Blue Streaks advance to OAC title game

Nagy, Heffington set pace for John Carroll

Junior guard Nicole Heffington and the John Carroll University Blue Streaks have a return engagement in the Ohio Athletic Conference women’s tournament title game.

They’ll be defending the OAC tourney title they won last year thanks to a 64-49 victory over Ohio Northern on Feb. 27 in a semifinal contest at DeCarlo Varsity Center.

Heffington tallied 11 of her 13 points in the second half as the No. 2 seed Blue Streaks weathered a rally by ONU in the third quarter to pull away impressively down the stretch.

“We cleaned up our mistakes, regained the momentum and didn’t let up,” Heffington

said.

Leading by 13 points early in the fourth quarter, the Blue Streaks watched as the Polar Bears went on a 10-0 tear to make it 47-44 with eight minutes remaining.

That’s when Heffington went to work. The former Mentor High School standout cashed in a 3-pointer and a driving layup in the space of 50 seconds to give JCU more breathing room at 52-44.

“We’ve been in that situation before this season,” Heffington said. “Runs are coming. We collected ourselves and fought back.”

JCU coach Kelly Morrone credited Heffington’s allaround play in the second half for tipping the scales in her team’s favor.

“Nicole did everything. She

took over and refused to lose,” Morrone said.

Improving to 23-4, JCU advances to the title game against crosstown rival and No. 1 seed Baldwin Wallace on Feb. 29 at Ursprung Gymnasium. Tipoff is 3 p.m.

BW (25-2) routed No. 4 Marietta, 72-41, in the other semifinal.

The Blue Streaks also got strong performances from sophomore center Olivia Nagy (17 points, 13 rebounds, five blocked shots, five steals) and junior guard Gabrielle Gevaudan (11 points).

Nagy had 13 points in the first half as JCU built a 27-21 lead at the break. Gevaudan made a layup and 3-pointer later in the fourth quarter to extend JCU’s lead to 57-44.

“It’s my job to come off the bench and bring energy to the game,” Gevaudan said.

Junior guard Abby Adler added eight points, six rebounds, four assists and three steals.

Brynn Serbin had 15 points to pace ONU (207).

JCU and BW split their regular-season meetings, each team winning hardfought games on its home floor.

“It will be 40 minutes of championship basketball, and maybe more,” Morrone said, smiling.

DAVID S. GLASIER — THE NEWS-HERALD John Carroll’s Nicole Heffington scores against Ohio Northern on Feb. 27 in the OAC women’s tournament semifinals at DeCarlo Varsity Center.