After the Blue Streaks’ slowest start of the 2009-2010 campaign, John Carroll used a 33-point swing to catapult past visiting Baldwin-Wallace, 80-67, to complete a sweep of the regular season series with its crosstown rival.
Box Score
It was an abysmal start to the game for John Carroll, as Baldwin-Wallace's physical and determined young players brought a vengeance to the hardcourt. After trading baskets early on, the Blue Streaks quickly found themselves on the wrong end of a 21-10 score nine minutes into the opening half.
Coach Mike Moran’s timeout did not seem to stir the squad, and as a stunned DeCarlo Varsity Center watched, Baldwin-Wallace steadily padded its lead. When Kyle Brown was fouled on a three-point attempt with 1:47 remaining, he calmly stepped to the line and sank three free throws to put the home team into an 18-point hole. 41-23.
“They beat us in every aspect of the game in the first half,” Moran commented. “Thank God their bus ran out of gas or we could have been in serious trouble.”
While it appeared to the Blue Streak faithful that their team clearly needed the break to concoct plan B, plan B may have actually started in the waning seconds of the opening half. John Carroll was able to close the period on a 9-2 run, setting the stage for half number two.
“We forced way too much in the first half," said Moran. "Everyone was upset with themselves at the break. Nobody likes to face those kinds of deficits.”
An entirely new John Carroll team took the floor at the start of the second half as coach Moran’s defense went into lock-down mode. In the opening nine minutes of the second half, Baldwin-Wallace converted on just two shots from the floor and failed to hit a free throw as the Blue Streaks scrapped their way back to a 47-47 tie.
After a Baldwin-Wallace timeout and subsequent turnover, Mike Hartnett connected on all three free throws after he was fouled in the corner on a three-point attempt, and the Streaks had their first lead since 3-0 on Tyler Kirsch’s game-opening three-pointer. Hartnett's free throws capped a 15-0 run.
After a brown three ball broke the Blue Streaks run, they would start another. John Carroll built a 65-54 lead by the 6:45 mark. The defensive pressure forced 12 Yellow Jacket turnovers in the first thirteen minutes of the half. John Carroll never looked back.
The second half saw Chris Zajac and Corey Shontz shoot 9-12 from the field, including 3-3 from beyond the arc. Shontz finished with 18 and Zajac dropped 17 as the two guards lead the Blue Streaks to victory.
“We like to alternate between our young group of ‘super sophomores’ and our more veteran group," said Moran. "We always try to find out which group works, and we mix and match along the way. I think it’s safe to say that our younger group will start the next game.”
In the first half, John Carroll shot 10-31 (32%) from the field while BW connected on 14-30 (47%). The second half could not have been more of the opposite, as the Blue Streaks hit 17-29 (59%) and the Yellow Jackets countered with only 7-18 (39%), and most of those were down the stretch when the game was already out of hand.
John Carroll improves to 12-5 on the year and 8-3 in OAC play, holding onto a share of second place in the league standings with Heidelberg, one game behind front-running Wilmington. Baldwin-Wallace falls to 10-8 this season and 5-6 in conference competition.
Note: Replays of this game on SportsTime Ohio will be shown Jan. 27 - 10:00 pm and Jan. 28 - 8:00 am and 1:00 pm;