Turnovers doom Men's Basketball in 84-77 loss at John Carroll

Jake Cannan

By Patrick Massara

| Box Score |

ADA – The Ohio Northern men’s basketball team committed 31 turnovers while only forcing 16 in an 84-77 loss to John Carroll Saturday afternoon at the DeCarlo Varsity Center.

The Polar Bears move to 15-6 overall and 10-4 in the Ohio Athletic Conference while the Blue Streaks improve their record to 16-4 overall and 12-2 in the OAC.

Despite being down by double-digits in the first half, ONU guard Ezra Bradshaw hit the last shot of the first half with 1:07 remaining to bring the score to 43-40.

Following a Sam Bastian trey, Kyle Meyer converted a lay up with 18:34 remaining in the second half to give ONU a 45-43 lead.

After Meyer hit two free throws to give ONU the lead back at 50-48 with 16:05 remaining, the Blue Streaks went on an 11-0 run capped off by Maurice Haynes hitting a pair of free throws for a 59-50 lead with 12:47 remaining in the game.

After falling behind by double-digits again, Ohio Northern fought back as Kurtis Brown hit a 3-point shot with 1:16 remaining and bring the score to 82-76.

After ONU turned the ball over and missed a couple of shots, JCU ran out the final 22 seconds for an 84-77 win.

Senior Jake Cannan had a team-high 15 points for ONU along with seven rebounds while Meyer contributed 14 points as well as game-highs of eight rebounds and three blocks.

Brown had 13 points while Bastian had a balanced game with eight points and seven rebounds.

John Carroll was led by Haynes who had a game-high 20 points as well as five rebounds and three blocked shots.

Rudy Kirbus had 19 points and a team-high seven rebounds for JCU while Chris Zajac had 14 points.

Also scoring in double figures for JCU were Matt Crozier and Brian Dandrea who had 13 and 10 points, respectively.

ONU did help itself stay in the game by converting at the free throw line 19 times compared to only 13 for JCU.

The Polar Bears remain on the road Wednesday as they travel to Wilmington for a 7:30 pm game.