John Carroll men's basketball is moving on.

In a back-and-forth fight, the Blue Streaks landed the last punch, beating the Purple Raiders, 93-74, in the Ohio Athletic Conference semifinal in University Heights, Ohio.

JCU's win in front of a standing room crowd at the DeCarlo Center propels them to the OAC Championship in Marietta on Saturday night.

Mount Union's Miles Griffin and John Carroll's Will Starks entered a shootout to open up the contest. Starks would answer both of the Purple Raiders opening scores with two deep three point scores. Mount Union had the upper hand in the first part of the shootout by opening up an 11-6 lead at the 16:04 mark of the first half.

Starks accounted for nine of John Carroll's opening 10 points. "We are all playing confident." Starks would simply say with a grin on his face when asked about his and the team's offensive performance in a tough conference battle.

The Blue Streaks would use their defense to set up their first comeback. Mount Union's DeAllen Jackson drove the lane expecting an easy layup, but guard David Linane came from behind to block his shot. Linane would then lead the charge in the transition offense, hitting a shot from the elbow to bring the Blue Streaks back within one.

On the next offensive possession, forward John Cirillo drove the lane after a convincing head fake to give the Blue Streaks a 16-15 lead with 13:51 to go in the first half.

At the halfway point of the first frame, John Carroll trailed, 21-20.

After a Mount Union missed shot, Linane would force a foul following his drive inside on the Purple Raider defense.

On the next possession, Linane would force another Purple Raider turnover, and threw it ahead to forward Simon Kucharewicz who would have a monster slam dunk, bringing the crowd to their feet.

Foul shots played a major role for both teams. Mount Union was 10-of-14 from the line while the Blue Streaks were 14-of-19 in the first half.

Turnovers also began to play an issue for both teams. John Carroll had nine turnovers to the Mount Union eight in the opening frame.

On an inbound play for the Blue Streaks, forward Doug Caputo would drive inside to the lay up and the foul. After making the three point play from the foul line, the Blue Streaks enjoyed its biggest lead of the half with a 32-26 advantage.

The final four minutes of the half had both teams trading turnovers, not scores. Kucharewicz would end the lull in the gym with a monster block on a Cody Dillon attempted layup. Led by the student section, the DeCarlo Center was a raucous environment to close out the half.

Heading into the break, John Carroll trailed Mount Union 44-43. Kucharewicz had eight points, Starks had eight and Cirillo was the leader with 10. Kucharewicz also managed to grab six rebounds.

On the opening Mount Union possession, Linane forced a steal and an easy score to give the Blue Streaks the lead. The easy bucket to open the half would contribute to a 9-2 John Carroll run that forced Mount Union into a time out.

Guard Antonio Vuyancih would continue to pour it on for the Blue Streaks. After hitting a deep three point shot over the outstretched hands of the Mount Union defender, John Carroll enjoyed a 60-50 lead. Mount Union had to call their second time out of the half less than five minutes into the second frame.

Foul trouble still was a lagging issue for the Blue Streaks as they had seven team fouls by the 13:11 mark of the half. Both teams combined for 47 fouls and 55 foul shots on the evening.

At the halfway-point of the second half, John Carroll led 70-63. Forward Brian Papich made an acrobatic save on the ball before it fell out of bounds. Caputo would gather the ball and go one-of-two from the line after being fouled.

Linane would continue to push for the Blue Streaks, hitting a deep three point shot over the outstretched arm of Jacubec. The long distance trey pushed the Blue Streaks to a 74-65 advantage with just under nine minutes to play.

The dagger would come from Kucharewicz when he slammed home a two-hand flush to push the John Carroll lead to 91-74 with 2:30 to play in regulation.

The Blue and Gold would close out the victory and move onto the Ohio Athletic Championship with a 93-74 victory over Mount Union.

Now the Blue Streaks move onto the next round in a meeting with Marietta College in the OAC Championship game.

"It's a dream come true." Linane said, noting this was the culmination of the team's preseason goal. Starks looked ahead, saying, "We are putting in extra work this week to achieve our goal."