The Capital University women's basketball team won its fourth game in a row after defeating John Carroll 60-52 on Saturday at the Decarlo Varsity Center. The Crusaders didn't lose their grasp of the lead after the 13:30 minute mark of the first half. 

The Crusaders' victory over the Blue Streaks (6-10, 3-7 OAC) was the team's seventh win in its past eight games. 

Shelena Hawkins (at right) led Capital (12-5, 7-3) in scoring with 16 points while contributing five rebounds. Capital's Hillary Kuhns scored 14 points while leading her team with nine rebounds. The Crusaders shot 37 percent from the field and had a 43 three-point percentage.

Saturday afternoon's contest had a much closer margin of victory than the previous matchup between the two teams, when the Crusaders defeated the Blue Streaks 71-39 at the Capital Center on Dec. 3. 

"The difference this time is that I didn't think we were as focused as we needed to be for a road contest," Capital head coach Dixie Jeffers said. "We played just good enough to win today."

It took a few minutes for the Crusaders to score their first basket as Rebekah Will's layup put the team's first points on the scoreboard at the 16:30 minute mark. After two lead changes, Capital held the lead for the rest of the Ohio Athletic Conference matchup following the 13:30-minute mark of the first half. 

The Crusaders closed out the first period on a 7-3 run as they led the Blue Streaks 33-24. Hawkins led Capital with eight points at the end of the first half while shooting a perfect 4-of-4 from the field. 

The break in the action didn't slow the Crusaders down, as they did not let the lead slip away in the second half. At one point it seemed that the Blue Steaks would finally have a chance to overcome Capital's lead at the seven-minute mark when they were within three points, trailing 48-45. But the Crusaders were able to deter any hopes of a Blue Streak victory as they followed John Carroll's Missy Spahar's jump shot with a 10-0 scoring run, capped by Cookie Geroski's free throw. 

After three successful free throws by Kuhns, the Crusaders were able to close out the game with a key league victory. 

Jeffers couldn't define one specific key that stood out that attributed to Saturday's victory, but noted she was happy to take any road win in the OAC.

"Our defense at times in the second half played the way it was capable of playing," Jeffers said. "The key was we hit the baskets when we needed to hit a basket and we stopped them from scoring when we needed to stop them down the stretch."

The Crusaders' next game will be at the Capital Center versus Wilmington (10-7, 5-5 OAC) on Wednesday, Jan. 25, at 7:30 p.m. Wilmington hosted the first matchup between the two teams on Nov. 30 and defeated Capital 49-30.