CLEVELAND, Ohio – The Kenyon Ladies withstood a fourth-quarter rally from John Carroll University on Monday afternoon and escaped with a 70-68 win against the Blue Streaks at DeCarlo Varsity Center. After taking an 11-point lead into the final quarter, Kenyon had to stop JCU's final possession and did just that to improve to 10-5 on the year.
 
Senior Charlotte Bussema led the Ladies with a season-high 14 points on 5-of-6 shooting and a 4-of-5 clip at the charity stripe. She also added eight rebounds.
 
Bailey Dominguez added another 13 and dished out a game-high five assists while Jessica Gerber chipped in with 12 points on 5-of-7 shooting. Rounding out Kenyon's best efforts were Paige Matijasich who tallied 11 points and Griffin Tullis who contributed nine points and nine boards.
 
Things were pretty close in the first until the Ladies got a pair of three-point leads more than midway through the quarter. A Sharon Hull jumper at 4:35 and another bucket from Matijasich at 3:15 put the visitors up 9-6. Following that, JCU's next three makes were all from three-point range and they took a 15-9 lead with 58 ticks left.  Gerber halted the run with a three-pointer of her own leaving Kenyon down 15-12 heading to the second.
 
In the second, John Carroll held its lead until Lane Davis converted an and-one opportunity at the 5:58 mark pushing Kenyon back in front 24-22. The Blue Streaks got the lead one more time, but Gerber hit a jumper with two seconds left to give the Ladies a 32-31 lead at the break.
 
Third-quarter action was dominated by Kenyon as they outscored the home team 23-13. Leading 42-39 after two free throws, the Ladies reeled off a 9-0 run and took a 51-39 advantage with 1:45 left after three-point makes from Matijasich, Gerber and Tullis.
 
Kenyon took a 55-44 lead into the fourth, but that advantage was all but erased by JCU with an 8-0 stretch nearly two minutes into the quarter. A three-ball from Katlyn Spahar brought the score to 55-52 with 8:10 remaining forcing a Kenyon timeout. The Ladies weathered that storm and went back up seven (65-58) after Dominguez hit a layup with 4:26 left before JCU attempted another comeback.
 
The Blue Streaks got to within one point on three different occasions but didn't get over the hump as the Ladies got a crucial layup from Sidney Cera and three free throws from Bussema. JCU had one last opportunity with four seconds left but a missed three-pointer from Spahar came into the hands of Tullis which secured the win for the Ladies.
 
Next up for Kenyon is a date with conference foe Oberlin College on January 11 at 6 p.m. at Tomsich Arena.