John Carroll JCU 8-4,3-2 OAC

Otterbein OTT 7-5,2-3 OAC

John Carroll JCU

8-4,3-2 OAC

Final

Jan. 08, 2025

Otterbein OTT

7-5,2-3 OAC

Score By Periods
Team	1	2	F
John Carroll JCU	37	34	71
Otterbein OTT	25	34	59

Summary
Box Score

Jose Figueroa

Game Recap: Men's Basketball | 1/8/2025 10:39:00 PM | Aiden Ramsden, Staff Writer

Men's Basketball Continues to Find Value in Defense, Fending off Otterbein

JCU limited one of the OAC's top scorers to just 6 points

WESTERVILLE, Ohio – The Blue Streaks hit the road for a matchup against the Otterbein Cardinals for their first road game of the Ohio Athletic Conference schedule.

Last season, when the Blue Streaks traveled to Westerville they went in as the No. 1 ranked team in the country. However, a back and forth game gave Otterbein a massive upset victory as John Carroll had to watch the Cardinal student section storm the court right as the final buzzer went off.

This season, the story was much different. Neither team came into the game with a ranking and both teams were sitting in the middle of the OAC standings. When the final buzzer sounded, the Blue Streaks had gotten their revenge and would be getting on the bus with a 71-59 victory.

The Cardinals got the scoring going early with a quick layup after winning the tip but Henry Raynor quickly responded with a layup of his own to open the Blue Streak scoring. The Blue Streaks would not slow down as scores by Chase Toppin and Will Yontek would give the Blue and Gold an early 4 point lead. Chase Garito of Otterbein would score the Cardinals first 7 points of the game to give his team a 7-6 lead which would last 20 seconds and be their last lead of the night.

Another Yontek layup and a Dave Gentry three would give John Carroll a lead they would hold onto for good. A Yontek layup and 1 would give the Streaks momentum and a Toppin 3 would only increase it. Another Chase Toppin shot from deep broke the scoring margin into double digits.

The duo of Henry Raynor and Will Yontek added on to maintain the lead and a Kasey Hunt floater closed out the scoring to send John Carroll into the break up, 37-25.

The second half started with Raynor and Frazier working together to extend the lead to 15 in just four minutes. Otterbein worked the deficit back to just nine, but Toppin's third three of the game got the Streaks their double digit lead back. The teams exchanged scores with the Cardinals once again getting the deficit back into single digits only for two three, both by Luke Frazier to prevent them from getting too close and would give the Streaks a 13-point lead with nine minutes remaining.

Otterbein continued to fight and managed to get back to within single digits and hold it there. That was until Toppin's fourth triple of the night to extend the lead back to 11 with five minutes to play. Free throws by Frazier, Yontek, and Aidan Fitzgerald pushed the lead to 14. Back-to-back threes by the Cardinals definitely had a couple people sit up, but a layup by Raynor and free throws by Yontek closed out the scoring for the game, earning the Blue Streaks their third conference win of the season.

The story of the game today for John Carroll was the defense. This whole season, especially as of late, defensive effort has been a large focal point by the coaches in team meetings.

"Collectively, this was one of our best defensive efforts. We need to continue to build off this," said head coach Pete Moran '08.

Coming into today's game Otterbein's go to guy, Cam Evans was second in the OAC in terms of scoring averaging an even 20 points per game and the Blue Streaks managed to hold him to just 6 points on 1-of-5 shooting.

"Fitzgerald, Brandon Rose, and Sean Collins lead the way with their efforts on one of the OAC's leading scorers. Couldn't be any prouder," stated Moran.

This win isn't just big in terms of OAC standings, every win now means so much more after all the adversity, including a 4-game losing streak this John Carroll squad has had to endure already in this young season,

"The bigs keep getting the job done day in and day out and we can feel the momentum turning after winning five in a row," stated Luke Frazier while talking about the effects of today's game and the impacts of the guys down low.

Frazier led all scorers with 17 points and also added a game high 9 rebounds.

Chase Toppin added 16 thanks in part to a great night shooting from beyond the arc. As always, it was Toppins defensive effort that helped the Blue Streaks maintain their lead throughout the game, "Team defense as a whole was great. Still some room for improvement and we know that but definitely making strides in the right direction and it's something real fun to be a part of," said the team captain.

The duo down low of Will Yontek and Henry Raynor added 15 and 14 points, respectively.

With the win the Blue Streaks improved their record to 8-4 (3-2 OAC) and the winning streak to five games.

Next Up
John Carroll is back in action and back on the road this Saturday as they travel to Bexley, Ohio for a conference matchup against Capital. Tip-off is set for 3 pm.

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