Women's Basketball bows out of OAC Tournament with solid effort in 64-50 Semifinal loss at No. 12 John Carroll
By Tim Glon
| OAC Basketball Tournament site |
UNIVERSITY HEIGHTS — Ohio Northern played No. 12-ranked John Carroll nearly even for 34 minutes before eventually falling 64-50 in the quarterfinals of the OAC Women's Basketball Tournament on Tuesday night at the DeCarlo Varsity Center.
Junior Brynn Serbin (Pittsburgh, Pa./North Allegheny) scored 17 points and senior Jaidyn Hale (Lima/Bath) added 15 points to lead the fifth-seeded Polar Bears, who will end their season with an 17-8 record.
The top-seeded Blue Streaks (22-3) will advance to Saturday's championship game against second-seeded and No. 14-ranked Baldwin Wallace.
John Carroll's Olivia Nagy had a triple-double with 15 points, 13 rebounds and 10 blocked shots while Nicole Heffington added 19 points for JCU.
Serbin had 12 first half points as Ohio Northern trailed just 30-29 at intermission.
A basket by Serbin gave ONU a 31-30 lead 1:15 into the second half.
JCU opened up a 45-37 lead in the third quarter, but ONU pulled within 48-43 entering the final 10 minutes.
The defenses dug in for the first four minutes of the fourth quarter, as neither team made a basket for the first 4:23, combining to go 0-for-16 during with six turnovers during the stretch.
The Blue Streaks got a basket by Heffington and a 3-pointer by Sarah Balfour to go up 55-44 with 4:15 left.
That sparked the JCU offense as the hosts ended the game on a 16-6 run.
Ohio Northern made 18-of-67 field goals for 26.9% and was 9-of-25 from 3-point range for 36.0%, while the Blue Streaks made 19-of-47 field goals for 40.4% and were 8-of-16 from beyond the arc for 50.0%.
ONU out-rebounded JCU by a 39-37 margin.
