The Marietta Ohio area was hit hard by the winter weather affecting the midwest region of the United States, so hard that it caused power outages throughout the city.

That included Ban Johnson Fieldhouse, where the John Carroll University women's basketball team was scheduled to play the host Marietta College Pioneers.

After a two-hour delay, the Blue Streaks were tested for the full 40 minutes of regulation to defeat the Pioneers, 69-61, and pick up their 20th victory of the season.

John Carroll, ranked 24th in the latest WBCA/USA TODAY Sports Division III Top 25 women's basketball poll, led for all but four minutes of today's contest, but never got separation from the Pioneers.

At least early on, it looked as if the delay nor the Pioneers would have much effect on John Carroll, as the Blue Streaks scored ten of the game's first 12 points over the opening 4:30. JCU would stretch its lead to nine points on two occasions, the last of which was 22-13 at the 9:46 mark following a three-point field goal by Shmoo Pryor.

Marietta would close the gap the remainder of the half, however, and had cut the John Carroll lead to 32-31 by the time the game reached its midway point.

The Pioneers seized control early in the second half, and opened up a five point lead at 43-38 as Jessica Brogan made all three free throws at the 16:42 mark after being fouled on a three-point attempt.

JCU would rally, and took the lead for good when Pryor connected on another shot from long distance at the 13;13 mark to give the Blue Streaks a 49-46 lead.

The Blue Streaks would hold the Pioneers off from there, ad actually built its largest second half lead with 1:48 to play following a Katlyn Spahar jumper that put the visiotes on top, 64-57.

Refusing to give in, Marietta scored the next four points -- all from Brogan (one jumper, two free throws) -- and entered the final minute of play trailing John Carroll by a count of 64-61.

It was on the next possession that Emily Taylor drilled the game's biggest shot, as her three-pointer with 26 ticks remaining gave John Carroll a 67-61 advantage, and much needed cushion.

Erin Mog sealed the win with a pair of free throws in the final ten seconds.

The victory improved John Carroll's record for the year to 20-3 overall and 13-3 in the Ohio Athletic Conference. This is just the fourth time since the inception of the program in 1970-71 that a JCU team has won at least 20 games in a season, and is the second time the Blue Streaks have put together back-to-back 20 win campaigns (the Blue Streaks were 22-5 a season ago). The last back-to-back 20-win seasons were in 1992-93 and 1993-94, when JCU strung together a pair of 20-6 records.

Four Blue Streaks finished the game in double figures as Pryor led the way with 16 points, while Taylor ended up with 15. Spahar added 12 and Beth Switzler dropped in 11 as 23-54 (.426) from the field for the game.

Brogan led all scorers with 21 points for Marietta, which fell to 8-15 overall and 4-12 in league play.