There were times during John Carroll's first half of play in its opening round NCAA Tournament matchup with Saint Vincent College Friday night that things were not going well. Struggles at the free throw line and turnovers were the chief culprits.

But teams that prepare well for tournament tests tend to figure things out, and John Carroll had all the answers in the second half en route to a 99-85 victory over a stout Bearcats team. 

Six Blue Streaks in double figures paced the offense which set a program record for most points in an NCAA Tournament game, surpassing the 96 points John Carroll scored in winning the national third place game against Amherst in 2004.

The Bearcats were looking to spoil the party early on, going up by eight points at the 11:56 mark of the first half. A three-point field goal by 2016 Presidents' Athletic Conference Player of the Year Jaylon Bell made the score 21-13.

The Blue Streaks would go on a 11-2 run to take the lead back on a David Linane three ball, and that set off a chain of events that saw the lead change hands five times over the eight-and-a-half minutes of the opening period. Saint Vincent would take a slim 45-44 lead into the intermission.

A lay-up by Doug Caputo to open the second half gave John Carroll a 46-45 lead, and the Blue Streaks would never trail again, although they rarely had much breathing room for a majority of the second half. 

John Carroll would start the closing stanza on a 13-3 run in which the Blue Streaks defense did not yield a single field goal. That stretch was finally snapped when JC Howard hit a mid range jumper at the 13:59 mark to cut the John Carroll lead to 57-50.

The Blue Streaks advantage would bounce between five and eleven points for the next six minutes. When Ryan Farragher hit a jumper at the 7:44 mark to give John Carroll its largest lead at 76-64, that would would be the breaking point as Saint Vincent could not get closer than ten points the rest of the way.

Simon Kucharewicz went 9-10 from the field for a team-high 19 points as John Carroll improved to 26-3 on the season. Joining Kucharwicz in double figures was Linane with 17, Danny Wallack with 13, Caputo with 11 and both John Cirillo and Antonio Vuyancih with ten.

Wallack surpassed 1,000 career points with his efforts tonight.

Saint Vincent, which ended its season at 22-7, was paced by a game-high 23 points from Pat Jones. Howard added 15, Ben Klimchock added 14 and Bell tallied ten.

John Carroll will host Alma in a second round match up tomorrow night (Saturday, March 5), at 7:00 p.m. at the DeCarlo Varsity Center