Box Score

On a night when John Carroll's offense was not hitting on all cylinders, tenacity would win out as top-seeded John Carroll scrapped its way to a 78-68 victory over eighth-seeded Heidelberg University in an Ohio Athletic Conference Tournament quarterfinal round match-up held Wednesday night at the DeCarlo Varsity Center.

By virtue of its win, John Carroll secured the right to host the OAC tournament semifinals and final on Friday and Saturday, February 27 and 28. Ohio Northern and Capital will play the first semifinal at 6:00 p.m. on Friday, with John Carroll taking on Muskingum in the second contest at 8:00 p.m. The winners of the two semifinals will play in Saturday's championship which starts at 7:30 p.m.

In the opening half, Heidelberg had the hot hand early on. A pair of three pointers by Jake Hessey spurred the Student Princes in building a 12-7 lead by the time the period reached the 15:43 mark.

The Blue Streaks would quickly turn the tables with a 9-2 run to take a 16-14 lead on a Matt Crozier (Philadelphia, PA, LaSalle College) three-point play with 13:18 showing on the first half clock. 

JCU would increase the lead to 23-16 on a Joe Meyer (Mentor, OH, Mentor) three-point field goal, but an undaunted Heidelberg squad would then rattle off eight straight points to take the lead back, 24-23, with 7:16 remaining.

Again, the Blue Streaks would have an answer, scoring 14 of the next 20 points of the contest to take a 37-30 lead with just under two minutes. Heidelberg scored the final points of the half, however, on a Jim Smalley lay-up and the score would stand 37-32 in favor of John Carroll heading into the intermission.

Both teams would start off cold in the second half, with the only points of the first two minutes turned in by Heidelberg's John Miller.

John Carroll began to heat up, starting with a Corey Shontz (Andover, OH, Pymatuning Valley) three-point field goal at the 17:30 mark. by the time Shontz made his third trey of the game with 15:04 on the clock, the Blue Streaks held a 47-34 lead.

The Student Princes refused to give in, and would break off a 17-6 run. When Quintin Aden dropped in a bucket with 8:04 to play in regulation, he sliced John Carroll's lead down to two at 53-51.

Michael Hartnett (North Royalton, OH, Lakewood St. Edward) started to swing momentum back in John Carroll's favor with a jumper just seven seconds after Aden's basket. That jump started what proved to be a decisive 12-2 JCU run -- keyed by six points from Maurice Haynes II (Cleveland, OH, Villa Angela-St. Joseph)-- that put the Blue Streaks back ahead by double digits at 65-53.

JCU would keep Heidelberg at bay the remainder of the contest, never letting the dificit drop below eight points.

John Carroll (21-4), which won its school record 17th consecutive game, was led by 16 points from Crozier and 15 from Zajac. Crozier was 5-7 from the field and 6-7 from the free throw line, while Zajac was 5-6 from the field and 4-4 from the line.

Haynes also reached double figures with 11 points, as the Blue Streaks shot 25-60 (.417) from the field but balanced that with a 23-30 (.767) from the free throw line.

Heidelberg (8-18), which had its season come to an end tonight, was paced by 17 points from Jake Hessey. In his final collegiate game, Hessey was 5-11 from three point range.

Jim Smalley and Miller each added ten for the Student Princes.