box score

Rudy Kirbus scored 12 of his 16 points in the second half as John Carroll pulled away late for a 74-61 victory over Wilmington College Saturday afternoon in an Ohio Athletic Conference match-up held at theDeCarlo varsity Center.

The victory extended John Carroll's winning streak to a season-long three games.

The score was tied at 55-55 with just over five minutes to play when senior John Curran sparked a Blue Streaks rally by making his only three-point field goal of the game with 5:02 to play. Including that basket, JCU would close the game on a 19-6 run.

Wilmington began the game with a similar run, as the visitors jumped out to an early 15-6 lead at the 13:13 mark of the first half. Brandon Rogers scored six of Wilmington's first 11 points before picking up his second foul.

For the next 10 minutes of the game, it would be all Blue Streaks. John Carroll went on a 20-0 run, starting with a Derek Smith lay-up at 13:07 and ending with a Donte Ledwell jumper at the 4:15 mark, making the score 26-15.

Desmond Motley was the catalyst of the drive, scoring eight of his 10 points during the scoring drive. He finished the first half 4-4 from the field and his eight points were good enough to lead the team at the break.

Wilmington, in the meantime, would miss 22 consecutive field goal attempts before Rogers scored off an inbounds play as the shot clock expired with 2:33 remaining in the half. The Quakers would score eight of the final ten points of the half, however, which was good enough to pull within five points at 28-23.

The second half began very much like the first ended. Wilmington built upon the momentum they went into the intermission by scoring the first five points to the score at 28.

JCU would briefly give up the lead when Rogers buried a three-pointer to kmake the score 33-32 in Wilmington's favoir with 16:54 showing on the second half clock, but kirbus answered with a jumper on the next possession.

John Carroll would run out to seven point leads on four different occasions during the middle portion of the second half, but each time the Quakers would reel the Blue Streaks back in. After Kirbus would give the home team a 55-48 lead with 7:12 to play, the Quakers responded with seven consecutive points, capped bya  Kerry Wilkinson three ball that knotted the score at 55-55 with 5:28 left in the contest.

The Quakers, however, could not match John Carroll's final run. Fred Harrison's jumper at the 1:22 mark was the only Wilmington field goal of the final five minutes.

John Carroll (8-6, 5-3 OAC) was paced by 16 points from Kirbus, 11 points and ten rebounds from Smith, and 10 points from Motley. As a team, the Blue Streaks were 27-53 (.509) from the field, including 17-27 9.630) in the second half.

Wilmington (10-6, 5-4 OAC) was led by a game-high 18 points from Rogers. Harrison was the only other player in double figures with 12. The Quakers rebounded from a bad first half (9-32, .281) by making 14-27 (.519) in the second half, but had a tough game overaqll on the boards, losing in that count by a 46-27 margin.