Women's Basketball puts on solid performance, drops tight 55-52 decision at No. 8-ranked John Carroll

By Tim Glon

ADA — The Ohio Northern women's basketball team took No. 8-ranked John Carroll to the wire on Friday night before falling late 55-52 at the DeCarlo Varsity Center.

Sophomore Brynn Serbin (Pittsburgh, Pa./North Allegheny) led ONU (3-4 overall, 3-4 Ohio Athletic Conference) with 12 points.

Senior Sydney Ward (Columbus/Upper Arlington) added nine points and eight rebounds and junior Jaidyn Hale (Lima/Bath) scored nine points for ONU.

The Blue Streaks (7-0, 7-0) led 45-38 three minutes into the fourth quarter, but a 7-0 Ohio Northern run tied the game at 45-all with 4:56 left to play.

Serbin nailed a 3-pointer with 2:18 to go gave ONU a 48-47 lead.

But the Blue Streaks answered with five straight points to regain a 52-48 advantage with 55 seconds to go.

Hale and got Northern within 52-50 with a pair of free throws with 38 seconds remaining.

John Carroll ran the clock down and scored with 11 seconds left to go up 54-50.

Hale again scored with five seconds to play to make it 54-52.

JCU made one of two free throws with three seconds left and ONU was unable to get off a desperation 3-pointer to tie the game in the final seconds.

JCU was led by the league's leading scorer, Nicole Heffington, with 17 points.

Ohio Northern finished the game 19-of-61 from the floor for 31.1 percent and made 4-of-23 three-pointer for 17.4 percent.

John Carroll was 18-of-55 from the floor for 32.7 percent and hit 5-of-20 3-pointers for 25.0 percent.

ONU won the battle of the boards by a 44-40 margin, led by Ward and junior Kate Iliff (Lorain/Steele) with eight boards each.

The Polar Bears will return to action Saturday when they host John Carroll at 6 pm at the ONU sports Center.