The Wilmington College women's basketball team hosts league-leading John Carroll 3 p.m. Saturday in what will be the last regular season home game for seniors Haley Howard, Makenzie Wippel, Bethany Ahrens and Jada Brown.
"The one thing you can say about all of them is that is hasn't been easy for any of them," said Wilmington head coach Jerry Scheve. "They have fought through a lot of setbacks in their time here, but they have all stuck through. They have all improved and all are having good senior seasons."
In order to pull out the victory, the Wilmington will have to slow down a team leading the league in scoring and looking to secure the top seed in the upcoming Ohio Athletic Conference tournament.
The 19th ranked Blue Streaks are coming off a home loss to Baldwin Wallace that put the two teams in a tie for first place with three games remaining. However, they will need to finish a game ahead of BW due to the Yellow Jackets sweeping the season series.
Led by the second leading scorer in the country, Missy Spahar, John Carroll will be eager to ensure they don't fall further behind the Yellow Jackets.
"They are a very veteran, athletic, skilled basketball team," said Scheve. "Their kids are in tremendous conditions. The best player can play 40 minutes without getting tired. They have a great floor leader in Lustig, and a kid leading the country in scoring with weapons to go with them."
Spahar, who has been the team's leading scorer in 17 of the team's 20 games, is averaging 25.9 points game and is second in the OAC with 9.4 rebounds. She has eclipsed the 20-point plateau 16 times this season, and scored more than 30 points on five occasions. Spahar finished with 14 points and 10 rebounds in 36 minutes of action in the first meeting.
"She shoots the ball well, and she is physically strong," said Scheve. "She is hard for us to handle inside, and she has an array of moves both outside and inside. You need to give a lot of help on her, and that allows the other players space to make plays."
Missy Spahar is the only player averaging double figures as younger sister, Katlyn Spahar comes off the bench with 13.5 points. Junior Beth Switzler is the third member of the double-figure trio with 11.5 points per game, and she is second with 7.6 rebounds.
Limiting John Carroll, who leads the league in scoring with 80.1 points per game, from streaking down the court in transition will be the key.
They run the floor extremely well, and we didn't do a very good job up there of slowing them down," said Scheve. "It's a matter of understanding how important it is to get back in transition, and understanding how to match up when we do."