The John Carroll University women's basketball team is now on a three-game win streak after a classic Ohio Athletic Conference matchup, defeating the University of Mount Union, 76-65, in Alliance on Wednesday.
Junior forward Nicole Heffington paced the Blue Streaks with 24 points, eight boards, and six assists. Sophomore center Olivia Nagy shot a perfect 8-for-8 from the field and finished with a double-double of 18 points and 10 rebounds, while adding five blocks. Senior guard Sarah Sprecher also reached double-digits with 12 points.
"Winning is always difficult on the road," said John Carroll head coach Kelly Morrone. "Mount's atmosphere creates a lot of challenges. I was very proud of the fact that when things got tough down the stretch we relied on making free throws, securing rebounds and taking care of the ball. We stuck together as a whole. Every timeout there was a very positive energy exchange between the players coming off the floor and the bench. That will be a huge contributing factor to our continued success."
Nagy opened the scoring but Mount Union responded eight seconds later, which paved the way for a back-and-forth first ten minutes and saw the Blue Streaks take a 24-20 lead into the second quarter.
The trading game continued until John Carroll uncorked a 21-5 run in which six different players added to the tally. When Sprecher buried three consecutive free throws at the at the 3:15 mark of the period, it gave the Blue Streaks a 51-30 advantage, which eventually lead the Blue Streaks to end the first half with a 55-32 lead. John Carroll outscored Mount Union in the second quarter, 31-12. Heffington contributed 17 points in the first 20 minutes of action, while Nagy shot made all seven of her field goal attempts to go along with six rebounds.
The Purple Raiders put up a fight in the third quarter and held JCU to just six points, but it wasn't enough as the Blue Streaks maintained the lead throughout the final minutes of action to secure the victory.
JCU has now won three in a row against Mount Union, and two in a row in Alliance.
John Carroll is 5-1 on the season and 1-0 OAC. The team returns home on Saturday, Dec. 7 to continue conference play against Marietta at 3 p.m.
