Box Score For 44 years, John Carroll has sponsored women's basketball as a varsity sport in its intercollegiate athletic program. 

In the previous 43 years, John Carroll has enjoyed varying degrees of success, but never was a conference championship waiting at the end.

The 44th time was the charm.

There had been painfully close calls over that span of time, most notably in 1988 when JCU lost in a playoff game to Thiel to decide a Presidents' Athletic Conference champion. In 1993 and 1994, JCU won 20 games but finished in third place in the final Ohio Athletic Conference standings. In the 2011 OAC Tournament championship game, the Blue Streaks was tied with top seeded Mount Union with just under three minutes to play but eventually lost by eight.

This afternoon at the DeCarlo Varsity Center, all that frustration came to an end as the 2013-14 Blue Streaks played a dominating second half to stake its claim to a share of the OAC regular season title. By virtue of its 88-65 win over visiting Marietta Saturday, John Carroll can at least wear a champion's crown.

The Blue Streaks finished tied atop the OAC regular season standings with Baldwin-Wallace, each with records of 15-3 in league play.

It was all about making history Saturday. The win was a school record 21st of the season. It was also a school record 15th regular season OAC victory.

To top it off, Missy Spahar became the all-time leading scorer in the history of the program.

Marietta, however, was looking to spoil the coronation.

The Pioneers, who were playing for their postseason lives, took advantage of perhaps the longest scoring drought that John Carroll experiences all season. With JCU ahead 14-12 at the 14:11 mark of the second half, the Pioneers made a move and the Blue Streaks did not follow. A 10-0 run over a seven-minute span put Marietta ahead 22-14. 

Marietta pushed the lead to eight points again at 28-20 and 31-23, but a mini-run at the end of the half by the Blue Streaks left the score at 36-32 in favor of the upstart visitors as the teams headed to their locker rooms.

The Pioneers still held a 42-40 lead with 15:10 to play when John Carroll made a run that Marietta could not follow. Over the next eight minutes, John Carroll went on a 27-1 run fueled by eight points from Beth Switzler and six from Katlyn Spahar. When Switzler dropped in a lay-up at the 7:13 mark, JCU led by a 67-43 count.

From there, the Blue Streaks coasted into the history books.

The only drama left was whether Missy Spahar would break Lee Jennings' record of 1,829 points from 2009-2013. That would happen with her final basket, a short jumper at the 3:19 mark. That gave her 1,831 points, and she now holds the school records for both career points and rebounds (currently at 887).

Miss Spahar led JCU (21-3, 15-3) with 24 points, while Switzler added a double-double of 17 points and ten rebounds. Katlyn Spahar tallied 18 points, with Allie Lustig -- who moved into second place all-time in career assists this afternoon at JCU -- scored 12 points to go along with four assists and four steals.

Marietta (10-15, 4-14 OAC), whose season came to an end today, was paced by Tristin Toman, who scored 14 points in just four minutes. Tori Dixon, a senior, added 12 points as the only other Pioneers player in double figures.

John Carroll will be the #2 seed in next week's OAC Tournament, and will receive a bye into the semifinals, where it will host Ohio Northern, Mount Union or Muskingum on Thursday, February 27, at 7:30 p.m. in the DeCarlo Varsity Center.