There is plenty of angst that can build up when the home team and top seed falls behind 18-2 in the first quarter.

The kind of angst that goes with not winning a conference tournament game of any kind in six years. The kind of angst that goes with not winning a quarterfinal round home game since 1994.

Thankfully for Kelly Morrone and her John Carroll Blue Streaks, they did not give into to the angst. A cool, calm and collected team fought through the early anxious moments to produce a 76-70 win over Wilmington College in an Ohio Athletic Conference quarterfinal round match-up Tuesday night at the DeCarlo Varsity Center.

This was the third meeting this season between John Carroll and the Wilmington Quakers, and the second meeting in four days. JCU swept the regular season series with two wins over Wilmington (80-59 on January 15 in University Heights, 56-45 in Wilmington on February 16).

This time, the #8 seed Quakers got off to an aggressive start, going on an 8-0 run to begin the game that ended with a Chelbi Graham layup.  Wilmington continued to attack the John Carroll defense, opening up a 16-point lead five minutes into the first quarter, racing ahead of the #1 seed Blue Streaks by an 18-2 count.

Wilmington led by as many as 17 points on two occasions in the quarter, but JCU was able to settle down and eventually found some offense.  Shmoo Pryor connected from beyond the arc to end the quarter, cutting the Wilmington lead to 25-11.

What was more important, however, was finding some defense to slow down a Quaker offense that had its most productive quarter of the season against JCU. In eight previous quarters, the Quakers had only reached 20 points once.

The defense arrived in the second period and held the Quakers to just 12 points. Meanwhile, senior Kahrin Spear stepped up to help the Streaks find their rhythm on offense, hitting back-to-back momentum 3's with two minutes left to go in the first half to cut the Wilmington lead to just five.

In the closing minutes, four straight points by Abby Adler and then a steal and lay-up by Spear on an inbounds play cut the Quakers lead to 34-33, but Hannah Binkley hit a momentum-stopping three with 34 ticks left to make the score 37-33 at the half in favor of the visitors.

Spear led the Blue Streaks with 11 points and two steals. Pryor added six points of her own, and Adler contributed five points, four assists, and three rebounds.

McKayla Binkley and MacKenzie Campbell led the first half efforts for the Quakers, contributing 13 and 10 points, respectively.

The Blue Streaks kept clawing their way back in, and with 2:23 remaining in the third quarter, Sarah Sprecher tied the contest for the first time at 47-47 with a three ball.  The John Carroll defense then forced a turnover with 1:40 remaining in the third quarter, followed by Olivia Nagy converting a lay-up and one to give the Blue Streaks their first lead of the game.  It was Nagy again in the final seconds of the quarter, converting her second "and one" to give John Carroll a 55-51 lead at the end of three quarters.

John Carroll did not trail at any point in the fourth period, but Wilmington did tied up the contest twice, at 58-58 and 63-63.

Dani Carlson hit her first three of the game with 3:44 left in the fourth quarter to give John Carroll a 66-63, kick starting a key 7-0 run.  Adler and Spear made key free throws dow the stretch to keep the Quakers at bay in the final minutes.

Spear led the Blue Streaks with 20 points.  Graham contributed 10 points and nine rebounds, and Adler also added 10 points and six rebounds.

McKayla Binkley, Campbell, and Hannah Binkley directed the efforts for the Quakers with 25, 19, and 15 points, respectively. Wilmington shot 10-16 (.625) from the field for the first quarter but just 19-43 (.441) after.

JCU won the battle of the boards, 46-38, in winning its first playoff game at home since knocking off Ohio Northern, 62-56, in a first round game on February 24, 2003. It was also the Blue Streaks first win in OAC tournament play since beating Marietta February 18, 2013 vs Marietta.

John Carroll, which improved to 20-6 on the year, will advance in the tournament to host #5 seed Otterbein on Thursday, February 21. Tip off is set for 7:00 p.m. at the DeCarlo Center.

Wilmington's season comes to an end at 11-15.