It's not how you start but how you finish the game.

John Carroll found itself down 18 in the first half but never quit. The Blue Streaks rallied to take the 87-79 win over UW-Stout in the opening game of the eighth annual Nicolet National Bank Tournament held inside the Schuldes Sports Center on the campus of St. Norbert College in De Pere, Wis.

The Blue Streaks (6-2) outscored the Blue Devils 57-31 over the final 23:04 of the game.

UW-Stout's Brett Ahsenmacher scored 12 first half points including 10 of the Blue Devils' first 13 points. The Blue Devils opened up an 18-point lead at 30-12 with 10:56 remaining in the first stanza.

John Carroll started out slow but heated up over the final 3:04 of the first half. The Blue and Gold would close the half with an 11-1 run.

Jake Hollinger sparked the run scoring the first four points during the rally including a layup on the fast break in transition off of David Linane's feed.

The Blue Streaks added late penetration to close its deficit to eight at 49-41 with Danny Wallack making a back-door layup and Tony Vuyancih making a layup with three seconds left in the frame.

JCU's success carried over to the second half with the Blue Streaks opening the frame with a 12-5 run to cut the deficit to one. John Carroll's shooters heated up with Wallack and David Hendrickson both knocking down 3-pointers.

A 3-pointer from Vuyancih gave JCU its first lead of the game at 65-64 with 12:32 remaining in the game.

Linane put the Blue and Gold up for good connecting on a jumper in traffic with 8:53 remaining. From there, Wallack would score JCU's next five points to open up a 75-70 advantage.

Hollinger and Caputo both finished with double-doubles. Hollinger finished with a team-high 20 points to go along with 10 rebounds. Caputo had a game-high 15 rebounds and 11 points. Joining the two big men in double figures were Wallack with 15 points and Vuyancih with 10.

John Carroll will play the winner of the St. Norbert-St. Scholastic game in the championship of the Nicolet National Bank Tournament at 8 p.m. Eastern time on Tuesday, Dec. 30.