John Carroll had the lead and the momentum.

And then halftime arrived.

That turned out to be the table turner, as the host Marietta Pioneers used a 60-point second half to rally for an 88-85 victory in the championship game of the 2011 Ohio Athletic Conference Men's Basketball Tournament Saturday evening in Marietta, Ohio.

Box Score

It was a tale of two halves, the first belonging to the second-seeded visitors, the second to the top-seeded hosts.

John Carroll led from wireto-wire as far as the first 20 minutes were concerned, jumping out to a quick 8-2 lead in the opening three minutes. The Pioneers would stay close until a Conor Sweeney (Eastlake, OH, Cleveland St. Ignatius) three pointer at the 11:07 mark ignited a 32-12 closing burst by the Blue Streaks.

When Maurice Haynes II (Cleveland, OH, Villa Angela-St. Joseph) buried a jumper just before the buzzer, he gave John Carroll a 49-28 lead at the break. The Blue Streaks shot a sizzling 22-36 (.611) from the field in the opening half, made all the more impressive in that they did not attempt a single free throw.

But Marietta could not do the rules of basketball did: stop the Blue Streaks from scoring. The 20-minute break between halves appeared to be transformative.

The two teams took on entirely different personas in the second half, and it was evident almost immediately. The Pioneers, who had been held to 28 points in the first half and attempted just one free throw, scored nine points with the help of five free throws in the first two-and-a-half minutes.

The game began to turn dramatically when Jacob Owens hit a three-point field goal at the 17:08 mark. It set off a furious burst in which the Pioneers would score 13 unanswered points to turn a 56-37 rout into a 56-50 nailbiter -- all in a span of two minutes. When J.J. Martin drained a three at the 15:04 mark, John Carroll's lead was down to six points. 

It never got higher than that the rest of the game.

Marietta made it all the way back and tied the game at the 6:36 mark when Martin tippped in an offensive rebound to knot the game at 69-69, and then Conor Kilpatrick gave the Pioneers their first lead of the night with 5:34 remaining on a short jumper to make the score 71-70.

For the first time in the second half, the Blue Streaks would show a definitive response, Back-to-back Corey Shontz (Andover, OH, Pymatuning Valley) three pointers put JCU back in front by a 76-71 score with 4;47 showing on the clock.

The Blue Streaks still led by six at 82-76 with 3:51 to play following a three-point play by Mark Hester (Ashtabula, OH, Lakeside), but the salt in the wound for John Carroll on this night would be scoring just three points the rest of the way. John Carroll's final six possessions resulted in one made shot, four missed shots, a split pair of free throws and a turnover.

In the meantime, Marietta would tie the score at 82-82 on a Jason Humphrey lay-up, and then, following a Haynes free throw, took an 85-83 lead on a Tyler Worstell three with 49 ticks left.

Hester answered 13 seconds later with a lay-up to tie the score at 85-85, setting up one last Marietta possession.

The dagger would be a Trevor Halter three ball with four seconds left, marking the second time in a week that Marietta made the shot it had to to defeat John Carroll in the closing seconds. 

JCU's last chance to send the game into overtime missed its mark.

Marietta (25-3), which swept the regular season and tournament finals, was led by Halter with 21 points, while Humphrey had 15 and Kevin Knab added 14. In the decisive second half, the Pioneers were 19-30 (.633) from the field, 7-14 (.500) from three-point range and 15-18 (.833) at the free throw line.

John Carroll (19-9) was led by a game-high 24 points from hester and 20 points from Haynes, who wrapped up his career as the lone senior in the OAC Championship game from either roster, Shontz added 14 as the Blue Streaks were not helped by a 6-14 (.429) effort from the charity stripe in the second half.