Box Score

The home court was welcoming in the first half but then got ice cold for the John Carroll women Friday night.

The Blue Streaks lost to Medaille College of New York, 78-63, in a non-conference game at the Tony DeCarlo Varsity Center. The defeat dropped their record to 4-7 overall. They remain at 1-4 in the Ohio Athletic Conference.

In the first half, it looked like momentum was building for the JCU women to string together two straight victories for just the second time this season. The Blue Streaks beat Heidelberg on Dec. 20 for their first conference win this year.

During those first 20 minutes, JCU's offense was humming. Its zone defense was befuddling the Mavericks. The result was a 39-31 Blue Streaks' halftime lead, led by sophomore forward Missy Spahar's 10 points.

But the second half was a different story.

The Blue Streaks switched to a man-to-man defense and the Mavericks picked it apart.

“They attacked our defense much better(in the second half) than they did in the first half,'' JCU sophomore forward Hilary Liwosz said.

Medaille (7-3 overall) slowly started chipping away at JCU's lead until they finally overtook the Blue Streaks, 54-52, with about 11 minutes left in the game.

The lead changed hands five times in the next four and a half minutes. Then with 6:42 left, the Mavericks took the lead, 61-60, and held onto it for good.

John Carroll scored just three points from that point on, while the Mavericks added 17 more to seal the victory and extend its winning streak to six games. 

“At the end of the game, we just fell apart,” Spahar said.

After shooting nearly 47 percent from the field in the first half, JCU shot 23.5 percent after the break. Its 3-point shooting took a similar dive: 12 percent in the second half, down from 33 percent in the first.

Spahar led the Blue Streaks with 18 points and 12 rebounds. Medaille's sophomore guard, Joelle Pollack, led the Mavericks in scoring with 21.

It's conference play for JCU the rest of the season and Spahar and Liwosz said it's time to pick it up.

“We have to win. End of story. Period,'' Liwosz said.