Ending the regular season with a win is good. And doing so in the way most teams win a tournament championship is great. 

Defense. 

That was exactly the recipe for the John Carroll University women's basketball team in a 77-59 victory over Wilmington on Saturday afternoon from the DeCarlo Varsity Center.

The Blue Streaks held the top-scoring team in the Ohio Athletic Conference to 20 points below their season average makes for a sweet victory.

"Defensively, we really wanted to get back to our roots. We pressed all week saying that we wanted to play aggressively smart defense. That is exactly what we pushed today," assistant coach Beth Andrews said afterward. "We wanted to hold their leading scorers to low points. When we play defense, we get to run."

Early in the game, John Carroll wasted no time to run. As the end of the first quarter approached the Blue and Gold capped it with a 7-2 run, leading 21-11. The second quarter is when the Blue Streaks' defense picked up, which allowed them to run away with the lead. 

In the first five minutes of play in the second quarter, JCU held Wilmington to zero points. Meanwhile, the Blue Streaks built A 30-11 lead. The Fightin' Quakers actually outscored the Blue Streaks until the teams hit the locker room but John Carroll remained ahead by 14.

"We like to play fast and go inside and outside to score on the offensive end of the floor," Andrews said.

They did just that in the third quarter.

The Blue and Gold scored 27 points. Nicole Heffington took off, scoring 12 of her game-high 21 points. She also snatched five boards during the third stanza. Heffington finished with her 12 rebounds, compiling double-double performances in back-to-back games.

"Heffington is so capable of getting a double-double at any time. It is just taking her moments of when to do it," said Andrews.

Olivia Nagy also registered a double-double, punching out with 13 points and a game-high 15 rebounds. Nagy and Heffington were JCU's one-two punch in the victory.

"They are such a dynamic duo. The greatest thing about Heff is if Liv is scoring, she just keeps passing to her," said Andrews. "They really work well together."

In the fourth quarter, the Blue Streaks held on to secure the victory. JCU has now won their last two games after falling in their previous two to Baldwin Wallace and Ohio Northern. They'll take the momentum into OAC play where they will host for the second consecutive year. Except for this time, they'll be defending their OAC Tournament Championship.

"Coming off those two hard losses, we were definitely due for a big win," she said. "We did a good job of making everyone going into this next game."

That next game will come Tuesday at 6 p.m. in University Heights. The Blue Streaks will host the same team they played this afternoon and in the first round of the OAC Championship last year, the Wilmington Fightin' Quakers, for a quarterfinal round showdown.