For about 25 minutes of game play on a New Year's Eve afternoon at Case Western Reserve University, the hustle battle was being won by the homestanding Spartans, and the score reflected as much.

For the final 15 minutes of game play, the hustle battle was won by the visiting John Carroll Blue Streaks, who rode that effort to a 78-66 victory over their crosstown rivals.

Case Reserve never trailed in the opening half, although the score was tied briefly at 15-15 at the 12:40 mark. From that point on, the Spartans outscored John Carroll, 22-13, to take a 37-28 advantage to the locker room. CWRU was leading the battle on the boards (20-13) as well as second chance points (7-4) and points off turnovers (12-9). The Spartans also enjoyed a strong shooting half, making 14-29 (.482) from the field.

Not much changed in the opening five minutes of the second half, but the turning point may have been a play the epitomized the tone of the contest up to that juncture. An errant pass was thrown by the home team and John Carroll seemed content to let it bounce out of bounds. Instead, Case Reserve's Jessica McCoy chased it down and flipped it to Laura Mummey as she tumbled off the court. Mummey dropped in the lay-up, and was fouled, for a 47-38 Spartan lead at the 15:39 mark. She would make the subsequent free throw.

That led to a 30-second timeout by John Carroll head coach Kelly Morrone.

Whatever was message was sent seemed to be received loud and clear. Over the final 15-and-a-half minutes, John Carroll would outscore Case Reserve, 40-18.

The Blue Streaks would tie the game at 53-53 on an Emily Taylor three ball at the 9:08 mark. It was John Carroll's first and only made three-point field goal of the afternoon.

Taylor then followed up with a pair of free throws that gave the Blue Streaks their first lead at 55-53 with 8:40 remaining.

The game was tied again at 55-55 and 57-57 before John Carroll made the game's most decisive run. A 12-0 burst, capped by Shmoo Pryor's lay-up at the 3:05 mark put the Blue Streaks up 69-57, and the visitors were never threatened again.

Statistically, John Carroll turned the tables in every conceivable manner in the second half. The Blue Streaks won the battle of the boards (22-16), shot 17-33 (.515) from the field as compared to 8-25 (.320) for Case, and had 12 second chance points to the Spartans' three. 

Pryor had a game- and career-high 21 points on 9-13 shooting for John Carroll, which improved to 9-1 with the win. Joining Pryor in double figures were Beth Switzler with 18, Meghan Weber with 14 and Katlyn Spahar with 12.

Mummey and Brooke Orcutt each had 16 for Case Reserve, which fell to 5-5.