by Zach Mentz, jcusports.com staff writer
It was billed as a battle of two of the top scorers in the Ohio Athletic Conference, and both Corey Shontz of John Carroll and Jimmy Wood of Mount Union made their points.
But a pair of dark horse emerged to interject plenty of intrigue into the proceedings Wednesday night in University Heights.
The Blue Streaks were not only looking to pick up their 13th win of the season, but also wanted to extend a five-game winning streak over the Mt. Union Purple Raiders that dates back to Dec. 9, 2009. The Blue Streaks accomplished both tasks, winning the game by a final score of 74-65 at the Tony DeCarlo Varsity Center.
Shontz, who came into the game as the third leading scorer in the OAC, finished the game with 19 points on 7-10 shooting from the field. Wood, the OAC's leading scorer, finished with 13 points on the night – six below his season average – on just four field goals.
While the JCU defense focused on Wood, Mount Union freshman Nate Jacubec stepped up in a big way.
After controlling the game for much of the first half and taking a ten-point lead with three minutes to play, it looked as if John Carroll would run away with the game. However, the Purple Raiders responded with an 11-1 run of their own fueled by two three-pointers from Jakubec. After Clayton Patton scored for the Purple Raiders on a put-back basket at the buzzer, the game was tied at 30 heading into the intermission.
Out of the gate in the second half, senior Mark Hester scored six of the Blue Streaks' first eight points to help the Blue Streaks extend their lead once again. Shontz then followed with a two three-pointers and a layup of his own to extend JCU's lead to 46-37 minutes less than five minutes into the second half.
After scoring only 30 points in the entire first half, the Blue Streaks exploded in the second half by scoring 25 points in the first six minutes and 45 seconds, extending their lead to 55-43.
Mount Union wouldn't go down without a fight though as they nailed back-to-back three-pointers just moments later to narrow JCU's lead to 55-51 with under 11 minutes remaining in the game.
When Jacubec nailed a three-pointer with 6:25 remaining in the game, the JCU lead was down to a single point at 61-60.
With 3:23 remaining, John Carroll was still clinging to a narrow 65-62 when a dark horse came through for the Blue Streaks. Held scoreless for the first 17 minutes of the second half, senior Kyle Hubbard then responded with back-to-back and-one opportunities, nailing both free throws in the process and extending JCU's lead to 71-62 with 1:29 remaining in the game.
That proved to be all the cushion John Carroll would need to win the program's 999th game.
"Everybody stepped up and contributed tonight," said John Carroll head coach Mike Moran. "When you can chisel out a win while not shooting particularly well, you have to take that."
"We battled and we handle adversity well," said Hubbard, who scored six of his 10 points in the final two minutes. "We just have to keep our foot on the pedal as we head towards the OAC tournament."
Hester contributed with 11 points on 5-9 shooting, including all 11 points on 5-6 shooting in the second half while Hubbard finished with 10 points on 2-4 shooting from the field and a 6-6 mark from the free throw line.
With the win, the Blue Streaks now have an overall record of 13-4 on the season, including an 8-3 mark in conference play which puts them back into a first place tie with Capital.
Mount Union falls to 8-10 overall and 4-7 in the OAC.
"It's been a rollercoaster ride of a season," said Coach Moran. "Different people step up every week for this team. We're in the hunt [for the OAC title], but we have to take it up another notch or two. We don't have polish on the car yet."