[Written by Spencer German]
With just five games to go in the regular season, the Blue Streaks (15-5, 10-4 OAC) sat in a dead lock for first in the OAC with Capital. As the men headed to Westerville, Ohio on Saturday, Feb. 2 to take on the Otterbein Cardinals (7-14, 4-10 OAC), they knew they had their OAC destiny in their own hands.
With a little over 10 minutes to go in the first half, Otterbein led by its largest margin of the half, 22-13, but the Blue Streaks showed their resiliency as they fought back.
A huge and-one opportunity for senior Mark Hester at the 6:54 mark helped bring JCU within three points. However, it seemed that no matter what JCU threw at Otterbein defensively, they could not slow down the hot Cardinals as they held on to a 35-33 halftime lead.
For the Blue and Gold, it was an uncharacteristic first half of play, as an offense that usually thrived from outside the arc was just 3-10 on 3-point attempts.
The second half got underway and JCU came out ready to go as a quick layup and 3-pointer by senior Corey Shontz gave his team a 38-37 lead with 18 minutes to go.
For the next six minutes, the two teams exchanged blows as seven different lead changes left John Carroll down 53-52.
From there, Otterbein would never look back.
With 9:34 left in the game the Blue Streaks lost junior Kyle Hubbard as he fouled out. Just four minutes later, Hester also fouled out. Not having two of their key big men down the stretch would prove costly for the Blue and Gold.
With 4:21 to go in the game, Shontz came up big once again, hoping to spark his team for one last run, by knocking down his 181st career 3-pointer, tying Joey Bigler for a JCU school record and cutting the Otterbein lead to just seven, 72-65.
However it was too little, too late for the Blue Streaks squad who couldn’t overcome costly turnovers and early foul trouble.
One bright spot was Shontz’s record-tying basket late in the game.
“The fact that I’m at the top of the charts is a real nice honor because I know coach Moran recruits shooters, so I’m pretty happy I’m up there,” said Shontz.
“We took ourselves out of the lead [for the OAC], so every game is our last legitimately now,” added Shontz.
With only four games left in the regular season, there is still time, albeit it little, to improve some miscues.
“We can’t turn it over 20 times, we have to rebound with them, and we just have to make shots. It’s a very simple formula,” said Moran.
If the Blue Streaks can execute that formula and get a little help with an eventual Capital loss, they still have an opportunity to grab the top seed for the highly anticipated OAC Tournament. The top seed in the conference hosts the tournament at the season’s end.
The quest for that goal continues this Saturday, Feb. 8, as John Carroll will host Wilmington at 3 p.m. to start off their final home stand of the season.
