Box Score After winning four of its last five games, the John Carroll University women's basketball squad returned home to face Baldwin Wallace University, where the Blue Streaks were looking to continue their momentum heading into the heart of the conference schedule.
Unfortunately, this would not be the case Wednesday night, as BW defeated John Carroll, 80-59.
A tight game early on, the Yellow Jackets would prove to be a formidable opponent, sinking eight 3-pointers in the first half while shooting an impressive 66.7% from beyond the arc.
BW came into Wednesday's contest ranked third in the league in scoring at 66.2 points per game, and used a balanced offensive attack to pull away midway through the first period to take a 44-29 lead into the locker room.
In order to improve defending 3-pointers, head coach Kristie Maravalli stressed that her team needs first to “be in a position to defend them.”
“We wanted to stress transition defense, and we had a difficult time with that tonight,” Maravalli continued. “We just let them shoot too well.”
The Streaks ran into foul trouble early in the second stanza, as leading scorers
Missy Spahar and
Beth Switzler had to be limited in minutes after reaching four fouls each.
The second half told a similar story, as the Jackets' 3-point efficiency continued, powering the team to an 11-0 run early in the half and stretching out their lead as wide as 24 points.
Key to this run was Baldwin Wallace guard Jessica Carpenter, whose back-to-back-to-back 3-pointers allowed her team to pull away. Usually just a 30.8% 3-point shooting team, the Jackets' uncanny 63.2% shooting from downtown would prove to be the difference in the game.
Leading in the losing effort for the Blue Streaks were juniors
Hilary Liwosz and
Missy Spahar. The pair scored 13 points each, while Spahar grabbed ten rebounds, marking her 17th career double-double.
Looking forward from this contest, Maravalli commented: “The best thing is to know where we had our breakdowns, fix them, and don't make the same mistake twice.”
With this loss, JCU falls to 9-5, 2-5 in the Ohio Athletic Conference, while BW improves to 8-6 overall and 3-4 in league play.
John Carroll will regroup the rest of the week before hosting the Pioneers of Marietta College this Saturday, January 12, in the Streaks' final contest before starting second semester classes. Marietta will bring a 6-7 overall record and a 1-5 conference record into University Heights.
