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John Carroll University Athletics

home of the Blue Streaks
Hugh Brown
Megan Miller
85
Winner John Carroll JCU 3-3,3-3 OAC
78
Otterbein OTT 2-5,2-5 OAC
Winner
John Carroll JCU
3-3,3-3 OAC
85
Final
78
Otterbein OTT
2-5,2-5 OAC
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 OT 1 F
John Carroll JCU 35 38 12 85
Otterbein OTT 39 34 5 78

Game Recap: Men's Basketball | | Luke Potosky, Staff Writer

Blue Streaks Need Overtime to Grind Out Win over Otterbein

WESTERVILLE, Ohio -- Coming off of consecutive games scoring 100+ points, John Carroll University Men's Basketball looked to keep the trend going when they traveled to Otterbein. 

However, as is common in Ohio Athletic Conference play, a new team poses new challenges, and John Carroll found that out the hard way...at first.

The Blue Streaks were quickly forced to transition from a pace and space offense to a grit and grind offense.

On Friday, Feb. 26 at the Rike Center in Westerville, John Carroll downed Otterbein by a score of 85-78, improving to 3-3 on the season.

In the early going, nothing seemed to fall for the Blue and Gold as they only made two of their first 12 shots. Otterbein rallied to the tune of a 12-2 run as a result. Nevertheless, as the Blue Streaks have done numerous times over the years, they fought back to tighten the halftime deficit to four points as they trailed the Cardinals 39-35.

After last week's torrid outburst, JCU was limited to 14-of-35 (40%) from the field and 1-of-9 (11%) from 3-point range in the first 20 minutes. The Blue and Gold were led by six points and four rebounds from Mason Trubisky as well as five points from Jackson Sartain and Emil Hess. For Otterbein, Justin Carter scored 12 points and Dallas Patrick tallied eight.

In the second half, there were a total of 11 lead changes between the Blue Streaks and Cardinals, as both teams fought tooth and nail for points on the offensive end. An Emil Hess layup with 16:22 left in regulation gave JCU its first lead since they led 2-1 in the beginning of the game.

From there, both teams traded ties and leads on a regular basis which created some drama down the stretch.

Otterbein went on a 10-0 run sparked by two clutch 3-pointers to make it 70-60 in favor of the Cardinals with over five minutes left in regulation.

However, the Blue Streaks (as was the theme all night) climbed back from the deficit, going on a 13-3 run in the final five minutes of regulation.

Eric Hanna's three pointer started the run, and a game-tying three pointer from sharpshooter Jackson Sartain knotted things up at 73 apiece with less than a minute left in regulation.

After both teams traded missed buckets, the game carried into overtime.

Overtime opened up with an Emmett Chambers layup, but was quickly followed by a Dallas Patrick 3-pointer to give Otterbein a 76-75 lead. However, that was the last time the Cardinals would hold a lead in this contest. JCU's road to victory was fueled by a 10-2 run to end overtime, resulting in an 85-78 final score.

Otterbein shot better from the field, shot better from behind the arc, led for over 32 minutes, and scored 43 points off their bench, but it wasn't enough to supplant the gritty Blue Streak effort.

John Carroll shot 31-of-71 (44%) from the field and 7-of-25 (28%) from behind the arc, but shot a satisfactory 16-of-21 (76%) from the free throw line. Despite only leading for 20% of the game, they were sparked by 48 points in the paint, 22 points off turnovers, and a superb 25 forced turnovers on defense.

The key performers for JCU included Jackson Sartain (20 points & five rebounds), Eric Hanna (13 points & four rebounds), Mason Trubisky (12 points, five rebounds), Emmett Chambers (10 points, 10 rebounds), and Luke Hippler (seven points, five rebounds, three assists, three steals, and two blocks).

Otterbein was led by Dallas Patrick (game-high 25 points, three rebounds), Bryson Lane (18 points, three rebounds, three assists), Justin Carter (14 points, four rebounds, three blocks), and Reid Black (13 rebounds, four assists).

The Blue Streaks and Cardinals will play each other once again on Saturday, Feb. 27 in University Heights at 6 p.m.
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