streaks took a 25-9 lead with only seven minutes in the books.

Marietta tried to cut into the lead, but seemed out of rhythm throughout the first period.

The Blue Streaks wouldn't cool off down the homestretch of the first half. WIth 4:57 to play, Heidi Mervar (Valley View, OH, Cuyahoga Heights ) hit her second collegiate three-pointer to give the team a 41-16 lead.

Averaging six-and-a-half treys per game entering the game, the Streaks canned nine of 18 from beyond the arc in the first half alone and went into the locker room with a commanding 53-22 lead.

At the break, John Carroll held Marietta to 28% shooting while they connected 56.8% of the time on the offensive end.

A quiet but not slow start to the second half for John Carroll enabled them to put the game in cruise control. Keeping pace with Marietta throughout the second half, the game was never in doubt.

"We haven't really shot the ball well as a team lately," said freshman Missy Spahar (Willowick, OH, Mentor Lake Catholic) after the game. "We have worked a lot in practice on shooting from every spot from the floor and it really paid off. We know when multiple players score in double figures, we can be a tough team to beat." Spahar finished with 19 points on 7-11 from the floor.

Emilee Ritchie had a game-high 25 points, including three treys in the victory. Lee Jennings (Stow, OH, Stow-Monroe Falls) downed 20 points on 9-11 from the floor. The Streaks got 12 point efforts from Allison Lustig (Palo Alto , CA, Archbishop Mitty) and Heidi Mervar as well. Mervar, who had never attempted a collegiate 3-pointer in a game before this contest, knocked home three shots from long range.

"This was a 'when push comes to shove' type of game for us," said Head Coach Kristie Maravalli after the win. "We knew Marietta had some big upsets within the OAC against team's that haven't played great defense, so that was our focus today. We got some huge stops today that we converted into points at crucial times in the game."

John Carroll scored 32 points off of 16 Marietta turnovers.

Ironically enough, when the blue and gold focus on playing good defense, they found enough of an offensive rhythm to produce one of their best scoring outputs of the season.

"Allie Lustig deserves a lot of credit on the offensive end today," continued Maravalli. "She drove the ball so well to the basket that girls had wide open looks at the rim. She made a big difference for us today."

Marietta's lone player in double figure was Aleisha Guiler, who finished with 13. Guiler entered the game averaging over 17 points per contest, good for second best in the conference.