Box Score
If the John Carroll men's basketball team could hop into a time machine and turn back the clock, they might want to jump back to the end of January and start anew. That is because February has not been kind to the Blue Streaks.
Following a win over Muskingum on January 30, the Blue Streaks have gone 1-6 in February with the latest loss a hard-fought 86-84 setback to Wilmington on Saturday in Wilmington, Ohio.
John Carroll was close throughout the contest, as the largest lead either team enjoyed was nine points. The Blue Streaks simply could not put together a game-changing run throughout the 40 minutes of play.
In fact, the only Blue Streak lead came early in the game when Maurice Haynes converted a three-point play to make the score 5-4 in JCU's favor with 17:37 showing on the first half clock. Wilmington would then score 11 of the next 14 points to take command.
The Quakers would push the lead to its largest point of the game at 26-17 on a Scott Walters jumper with 8:19 to play in the opening half.
John Carroll would prove a pesky visitor, however, and whittle the deficit down to a mere two points at 36-34 on a pair of TJ DiSanto free throws with 2:13 remaining.
Wilmington would go 6-6 at the free throw line in the final two minutes of the half to take a 42-37 lead into the break.
The Blue Streaks were presistent in the second half, but could not wrest the lead away from the host Quakers. John Carroll tied the game on two occasions in the final 20 minutes, first on a Terry Walsh lay-up with 16:17 on the clock to knot the score at 48-48, and second on a John Curran three-pointer with 5:30 left to play that deadlocked the contest at 69-69.
Following the second tie, Wilmington's Brandon Rogers nailed a three-pointer at the 5:00 mark to jump start a significant 8-0 run. It would be just enough cushion to get the Quakers to the finish line.
John Carroll closed to within three points with 2:01 to play on a Rudy Kirbus three-pointer, and had several chances down the stretch to close further. Wilmington free throw shooting would ultimately damage John Carroll's chances, as Brandon Rogers, Tyler Ledford and Zach Broermann were a perfect 6-6 in taking a 79-76 score and building it into an 85-78 lead with ten seconds to play.
Rogers, who was 9-12 from the field and scored a team-high 23 points, led the way for Wilmington (16-9, 11-7 OAC). Broermann added 15 points and a game-high six assists as the Quakers locked down the #3 seed in the OAC Tournament -- its highest since joining the league in 1999-2000.
John Carroll (11-13, 8-10 OAC0 got a monster game out of Haynes, who was 12-19 from the field in scoring a game- and career-high 31 points. Walsh added a double-double of 14 points and ren rebounds. DiSanto (12) and Kirbus (10) also scored in double figures as JCU fell despite shooting 50 percent from the field (29-58) for the game and outrebounding the Quakers, 38-28.
