Consistency is a big key to the success of any team. The wrong kind of consistency can be a problem, though, and that’s what got the John Carroll women’s basketball team into trouble in a 68-60 loss to visiting Baldwin Wallace on Jan. 22. The visiting Yellow Jackets outscored the Blue Streaks, 23-12, in the third quarter. Couple with that the frigid start in the fourth quarter when the home team didn’t score for the first four minutes and it spelled doom. “Unfortunately our Achilles’ Heel this year has been the second half,” JCU coach Beth Andrews said. “In my opinion, BW is an outstanding second-half team. They are very consistent in what they do.” BW improves to 15-1 this season with a spotless 9-0 mark in the Ohio Athletic Conference, while John Carroll falls to 13-3 (7-2). John Carroll looked as if it was primed for the upset win when it headed to the locker room at halftime trailing only 27-25. The pace favored the home team, the defensive effort was there and all was looking good. Until the second half started. BW started the third quarter with a 10-3 run, the only John Carroll reprieve being an and-on from Graci Semptimphelter. Later in the quarter, a 6-0 run by BW, fueled by a give-and-go to Ava Wilkerson and a Caely Ressler putback, opened a 48-33 lead. Even though JCU stemmed the tide briefly, it was a 50-37 game going into the fourth. “I think we kind of let them go on a little run and we struggled to fight back,” said JCU’s Ava Ryncarz, who had a game-high 16 points. “Shots were falling. We were trying to figure it out. That’s something we need to address as a team.” Fortunately for John Carroll, the defense was tight in the fourth. BW scored only two points in the first four minutes of the fourth quarter. But JCU struggled on offense, too, and didn’t score until Katie Puletti split two free throws with 5:56 left to make it a 52-38 game. From then on, John Carroll found its footing offensively. Despite not scoring any points for the first four minutes of the fourth quarter, the Blue Streaks still scored 23 points in the final frame. When Carmen Heuker hit a 3, got a steal drained a mid-range jumper, it was a 64-56 game with 53.6 seconds to go. But that’s as close as it got. “When our defense isn’t working, it’s hard for us to get offensive looks,” Andrews said. “We’re wondering why it isn’t working and then we start overthinking on offense. We scored 23 in the fourth because we weren’t thinking about it anymore.” BW was led by Ressler’s 15, followed by Emily Irwin, Maddie Ebbert and Ava Wilkerson with 10 each. The Yellow Jackets shot a scorching 15-for-22 in the second half. Aside from Ryncarz’s 16, Semptimphelter had 13 and Carly Perusek had 10. “At the end of the day, it’s about us not taking care of the ball and not taking care of what we need to take care of,” said Perusek, who had a team-high five rebounds. The teams will meet again Feb. 12 at Baldwin-Wallace. “The frustrating (part) and the good (part) is the same feeling,” Andrews said. “We know what we’re capable of. We know we can hang with and beat really, really good teams, but we waited a little too long.” The score Baldwin Wallace 68, John Carroll 60