Feb 22, 2018
In the quarterfinal round, John Carroll started the game down 20-4 and rallied to beat Heidelberg. Tonight, John Carroll rushed out to a 25-2 lead against Baldwin Wallace. There would not be a comeback.
The Blue Streaks dominated in all phases of the game to defeat its crosstown rival, 93-72, in an Ohio Athletic Conference Men's Basketball semifinal round.
JCU controlled the boards 49-38, forced Baldwin Wallace into 16 turnovers, and held the Yellow Jackets to 36.9 percent shooting.
The avalanche began when JCU opened the game by scoring 25 of the first 27 points over the first 4:19 minutes of the game. All of the Blue Streaks were active in the first couple of minutes. Ryan Berger got off to a quick start scoring the first four points of the game. He was backed by a John Cirillo jumper, five consecutive points from twin brother Jimmy Berger, and another bucket by Cirillo. Allen Stokes finished off a 13-0 start with a layup.
A Baldwin-Wallace timeout while trailing 13-2 was meant to stop the run, but it only aided the Blue Streaks. The "second starting five" subbed right in and got to business. Greg Parella hit a three in the corner, the inbound was stolen by Brian Papich, after which he fed a wide open Sean Flannery who knocked down a triple and in six seconds JCU increased their lead by six points. This was all before Matt Csuhran got in on the action with a layup and two free throws to give JCU a 25-2 lead.
"We wanted to get off to a hot start after starting slow in the Heidelberg game," said Csuhran. "The biggest thing was that we did not take our foot off the gas pedal."
The closest that BW would get after starting down would be 15, trailing 29-14 with 8:43 remaining in the first half. The JCU response was a 12-4 run that pushed the advantage back out to 23 points.
"Yesterday in practice, coach just preached a fast start," said Ryan Berger. "I wanted to be the one to get everything going." Ryan Berger indeed played that part, as he finished the game 8-11 from the field for 20 points. He was also 4-5 from three and pulled down four rebounds.
Things went just as well in the second half as they did in the first half for the Blue Streaks. John Carroll led by as many as 30 as the top seed advanced to its ninth OAC title game in program history.
The Blue Streaks got a number of standout performances. Stokes who was one bucket away from a double-double, as he finished with eight points and ten rebounds (three on the offensive end) and was a force in guarding the BW big man, Jake Fetherolf, who finished with 13 points and 12 rebounds, but 11 of those 13 points came in the second half after the damage had been done.
The two JCU point guards had big nights. Flannery finished the game 3-3 from behind the arc, while Jimmy Berger was a rebound away from a double double, ending up with 13 points and nine rebounds
Baldwin Wallace is now 18-9 following the loss, and was paced by 17 points from Cam Kuhn.
Tonight's win puts John Carroll back in the OAC Championship game for the first time since the Blue Streaks won in 2016. They will host Ohio Northern (94-88 upset winners at #2 seed Marietta), who they have beaten twice this year, at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, February 24, at the Tony DeCarlo Varsity Center. The Blue Streaks are 12-0 at home this season.
The Blue Streaks dominated in all phases of the game to defeat its crosstown rival, 93-72, in an Ohio Athletic Conference Men's Basketball semifinal round.
JCU controlled the boards 49-38, forced Baldwin Wallace into 16 turnovers, and held the Yellow Jackets to 36.9 percent shooting.
The avalanche began when JCU opened the game by scoring 25 of the first 27 points over the first 4:19 minutes of the game. All of the Blue Streaks were active in the first couple of minutes. Ryan Berger got off to a quick start scoring the first four points of the game. He was backed by a John Cirillo jumper, five consecutive points from twin brother Jimmy Berger, and another bucket by Cirillo. Allen Stokes finished off a 13-0 start with a layup.
A Baldwin-Wallace timeout while trailing 13-2 was meant to stop the run, but it only aided the Blue Streaks. The "second starting five" subbed right in and got to business. Greg Parella hit a three in the corner, the inbound was stolen by Brian Papich, after which he fed a wide open Sean Flannery who knocked down a triple and in six seconds JCU increased their lead by six points. This was all before Matt Csuhran got in on the action with a layup and two free throws to give JCU a 25-2 lead.
"We wanted to get off to a hot start after starting slow in the Heidelberg game," said Csuhran. "The biggest thing was that we did not take our foot off the gas pedal."
The closest that BW would get after starting down would be 15, trailing 29-14 with 8:43 remaining in the first half. The JCU response was a 12-4 run that pushed the advantage back out to 23 points.
"Yesterday in practice, coach just preached a fast start," said Ryan Berger. "I wanted to be the one to get everything going." Ryan Berger indeed played that part, as he finished the game 8-11 from the field for 20 points. He was also 4-5 from three and pulled down four rebounds.
Things went just as well in the second half as they did in the first half for the Blue Streaks. John Carroll led by as many as 30 as the top seed advanced to its ninth OAC title game in program history.
The Blue Streaks got a number of standout performances. Stokes who was one bucket away from a double-double, as he finished with eight points and ten rebounds (three on the offensive end) and was a force in guarding the BW big man, Jake Fetherolf, who finished with 13 points and 12 rebounds, but 11 of those 13 points came in the second half after the damage had been done.
The two JCU point guards had big nights. Flannery finished the game 3-3 from behind the arc, while Jimmy Berger was a rebound away from a double double, ending up with 13 points and nine rebounds
Baldwin Wallace is now 18-9 following the loss, and was paced by 17 points from Cam Kuhn.
Tonight's win puts John Carroll back in the OAC Championship game for the first time since the Blue Streaks won in 2016. They will host Ohio Northern (94-88 upset winners at #2 seed Marietta), who they have beaten twice this year, at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, February 24, at the Tony DeCarlo Varsity Center. The Blue Streaks are 12-0 at home this season.
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