There are tough losses, and then there is Saturday afternoon's loss.

With the emotions of Senior Day reverberating around Fred Raizk Arena at Hermann Court, and the Wilmington College women's basketball team playing very well, a defensive switch seemingly changed all of the momentum.

John Carroll, ranked 19th nationally, fought back from 22 points down in the second half and escaped with the 85-84 victory on a Katlyn Spahar spinning layup with 3.3 seconds remaining in Ohio Athletic Conference action.

"I was really proud of the effort our players gave today," said Wilmington head coach Jerry Scheve. "I was proud of the way we performed the entire first half, proud of how we started the second half and proud of how we finished the game. It was a 7, 8, 9-minute period in the second half where we started wondering whether we should be where we were. We let John Carroll take control of the game, and it wasn't until they took the lead where we figured out the things we were doing earlier in the game were the things we had to continue to do. We came out and played a great last four, five minutes. We couldn't get stops at the end, and the reason we couldn't get stops were they had great shooters that made tough shots. I don't think we let them get easy shots, but they made everything they took, and we turned the ball over too much in the middle of the second half to continue to keep the lead. I thought we had a couple bad breaks at the end, and that was the game. Give a lot of credit to John Carroll, they showed what they are all about and they definitely deserved the win."

Spahar's basket was set up by a turnover with 12 seconds remaining in the game. John Carroll, trailing by one, called a timeout and elected not to extend the game using fouls, and were able to benefit when the ball left the playing surface and was given to the Blue Streaks.

It was a crushing blow because even after having seen its 22-point lead evaporate, junior Courtney Tucker nailed a three-pointer from the corner to give Wilmington a one-point lead with 26 seconds remaining. She finished with a career-high 15 points on 8-of-10 shooting with five rebounds  –  four offensive – and a career-high five steals.

"Without a doubt, that was Courtney Tucker's best game of her career," said Scheve. "On the offensively end, she was very good. Defense is her specialty, and I think it might have been her best defensive game as well. She was all over the place in reading what John Carroll was doing and was trying to do, and caused a lot of problems for them on the defensive end. She played a great game."

Wilmington closed the first half on a 15-1 run to take a 17-point lead into the locker rooms. It was WC's ability to drive to the basket and get out in transition that really opened up the game. The second half opened with much of the same with the Fightin' Quakers getting easy shots and offensive rebounds.

And then the Blue Streaks made a switch.

"It was zone we haven't seen this year," said Scheve. "It was a zone that no one had used this year. We didn't make the adjustments to get easy shots against it like we should have. Part of that was we were short on timeouts at that point. Once we got adjusted to it, we were fine, and then they went back to man."

The switch to a zone coincided with senior Haley Howard (Uhrichsville, OH/New Philadelphia) heading to the bench. Wilmington at the point was plus-23 with the senior point guard on the court and minus-3 with her. Howard finished with 18 points, six rebounds and five assists for WC.

By the time she returned to the court, the WC lead had been cut in half to 10 points. Wilmington was able to slow down the JCU run, but the damage had been down. The Blue Streaks had a belief they could steal the victory, and they continued to apply pressure on both ends of the court.

"Haley was outstanding as well," said Scheve. "She seemed to have the energy to finish some tougher shots she hasn't been finishing the last few games."

Ultimately, it came down to John Carroll shooting 67.9 percent (19-of-28) from the field and outshooting WC, 16-4, at the free throw line in the second half.

Freshman Brittaney Jefferson (Dayton, OH/Chaminade Julienne) added 15 points, four rebounds two assists and two steals, while senior Makenzie Wippel (Orient, OH/Westfall) and sophomore Kirsten Glick (Arcadia, OH/Arcadia) added 10 points each.

Brittaney was outstanding as well on both ends of the floor," said Scheve. "She has some problems with our team defense, but she really bought in today on how we want things done."

Wilmington (12-11 overall, 9-7 overall), which is locked into the fifth seed of the OAC tournament, ends the season with back-to-back road games, starting at Ohio Northern 7:30 p.m. Wednesday.

"The season is not over," Scheve added. "Like I told them, they proved to themselves that they could play with championship teams. They are going to have more chances to prove it. This isn't a moral victory, but I think it's something we should walk away with confidence and belief in ourselves. If we can, and if we can use this as a stepping stone, I think we can get some things accomplished for the rest of the year."