Box Score

After a dramatic road win against Marietta on Saturday, the John Carroll men's basketball team not only earned the No.1 seed in the conference tournament, but also home-court advantage.

But despite one of the best senior classes in school history, the Blue Streaks couldn't make their top seed and home court work for them.

Hosting Wilmington in the semifinals on Thursday, JCU was outmatched by the Quakers and lost, 79-74, to end the season.

“A lot of times, we were frustrated because the referees weren't making calls and that led to bonehead plays and things that shouldn't have happened,” said senior Corey Shontz, who finished with nine points. “When fatigue set in, that fatigue and frustration was just a cancer for our team.”

With the loss, the Blue Streaks finish the season with an overall record of 18-7, including a 13-6 mark in the OAC. Wilmington (15-12, 11-8 OAC) will next face Capital on Saturday on the road in the OAC Finals.

There is a slim chance that John Carroll could still be considered for an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament, but to a man, the Blue Streaks acknowledged the odds are long.

The last time JCU and Wilmington met, the Blue Streaks were fortunate to come away with an 84-82 overtime victory after trailing by as many as 14 in the second half.

Unfortunately for JCU, they found themselves trailing by as many as 14 once again against Wilmington, this time in the first half.

The Quakers came out on fire, sinking 18 of their 28 shots from the field en route to shooting 64 percent in the first half and taking a 43-35 lead into halftime.

Quakers sophomore Malcolm Heard made eight of his 10 shots in the first half, including 4-of-5 from 3-point territory, to lead Wilmington with 20 first half points. He finished with a game-high 34 points.

For John Carroll, senior Patrick Sweeney led the Blue Streaks with eight points in the first half.. JCU also was outrebounded 18-10 in the first half to add on to their problems.

In the second half, the Blue Streaks came out with a renewed sense of urgency and went on a 19-12 run to cut the Quakers' lead to just three, 57-54, with 10:59 remaining.

Senior Kyle Hubbard then made a layup to cut the deficit to one.

Wilmington missed on their end and senior Joey Meyer, the hero in Saturday's victory over Marietta, was fouled and drained a pair of free throws to give the Blue Streaks their first lead, 58-57, since early in the first half with just under 10 minutes in the ballgame.

Less than a minute later, Meyer, with some help from the backboard, made another 3-pointer to make the score 61-60 in favor of JCU. 

With 5:57 remaining, both teams were knotted at 69. They tied once again, this time at 71, with 4:24 remaining in this semifinals match-up.

Coming out of a timeout with just over four minutes remaining, both sides recognized how crucial the next few minutes would be.

The Blue Streaks then missed their next four shots and turned the ball over twice.

Then, with about a minute left, Wilmington senior Antonio Bowman drove and scored a layup to give the Quakers a 73-71 lead.

John Carroll missed their next three shots and Wilmington went on a 5-0 run to hold a 78-71 lead with 12 second left.

Shontz hit a 3-pointer with 7 seconds left but it was too late. One more free throw by the Quakers sealed the victory, 79-74.

“We could never really gain any momentum,” said JCU head coach Mike Moran. “That's a good team, though...They make you work and any time they pressured us, they got some easy baskets.”

But the Blue Streaks can still look back on this season and feel accomplished.

This particular senior class will graduate as the most successful class, in terms of wins [83-28 overall], to ever come through JCU.

 “It feels absolutely unbelievable,” Shontz said. “I couldn't play with anybody other than these seniors.”

Senior Mark Hester, who finished the game with 10 points on 4-6 shooting, had similar sentiments.

 “It's an honor playing with those guys,” he said. “I couldn't ask for a better group of guys to play with day in and day out.”

Despite the earlier-than-expected loss, the Blue Streaks still have plenty to be proud about when reflecting upon this past season.

“These kids won the OAC Championship during the regular season,” Moran said. “That's a tremendous accomplishment. That takes you over three months of time to do something like that. I don't want to have [tonight] overshadow all of that success.”