UNIVERSITY HEIGHTS, Ohio — John Carroll University escaped with a 57-56 win over visiting Marietta College Saturday (Feb. 13) afternoon in Ohio Athletic Conference women's basketball action. The Pioneers fall to 11-12 overall and 5-11 in the OAC, while John Carroll improves to 12-11 overall and 7-9 in the OAC.
Amisha Herd (Zanesville, Ohio/West Muskingum) notched a double-double with 11 points and a game-high 12 rebounds. She also had six assists and six steals in the game.
Morgan Liedtke (Lowell, Ohio/Fort Frye) finished with 11 points, while
Corrie Burkhardt (Zanesville, Ohio/Philo) had 10 points and eight rebounds.
JCU's Katlyn Spahar led all scorers with 20 points. Chelby Graham chipped in with 10 points and a team-high seven boards.
In a game that featured seven ties and nine lead changes, neither team was able to take control. Marietta's biggest lead of the day was seven points, while the Blue Streaks biggest advantage was just five points.
The Pioneers led 11-9 after the first quarter and 26-23 at halftime. John Carroll cut the deficit to one, 39-38, at the end of the third and than took advantage of some missed free throws by Marietta to eke out the one-point victory.
Jo Herd-Middlebrooks (Columbus, Ohio/DeSales) hit two free throws with 57 seconds left in the game to give the Pioneers a 53-52 lead. John Carroll grabbed the lead right back with a layup from Graham five seconds later.
After the Pioneers missed a pair of free throws, Spahar pushed the margin to three, 56-53, with two from the charity stripe with 20 seconds left on the clock. Marietta committed a foul on the next possession and Katie Battaglia made one of two at the line for JCU making it a four-point game, 57-53.
Herd nailed a three-pointer with five seconds left to cut the margin to one, 57-56. But, time expired before the Pioneers could get the ball back.
For the game, Marietta shot 32.8% (20-of-61) from the floor, 30.8% (8-of-26) from three-point range and 53.3% (8-of-15) at the free throw line. The Blue Streaks were 20-of-57 (35.1%) from the floor, 2-of-12 (16.7%) from three-point range and 15-of-22 (68.2%) at the line.
The Pioneers outrebounded John Carroll, 45-40. The Pioneers turned the ball over 20 times, while JCU committed 17 turnovers.
Marietta returns home to host Otterbein University on Wednesday (Feb. 17) for a 7:30 p.m. tip off. Fans can follow all the Pioneer teams all year long at
pioneers.marietta.edu. You can also follow the Pioneers on Facebook at
facebook.com/MariettaCollege and @MariettaPioneer on Twitter and Instagram.
