For everything that went wrong Tuesday night, John Carroll still had one last shot at forcing a tie against Otterbein because something went right.

The play that almost never seems to work, the intentionally missed free throw, actually worked. But Jimmy Berger's game-tying attempt at the buzzer failed to hit its target and the Blue Streaks suffered an 81-79 loss at the DeCarlo Varsity Center.

JCU trailed 75-64 with 6:32 to play but the Blue Streaks were able to whittle the Cardinals lead down to three points with 2:07 left when Jackson Sartain completed a traditional three-point play to make the score 79-76.

Sartain then cut the lead to two points at 81-79 when he made two free throws at the 1:14 mark.

Neither team would score again. Both teams suffered turnovers on consecutive possessions, and then Otterbein's Nick Koontz missed a short range shot with 14 seconds left that gave John Carroll one last opportunity. Berger drove the lane but had his shot blocked out of bounds. He attempted another drive with 2.6 seconds left and was fouled. He missed the front end of two shots which prompted a time out call for John Carroll.

Coming out of the time out, Berger intentionally missed the free throw with a line drive off the front rim, and the carom perfectly bounced back to Berger, whose jumper was short as the buzzer sounded.

Otterbein, which entered the game winless in Ohio Athletic Conference competition, held on to the win despite not making a field goal in the final 5:17 of the contest.

The first half was back-and-forth, with neither team leading by more than six points. The game was tied at 40 with 2:16 to play in the half but tge Cardinals scored four of the final six points to take a 44-42 lead into the locker room.

John Carroll burst out early in the second half and at one juncture led 57-52 at the 14:21 mark, but Otterbein quickly turned the tables and went on a 23-7 run over the next eight minutes.  

The Blue Streaks (5-4, 2-3 OAC) were led by Sartain, who had 17 points, and Berger, who tallied a double-double with 14 points and a game-high 11 rebounds. Ben Merril added 11 while Sean Flannery and Connor Fitzgerald each chipped in ten. As a team, JCU was 7-21 (.333) from three-point range in the first half but just 1-13 (.070) in the second half.

Otterbein (3-7, 1-4 OAC) got a game-high 19 points from Jay Joseph and 16 from Maurice Beavers to snap an 11-game losing streak against John Carroll. The Cardinals scored 16 points off fast break opportunities, including 14 in the first half.

This was just Otterbein's eight win at the DeCarlo Varsity Center since 1987.