The Ohio Northern women's basketball team had John Carroll stumped ahead of Thursday's Ohio Athletic Conference semifinal matchup. The No. 3-seeded Polar Bears had toppled the No. 2-seeded, and nationally-ranked, Blue Streaks in both regular-season meetings of the 2019-20 season.
Northern, however, couldn't muster up the magic for a third time. ONU fell to John Carroll 64-49 inside the Tony DeCarlo Varsity Center.
The loss gives the Polar Bears a 20-7 overall record, which includes a 13-6 mark in OAC play. If ONU's season comes to a close, it'll be the eighth time in the last nine seasons that Northern reached the 20-win mark.
The win improved the Blue Streaks to 23-4 overall and 16-3 in conference action. John Carroll will travel to Baldwin Wallace Saturday for the OAC Championship game.
Northern connected on 33.3 percent (19 of 57) of its field-goal attempts and 38.5 percent of its 3-pointers. The Blue Streaks made 42.9 percent (21 of 49) of its shots from the floor and 58.3 percent of its attempts from beyond the 3-point arc.
John Carroll won the rebounding battle 40-31, which equated to a 26-12 edge in second-chance points.
Freshman Brynn Serbin (Pittsburgh, Pa./North Allegheny) paced the Polar Bears, pouring in a career-high 15 points, which included five 3-pointers. Senior Jaclyn Yankle (Youngstown/Cardinal Mooney) added 12 points, while fellow senior Abby Weeks (West Chester/Mount Notre Dame) and junior Sydney Ward (Columbus/Upper Arlington) chipped in eight points apiece.
Olivia Nagy led John Carroll with 17 points, while Nicole Heffington and Gabrielle Gevaudan tallied 13 and 11 points, respectively.
The Polar Bears didn't go down haplessly Thursday evening. After staking the Blue Streaks to an 11-3 advantage, Northern closed the first quarter on a 12-2 run to gain a 15-13 edge. Serbin fueled the run with six points off the bench.
Ward gave ONU it largest lead of six, 19-13, on a jumper with 8:43 to play in the opening half. John Carroll utilized a 12-0 run to regain the upper hand prior to settling for a 27-21 halftime lead.
Yankle made back-to-back 3-pointers, and the second one vaulted the Polar Bears ahead 29-27 with 6:27 to play in the third stanza. John Carroll went on a 14-0 run en route to a 47-38 lead ahead of the game's final quarter.
Serbin and Yankle connected on consecutive treys to pull the Polar Bears within three at 47-44, but that's as close as they drew.
