Making the 420-mile round trip all the more enjoyable Saturday afternoon for the John Carroll men's basketball team was extracting first place away from the host Quakers with a convincing 82-64 victory.

JCU dug itself a 13-2 hole in the first three-and-a-half minutes, and then proceeded to outscore the league-leaders by an 80-51 margin the rest of the way.

Conor Sweeney tied the game at 19-19 on a three-pointer at the 11:22 mark, and on the next trip down the floor, his twin brother Patrick Sweeney gave the Blue Streaks their first lead at 21-19 on a lay-up with 10:31 to play in the opening half.

Wilmington briefly took back the lead, and held a 30-29 advantage just inside four minutes to play before intermission, but John Carroll closed out the period on an 11-0 run. Keyed by a three-pointer from Kyle Wise and consecutive made jumpers by Mark Hester, the Streaks led by a 40-30 score at the break.

The visitors kept Wilmington at arm's length for most of the second half until Malcom Heard's tip-in with 2:48 to play cut the John Carroll lead down to six points at 70-64.

The Quakers did not score again.

Kyle Hubbard scored the next time down to build the margin back up to eight points, and after a Wilmington miss, Michael Hartnett sealed the deal with a three-pointer to put the Blue Streaks ahead 75-64 with 1:26 remaining.

JCU closed the game on a 12-0 run to grab sole possession of first place in the OAC for the first time since the end of the 2009-10 campaign,

Hester led the way for John Carroll (10-2, 5-1 OAC) with 16 points on 7-9 shooting from the field. Hubbard and Corey Shontz each scored 12 points and Conor Sweeney added 11 points.

The Blue Streaks shot the ball well (30-58 for .517 from the field, 16-18 for .842 from the free throw line) and rebounded the ball even better to the tune of a 44-25 margin.

Wilmington (6-6, 5-2 OAC) was paced by a game-high 18 points from Antonio Bowman