In Ohio Athletic Conference women's basketball, having the #1 seed play the #2 seed in the tournament championship game is as commonplace as a three-leaf clover.

It appears a four-leaf clover has been discovered in the form of John Carroll University.

For the first time in the history of the OAC Tournament which dates back to 1985, a #7 seed has advanced to the championship game as the upstart Blue Streaks upset third-seeded Ohio Northern, 71-70, Thursday night in Ada, Ohio. 

Box Score

The previous low seed when Mount Union carried its #6 seed all the way to the 2001 title match against top-seeded Baldwin-Wallace before falling, 73-66, to the Yellow Jackets.

JCU began the tournament by picking off #2 seed Baldwin-Wallace on the road Tuesday, then overcame a 14-point second-half deficit to become the lowest seed ever to reach the tournament final. 

"We are obviously excited but not overhwelemed,' said John Carroll head coach Kristie Maravalli afterwards. "We talked about turning this into a three-game season, and we have bought into narrowing our vision down to the game at hand. We've won the first two, and now we want to try and win the third." 



That third will take place Saturday afternoon at top-seeded Mount Union, with tip-off set for 3:00 pm in Alliance.

John Carroll led for most of the first 15 minutes of the game, with its largest advantage of six points attained on an Emilee Ritchie lay-up with 7:53 left that made the score 18-12. 

Ohio Northern would catch the Blue Streaks at the 5:27 mark, however, on a Morgan Dumbaugh three-pointer that deadlocked the score at 22-22. It was one of sixth treys the Polar Bears would make in the opening half. 

The home team's lead would grow to nine before Ohio Northern took a 35-28 lead into the break. 

Ritchie would quickly slice the Polar Bears' lead to four with her first three-point field goal launch of the second period, but Ohio Northern answered with a 12-2 run to take their first double digit lead of the night. Two free throws by Kara Dysert pushed the advantage to 42-31 with 16:59 remaining in the second half. 

Ohio Northern would push its lead up to 14 before John Carroll began to chip away. Try as they might, however, the Blue Streaks were still staring at an eight-point deficit entering the final five minutes. 

"We kept talking about persevering,' said Maravalli. "They were hitting some great shots, so we just kept our heads up and kept working. It finally paid off down the stretch." 

Down 63-55 with 5:11 to play, John Carroll would score eight consecutive points to tie the game at 63-63. Back-to-back three pointers by Allison Lustig and Ritchie knotted the game with 3:58 to play. 

The Polar Bears would regain the lead on a Joanna Snyder three the next trip down, but could never push the advantage beyond four points. 

John Carroll would finally seize an opportunity in the closing minute Trailing 70-69, JCU rebounded a Snyder miss with 51 ticks left and worked a possession where Lee Jennings drew a foul driving to the basket. She made both free throws to give John Carroll a 71-70 lead with 21 seconds remaining. It was JCU's first lead of the second half. 

Lustig, a freshman, came up with the game's biggest defensive stop, stripping Dysert of the ball following an offensive rebound. She got the ball to Jennings was was fouled with five ticks to go. 

Jennings missed both free throws, but Ohio Northern never got off a shot before the buzzer sounded.
John Carroll (16-11) was paced by 28 points and 11 assists from Jennings, while Ritchie, who made five three-pointers, ended up with 20. 

"We were down big and we just battled back. Perseverance and total team effort. Everyone had to step up tonight. We didn't play our best game offensively or defensively, but we just plain battled it out" said Jennings following the emotional victory.

Ohio Northern (17-10) was led by 13 points from Jeanne Bockey. The Polar Bears won the rebounding battle (51-22) but shot just 13-36 (.361) from the field in the decisive second half.