John Carroll wins, Cleveland State falls

John Carroll rallied to beat Marietta in the Ohio Athletic Conference, while Cleveland State’s comeback bid against UIC fell short in the Horizon League. David S. Glasier has the stories.

Turns out there is plenty of fight left in the John Carroll University men’s basketball team. The Blue Streaks showed their pugnacious side Feb. 1 at the DeCarlo Varsity Center, rebounding from a wretched first half with a splendid second half to topple Marietta, 67-54. JCU senior guard Jimmy Berger scored 19 of his game-high 27 points in the second half as the Blue Streaks used relentless offense and suffocating defense to erase a 12-point halftime deficit. Junior guard Jackson Sartain added 17 points, 15 coming in the second half, as the Blue Streaks upped their records to 13-6 overall and 6-6 in the Ohio Athletic Conference. Marietta, outscored in the second half, 4621, slipped to 16-3 overall and 10-2 in the OAC. The loss knocked the Pioneers out of a firstplace tie with Mount Union (16-3, 11-1 OAC).

“This is huge, 100 percent our best win of the season,” said Sartain, whose two 3-pointers in the closing minutes deflated the Pioneers and gave the Blue Streaks the push they needed to complete the dramatic comeback.

“They’re a very physical team, and it was up to us to match that physicality,” Sartain said.

Berger credited a pregame pep talk by former JCU coach Mike Moran with inspiring him and his teammates against a traditional rival of 90 years.

“Coach Moran told us we were going to have to dig deep to beat this team,” Berger said. That turned out to a prophetic bit of advice after a first half that was a defensive dream for the Pioneers and an offensive nightmare for the Blue Streaks.

Throttled by Marietta’s tenacious man defense, the Blue Streaks made only six field goals in the first 20 minutes while shooting an anemic 18.2 percent from the field. JCU went scoreless for six minutes at one stretch. and was especially futile from 3-point range, making only one of 15 attempts.

By comparison, the Pioneers were proficient on offense while building a 33-21 lead at halftime. They shot 36.8 percent from the field. The second half was another story altogether as the Blue Streaks shot 51.7 percent from the field while limiting the Pioneers to seven field goals on 24.1 percent shooting. “Without question, the defense performance in the second half was the best I’ve seen in all my years at John Carroll,” said JCU coach Pete Moran, a former JCU player and son of Mike Moran. Logan Isaly topped Marietta with 13 points.

The Blue Streaks return to action at home against Heidelberg on Feb. 5. Tipoff is 7 p.m.