On the night that John Carroll hosted a spa night at the women's basketball game versus the University of Mount Union, it was not a relaxing night for the Blue Streaks.
In an extremely physical match up, Mount Union immediately took control at the Tony DeCarlo Varsity Center against John Carroll and led nearly wire-to-wire in a 94-79 win over the host Blue Streaks.
Box Score
The loss snapped a modest three-game winning streak for John Carroll.
“Mount Union played a heck of a game. Their press rattled us,” said head coach Kristie Maravalli. “It comes down to who can shoot better, and tonight it wasn't us.”
The Purple Raiders simply shot too well to be knocked off on this night. After knocking down .575 (23-40) of their shots in the first half, the Raiders upped the ante in the second with an even better performance (18-30, .600).
Kori Wiedt (18), Taylor Hartung (15), Lauren Forquer (14) and Rosa LaMattina (10) all scored in double figures for Mount Union, which improved to 15-3 overall and 8-3 in the OAC.
The game began with a bit of gamesmanship, as Mount Union head coach Suzy Venet strategically took time outs immediately at the start of each half to eliminate the media time out in hopes of tiring the Blue Streaks.
After surrendering the opening basket to JCU's
Missy Spahar (Willowick, OH, Mentor Lake Catholic), Mount would never trail again.
Once Mount Union grabbed a double-digit lead, JCU was never again able to trim it down to single digits. John Carroll entered halftime down 54-33 with a goal of regrouping and improving their shooting percentage.
The Blue Streaks fought back late in the second half, at one point reducing the Purple Raiders lead that was once 28 points down to 13, but unfortunately it was not enough to capture a victory.
John Carroll is now 10-8 overall and 5-6 in league play.
The trio of
Lee Jennings (Stow, OH, Stow-Monroe Falls),
Missy Spahar and
Emilee Ritchie (Stow, OH, Stow - Monroe Falls )dominated offensively for the Blue Streaks. Accounting for 75 of the 79 total points. Jennings tallied 39, Spahar had 21 and Ritchie recorded 15.
