No. 8 Women's Basketball stays perfect in OAC play with 72-61 victory over John Carroll

By: Andrew Korba

ADA -- Senior Joanna Snyder scored a game-high 22 points to lead the No. 8 Ohio Northern women's basketball team to a 72-61 win over John Carroll on Saturday afternoon at the ONU Sports Center.

With the win, Northern extends its winning streak to 15 games and now stands at 16-1 overall and 10-0 in the Ohio Athletic Confernece. The Blue Streaks fall to 10-7, 3-7.

Snyder shot a solid 10-of-15 from field, grabbed eight rebounds and dished out six assists.

Senior Morgan Dumbaugh added 15 points for the Polar Bears.

Beth Switzler and Melissa Spahar paced John Carroll with 13 points each.

ONU came out hot and opened up an early 14-2 lead.

The Polar Bears then used a 9-0 run to extend their lead to 23-4 with just over 13 minutes left in the first half.

Snyder had five points during the run, while senior Katie Jones and Dumbaugh each added a hoop to give Northern thieir largest lead of the game.

The Blue Streaks began to chip away and cut the ONU lead to 35-26 with 2:48 left in the half.

But Northern scored the final four points, on baskets by juniors Sara Kocian and Cenzie Yoder to take a 35-26 advantage into the half.

John Carroll would continue to trim the ONU lead and a jumper by Meghan Weber cut the Polar Bear advantage to 43-36.

But the Polar Bears got a huge three pointer on their next possession from senior Katie Mengos to push their lead back to 46-36 with just over 16 minutes left.

John Carroll would continue to battle and cut the Polar Bear lead to 49-43 with 14:06 left.

But Northern came right back with five quick points to push their lead back to 54-43.

ONU then put the game away with an 8-1 run capped off by a three point play from Yoder to push their lead back to 64-48 with 7:38 left.

"Today was another good OAC win," said head coach Michele Durand. "We came out focused and ready to play and were able to take control of the game early."

The Polar Bears shot 29-of-66 (43.9 percent) from the field, while the Blue Streaks were 24-of-61 (39.3 percent).

The Polar Bears dominated the rebounding battle, grabbing 48 compared to 28 for JCU.

Northern also scored 17 second chance points while John Carroll only had seven.

Ohio Northern will return to action on Wednesday night when they visit Baldwin Wallace for a 7:30 game.